1
00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:10,380
Music is the most important thing in the
world.

2
00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:19,340
Music is the way that people connect,
and you don't see that with other

3
00:00:19,340 --> 00:00:26,320
instruments. You don't see that type of
historical parallel with that

4
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:32,439
type of music. I think the guitar
traveled with people through American

5
00:00:32,580 --> 00:00:35,860
and that's a real special part to be a
part of.

6
00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:57,040
So when you pick up a really great
guitar, you just pick it up and start

7
00:00:57,040 --> 00:00:59,160
playing. You get lost in the moment.

8
00:00:59,940 --> 00:01:04,959
You play a note, you play a chord, and
it makes you feel something.

9
00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:11,780
And I feel that excitement build when I
play a chord and I hear something I

10
00:01:11,780 --> 00:01:18,000
haven't heard before, and I'm lost in
that moment, and I'm playing, the

11
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:19,180
giving me something back.

12
00:01:20,650 --> 00:01:26,790
That ball is rolling down the hill, and
it's this really special moment

13
00:01:26,790 --> 00:01:31,870
where what's happening right then is
only happening.

14
00:01:32,190 --> 00:01:35,690
And I have a philosophy called be here
now.

15
00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:38,670
It's this moment that we're in.

16
00:01:39,170 --> 00:01:43,730
This moment can't be anything else than
it is. And when you're with a really

17
00:01:43,730 --> 00:01:44,730
special instrument,

18
00:01:45,550 --> 00:01:49,550
you know that might be the moment that
that song comes out and if you had

19
00:01:49,550 --> 00:01:53,590
up your guitar later it wouldn't have
happened and you picked up a different

20
00:01:53,590 --> 00:01:57,910
instrument it wouldn't have happened be
here now with that instrument and i

21
00:01:57,910 --> 00:02:02,430
think a really great guitar allowed you
to do that

22
00:03:08,970 --> 00:03:11,630
So what is a resonator guitar anyways?

23
00:03:12,050 --> 00:03:17,990
A resonator guitar is a type of guitar
that two brothers came up with in the

24
00:03:17,990 --> 00:03:24,150
1920s. So that was the brass band era,
and we didn't have amplifiers yet. So

25
00:03:24,150 --> 00:03:28,570
these two brothers, the Dopier brothers,
came up with this idea to make

26
00:03:28,570 --> 00:03:35,370
resonator guitars. And what a resonator
is, is... Inside of a resonator guitar

27
00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:39,350
is the resonator cone, and it kind of
looks like a speaker cone, and it's made

28
00:03:39,350 --> 00:03:40,590
out of very thin aluminum.

29
00:03:41,150 --> 00:03:46,430
And because it's thin and it's metal, it
transmits the energy from the strings

30
00:03:46,430 --> 00:03:48,350
into the guitar really efficiently.

31
00:03:48,590 --> 00:03:50,290
That makes it really loud.

32
00:03:50,890 --> 00:03:55,830
They also made it out of metal because
they could make big tools that made

33
00:03:55,830 --> 00:04:00,670
guitars very quickly. That made them
even louder. So they came up with these

34
00:04:00,670 --> 00:04:06,500
cones. They came up with this metal
body, and they made a very, very loud

35
00:04:06,500 --> 00:04:07,500
guitar.

36
00:04:08,820 --> 00:04:15,180
Well, a few years later, guitar
amplifiers came out. So all the jazz

37
00:04:15,180 --> 00:04:20,480
who had bought these resonator guitars
sold them so that they could buy guitar

38
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:26,460
amps. The people who ended up with
resonator guitars were blues musicians.

39
00:04:26,460 --> 00:04:29,660
would use them to play on the street and
in clubs that didn't have amplification

40
00:04:29,660 --> 00:04:35,350
yet. because they were loud. And so for
100 years, they were really identified

41
00:04:35,350 --> 00:04:37,710
as like a blues guitar instrument.

42
00:04:38,250 --> 00:04:42,230
That's a really exciting thing as a
builder, to see people take it and run

43
00:04:42,230 --> 00:04:43,230
it.

