When I first started building instruments, it was the Irish bouzouki/octave mandolin I was chasing. I'd been listening to Planxty and The Bothy Band, and that driving pulse of mandolins gave me the shivers.

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I couldn't afford a Sobell (renowned European luthier), so I decided to buy a book on building mandolins instead. There was no turning back, the furniture I'd been building for years seemed mighty boring without any strings to strum.  

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Over the years, one obsession has led to another -- guitars, dulcimers, banjos, fiddles, pipe organs, etc., but I'll always have a soft spot for mandolin family instruments.

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I don't build under the notion of repetition. The excitement of discovery is what keeps me going, and all the instruments I build have their own voices, these mandolins being no exception.