Placing an order starts with you contacting me to talk about what you want. It's typically fun and not difficult to design your dream instrument, whether it's very ornate or strictly utilitarian.

A deposit secures the order. Usually it's:

• $700 for a guitar
• $600 for an Octave Mandolin
• $75-200 for a dulcimer.

There's about a six to nine month wait for it to be ready.

  Wood

What wood to use is always a question. The traditional instrument woods- Quartersawn rosewood, spruce, maple, mahogany and such are great, but I'm also open minded to new ideas and non-traditional woods. Black walnut is wonderful, and some of my finest instruments have been made with slab-sawn backs. We can talk about what you want.

Tenor guitar made from Quilted Mahogany

INLAY, CARVING, DECORATION

Carving dulcimer scrolls, inlaying pegheads and fingerboards and making fancy purflings is fun and the results are satisfying. It also takes a lot of time, especially designing a custom, one-of-a-kind piece. There are "standard" pegheads, fingerboards and scrolls I use which are included in the list price of models. We can talk about any custom work you want- it's priced individually and can get expensive.

ELECTRONICS

Many methods of amplifying are available if you desire any electronics on your instrument. We can tailor everything to your own needs.

Three transducer pickups that work particularly well:

• Pick Up The World from Colorado makes particularly fine, natural sounding transducers and pre
  amps for any instrument. They are what I use on my own instruments. $170 installed
• Fishman makes two pickups that work well on guitars- the Acoustic Matrix Natural 1 is an undersaddle pickup with a built in preamp. Sounds great and all you have to do is plug in and play. $170 installed
• The Prefix Pro Blend system has a pickup plus internal microphone with the controls mounted on the side of the guitar. It's very versatile and sounds wonderful for folks who like the controls at their fingertips. $280 installed

Pefix Pro Blend installed

I get dealer prices from both of these companies and can pass on the savings when one is installed in an instrument.

 CASES

Hand-crafted cases:

Being my own designs- based on tradition but not strictly adhering to it- some of these instruments don't fit well in standard, off the shelf cases. This has led to making high quality hand crafted hard shell cases. People are often introduced to my instruments by seeing one and saying "Cool case! What's in it?"

Features include:

• 1/4" birch plywood construction
• Lip around the inside of the edge to keep out moisture
• Riveted hardware- not just screwed on
• Well padded velour lining
• Interior pocket
• Handsome stain and varnish finish

Cedar Creek cases:

My plywood"coffin" shaped cases do get heavy for larger instruments like tenor or plectrum guitars. Now available are outstanding custom made cases from Cedar Creek Custom Cases

• Vintage styling with real tweed covering
• Custom-fit crushed velvet lining
• Superior, protection; just plain gorgeous