44
00:04:53,190 --> 00:04:57,690
I think it would be hard to overestimate
the influence of guitar on American

45
00:04:57,690 --> 00:04:58,690
culture.

46
00:04:59,650 --> 00:05:03,530
As people travel, you grab your guitar
and you go.

47
00:05:03,730 --> 00:05:08,730
Maybe you're working on a railroad, and
you're traveling as you go. You're

48
00:05:08,730 --> 00:05:13,230
picking up this regional music because
you have this instrument with you at

49
00:05:13,230 --> 00:05:18,030
hand, and I can learn from a guy who I'm
working with or a guy that I meet.

50
00:05:28,590 --> 00:05:35,350
As our country was forming, as these
rural communities were connecting

51
00:05:35,350 --> 00:05:41,130
in this way, music is the way that
people connect.

52
00:05:44,770 --> 00:05:49,970
You don't see that with other
instruments. You don't see that type of

53
00:05:49,970 --> 00:05:56,130
parallel with that type of music. I
think the guitar traveled.

54
00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:03,040
with people through American history,
and that's a real special part to be a

55
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:04,040
part of.

56
00:06:30,220 --> 00:06:34,580
So I grew up in Elma, Michigan, which is
about an hour west of here. It's a

57
00:06:34,580 --> 00:06:37,420
small kind of farm town.

58
00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:41,100
My dad's a pastor there, and my mom was
a schoolteacher.

59
00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:46,140
And I ended up going to high school here
in Saginaw.

60
00:06:47,380 --> 00:06:50,300
I started being interested in playing
guitar.

61
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:57,240
I didn't really love it in the
beginning. It didn't really feel like my

62
00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:03,960
but... I ended up starting being very
interested in how it worked. There's a

63
00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:06,440
bunch of pieces that go together.

64
00:07:06,740 --> 00:07:09,780
You know, what are these pickups? What
do they do? How do they work?

65
00:07:10,180 --> 00:07:15,120
And so when I was in high school, I put
together a kit guitar.

66
00:07:18,740 --> 00:07:22,880
You know, that was junior year of high
school, and so you're starting to think

67
00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:24,760
about, what am I going to do for the
rest of my life?

68
00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,640
And so I went online and I found this
guitar making school in Phoenix,

69
00:07:31,700 --> 00:07:37,060
It was a completely new experience in
all sorts of ways. I went from small

70
00:07:37,060 --> 00:07:43,880
Midwestern town to Phoenix, Arizona,
middle of the desert, run

71
00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:49,220
by a bunch of ex -hippies, you know, and
all sorts of different types of people.

72
00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,560
And they're teaching us how to make
these instruments.

73
00:07:54,030 --> 00:07:56,570
The instructors there were perfect.

74
00:07:56,810 --> 00:08:03,650
You know, they were very aware that they
were giving us a very basic

75
00:08:03,650 --> 00:08:08,310
groundwork so that we could go out and
work. And I was like eating that up.

76
00:08:11,690 --> 00:08:16,510
You know, in the beginning, I spent two
years in a little basement room with no

77
00:08:16,510 --> 00:08:18,250
windows, no heat.

78
00:08:18,530 --> 00:08:21,010
It was just me. It was...

79
00:08:21,530 --> 00:08:26,370
me failing, trying to figure out how to
do this metal guitar thing on my own.

80
00:08:26,530 --> 00:08:32,510
And I always wanted it to be bigger than
me. I didn't want it to be

81
00:08:32,510 --> 00:08:36,990
my show. I wanted to work with other
people and have a team.

82
00:08:37,190 --> 00:08:40,950
I wanted to make instruments for people
who really understood that they were

83
00:08:40,950 --> 00:08:43,890
being part of a bigger relationship.

84
00:08:47,210 --> 00:08:52,560
When I started making guitars, I was
incredibly fascinated with The making

85
00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:59,000
of it, how to make a perfect miter on a
binding joint or

86
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:04,540
weighing bray stock and how that
influenced an instrument. And all of

87
00:09:04,540 --> 00:09:08,680
things are important parts of making an
instrument. It really is.

