repairing and restoring the unusually large and varied Guild guitar line proved to be an immeasurable source of knowledge about all things guitar. I worked at the Rhode Island factory for a few years, while making the acquaintance of renown luthiers Mark Lacey and Kim Walker, who were respectively the head of R&D and manager of final assembly and both responsible for building a number of prototypes. I also was lucky enough to meet and work for a number of artists playing Guilds, among them Richie Havens, Rick Danko and Livingston Taylor, the latter being the first major American artist who commissioned me to make him…