88
00:09:08,900 --> 00:09:14,220
And I think it's our job as professional
makers to learn that stuff and to

89
00:09:14,220 --> 00:09:15,260
execute it.

90
00:09:15,980 --> 00:09:19,280
We also have to be aware of the
priorities, right?

91
00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,740
What is the purpose of this music tool?

92
00:09:22,940 --> 00:09:28,580
The purpose of this music tool is that
someone picks it up and they play it and

93
00:09:28,580 --> 00:09:32,460
they hear a sound that they've never
heard before and that makes them make

94
00:09:32,460 --> 00:09:33,620
different musical choices.

95
00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:40,860
If I picked up guitar A and I played a G
chord, I might hear something in it and

96
00:09:40,860 --> 00:09:46,980
that makes me choose a different chord
or a different melody note, right? The

97
00:09:46,980 --> 00:09:48,760
way that the low end...

98
00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:51,740
Maybe I go up instead of down.

99
00:09:51,940 --> 00:09:56,760
Well, if you pick up one of our
instruments, maybe you go down instead

100
00:09:56,780 --> 00:09:57,679
you know.

101
00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:00,240
That's building inspiration into a
guitar.

102
00:10:00,500 --> 00:10:04,940
That's building a tool that's going to
affect someone's musical choices.

103
00:10:05,780 --> 00:10:09,320
There was that perspective change.

104
00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:15,080
Oh, this is about some kid from a small
town in Michigan ending up in the

105
00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,100
Shenandoah Valley making these beautiful
instruments with these beautiful

106
00:10:18,100 --> 00:10:23,770
people. It's something that not
everybody gets to do, and I get to do

107
00:10:23,770 --> 00:10:24,910
I'm really thankful for that.

108
00:10:48,330 --> 00:10:53,970
So this is where every guitar starts
out. This is the receipts of steel.

109
00:10:53,970 --> 00:11:00,890
got pieces for every instrument starts
here. So this is cut out on

110
00:11:00,890 --> 00:11:01,990
a giant laser machine.

111
00:11:04,090 --> 00:11:09,210
We've got relief cuts on the outside for
flanging the tops and backs. That's how

112
00:11:09,210 --> 00:11:12,890
the tops and backs are joined. We've got
the mill caster sets here.

113
00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:21,690
this is all 22 gauge stainless steel use
stainless steel because it sounds

114
00:11:21,690 --> 00:11:26,750
really good uh mild steel and stainless
steel actually sound different and um

115
00:11:26,750 --> 00:11:32,450
and then we can put a patina on this but
it won't rough so the guitar you get is

116
00:11:32,450 --> 00:11:39,230
the way that it'll stay so

117
00:11:39,230 --> 00:11:43,850
the resonator guitars are soldered
together there's Three main types of how

118
00:11:43,850 --> 00:11:47,470
join metal, soldering, brazing, and
welding.

119
00:11:47,750 --> 00:11:52,230
And we use soldering because it's the
lowest temperature form of joining

120
00:11:52,510 --> 00:11:57,790
The metal has to be really thin so that
it sounds good, but the trouble with

121
00:11:57,790 --> 00:12:00,710
that is if you add too much heat, then
it'll warp.

122
00:12:01,050 --> 00:12:06,870
So we use soldering with these joints so
that the steel doesn't warp.

123
00:12:11,370 --> 00:12:16,790
So after the body's made, it goes over
here to the next station. So this is

124
00:12:16,790 --> 00:12:18,870
where the necks are made and attached.

125
00:12:21,310 --> 00:12:24,230
And they all start out like this, like a
block of wood.

126
00:12:24,830 --> 00:12:27,310
This is a particularly nice piece of
wood.

127
00:12:28,330 --> 00:12:33,850
So we cut and join the headstock and the
heel using stacked heel.

128
00:12:34,610 --> 00:12:37,510
And then it goes on the CNC machine and
we get this.

129
00:12:37,970 --> 00:12:40,370
This is one of our neck blanks.

130
00:12:45,710 --> 00:12:50,450
These are slots for the truss rod and
graphite rod reinforcement so that neck

131
00:12:50,450 --> 00:12:52,470
stays where we want it to stay.

132
00:12:52,770 --> 00:12:55,290
So this is how a neck goes on a
resonator guitar.

133
00:12:55,870 --> 00:12:58,850
This is the neck stick, very technical
name.

134
00:12:59,410 --> 00:13:02,670
It's glued into the heel there, and this
acts as like the backbone of the

135
00:13:02,670 --> 00:13:07,930
guitar. So this is what's going to end
up taking the structural load off the

136
00:13:07,930 --> 00:13:11,450
body so that the body can just act as...

137
00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:14,160
a sound -producing mechanism.

138
00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:20,400
So go through here, and then with a
couple different wedges and screws,

139
00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:27,240
that gets attached to the body. So this
acts as the scale so

140
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:33,280
that the resonator cones are producing
the sound that's reflecting off the back

141
00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:37,700
of the guitar, and that contributes to
the tone of the instrument.

142
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,740
So both these gentlemen are fretting and
setting up and wiring the instrument.

143
00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:50,520
And if guitar making is 500 steps, these
are 400 of the steps.

144
00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:57,260
It's all the really tiny detail work
that you don't know is involved with

145
00:13:57,260 --> 00:13:59,260
an instrument, but you can feel it.

146
00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:02,580
When you first pick up an instrument and
start playing...

147
00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:07,880
How that board is leveled, how the frets
feel, how the edge of the fingerboard

148
00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,840
feels. These are all the subconscious
things that make a guitar feel

149
00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,340
comfortable. And now you can just play.

150
00:14:14,740 --> 00:14:19,560
Our job is to be as transparent as
possible. So you're not thinking about

151
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:23,660
setup. You're not thinking about how it
feels. It just feels comfortable, and

152
00:14:23,660 --> 00:14:24,660
now you're playing music.

153
00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,980
After the guitar is all strung up and
checked out, then it goes in the cases

154
00:14:30,980 --> 00:14:32,180
chipped off to there.

155
00:14:47,740 --> 00:14:54,400
So this guitar is the first 12 -string
guitar that we've done, and it's going

156
00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:59,660
a musician, Chris Turpin of Ida Mae, and
he has a Mavis, but this is...

157
00:15:00,319 --> 00:15:03,940
twice the Mavis. It's a 12 -string
Mavis. And it's a tool that he wanted.

158
00:15:05,300 --> 00:15:10,400
And it gave us a little extra push to
figure out the things that needed to be

159
00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:11,920
figured out in order to make it happen.

160
00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:19,100
And having the team of guys that we have
here allows us to be able to

161
00:15:19,100 --> 00:15:20,100
do that.

162
00:15:21,060 --> 00:15:22,920
I strung it up in front of the camera.

163
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:24,560
The pressure.

164
00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:29,820
Oh, and this is standard tuning, so.

165
00:15:40,420 --> 00:15:41,420
Yeah.

166
00:15:43,140 --> 00:15:45,160
You can edit it, right? Look at Kim.

167
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:47,080
Oh, yeah.

168
00:16:13,330 --> 00:16:18,890
There's so many little things that are
involved with creating something new you

169
00:16:18,890 --> 00:16:25,270
need all these brains in order to figure
it out and And they crushed it This is

170
00:16:25,270 --> 00:16:29,510
not something that I could do on my own.
I pushed this off.

171
00:16:29,730 --> 00:16:33,750
This is an idea that's been on the
radar. But having the group of people

172
00:16:33,750 --> 00:16:38,790
have here now, we can do stuff like that
where a musician wants an inspirational

173
00:16:38,790 --> 00:16:43,750
tool, and we can make it happen for
them. So this is kind of the final

174
00:16:43,830 --> 00:16:45,750
It's being strung up. It's being
finished.

175
00:16:45,950 --> 00:16:49,530
And then we're going to take it to
Nashville and deliver it to Chris.

176
00:16:51,930 --> 00:16:56,890
Witness that really exciting moment of a
musician getting something that is

177
00:16:56,890 --> 00:17:01,810
going to inspire new songs, inspire new
albums, is going to take them to new

178
00:17:01,810 --> 00:17:05,130
places. And it's really special sharing
it with these guys.

179
00:17:21,260 --> 00:17:28,040
So we are on our way to Nashville to
deliver the first 12 -string Mavis

180
00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:33,800
guitar. That's a really new instrument
for us. We've never built anything like

181
00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:36,080
that, and it has a really distinctive
sound.

182
00:17:37,620 --> 00:17:44,100
And we're getting it to a musician who
is going to take it to, like,

183
00:17:44,140 --> 00:17:47,100
really amazing musical places.

184
00:17:50,220 --> 00:17:54,200
Chris and I, the customer, really
developed a relationship through the

185
00:17:54,200 --> 00:18:00,660
process. And that's what this is really
about, building things for people

186
00:18:00,660 --> 00:18:03,000
and connecting that way.

187
00:18:03,460 --> 00:18:10,400
And for me, being there in person and
experiencing that moment

188
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:17,140
of excitement and inspiration and seeing
the look on his face and seeing that

189
00:18:17,140 --> 00:18:18,940
moment when he hits that first chord.

190
00:18:19,610 --> 00:18:23,690
And the excitement of the potential that
could happen is really important.

191
00:18:24,050 --> 00:18:28,770
You can't get that online. You can't get
that through email. So we're driving

192
00:18:28,770 --> 00:18:34,490
down there with the guitar, and we're
going to hand it to them and experience

193
00:18:34,490 --> 00:18:35,510
that moment together.

194
00:18:35,810 --> 00:18:36,890
How are you? Finally!

195
00:18:37,250 --> 00:18:38,250
Yes, finally!

196
00:18:38,410 --> 00:18:39,790
How are you? Okay,

197
00:18:41,670 --> 00:18:46,090
so earlier I thought that, like, I
wasn't going to be nervous and anxious.

198
00:18:48,330 --> 00:18:53,070
But I really am, like, surprisingly. So
now we're in the moment, and now it's

199
00:18:53,070 --> 00:18:59,450
like, you know, you put so much work
and, like, thought into it,

200
00:18:59,570 --> 00:19:06,030
and it is such, like, a big thing. It's
like you had this idea, and it was like,

201
00:19:06,130 --> 00:19:07,130
can we make it happen?

202
00:19:07,370 --> 00:19:10,350
Can we do it? I didn't even know yet.
And then it's like, here.

203
00:19:11,630 --> 00:19:12,429
It's wild.

204
00:19:12,430 --> 00:19:13,510
I cannot believe it.

205
00:19:14,170 --> 00:19:15,170
The river.

206
00:19:16,010 --> 00:19:17,110
Oh, my word.

207
00:19:18,190 --> 00:19:21,290
Oh, my God. How's that pop in person?

208
00:19:22,290 --> 00:19:24,170
It's unbelievable.

209
00:19:26,250 --> 00:19:27,250
Yeah,

210
00:19:28,350 --> 00:19:29,350
that's the right sound.

211
00:19:33,690 --> 00:19:36,410
Guitars make music needed about people.

212
00:19:36,870 --> 00:19:42,190
And the guitar is that mechanism that
connects people.

213
00:19:42,410 --> 00:19:47,690
I can make something that connects
people that otherwise wouldn't be.

214
00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,840
And I see those things over and over
again in what we do.

215
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:58,040
Someone picks up one of these
instruments and plays a song or writes a

216
00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:00,660
inspired by what they hear that they
wouldn't have otherwise.

217
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:06,260
And then somebody hears it, and it
connects with them, and then they're

218
00:20:06,260 --> 00:20:12,040
along with it at a concert. So when I
started Mule, that was really part of

219
00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:14,600
I wanted to do. I wanted to make
instruments.

220
00:20:15,500 --> 00:20:20,180
for people who got that part, you know,
that I'm gonna get this instrument and

221
00:20:20,180 --> 00:20:23,820
connect with people in really
substantial ways.