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Above, JC with OOO made by Steve Kinnaird
Hello, I'm John Calkin. Back in the late '60s I trained as a gunsmith but never went into business. During the '70s I taught myself to build and repair stringed instruments and in 1980 I went professional. I ran my own shop---String Wizard Musical Instruments--- in Flemington, NJ for 15 years and built about 300 instruments there. After moving to Virginia in 1995 I eventually hired on with Huss & Dalton Guitar Co., where I've built the last 2000 or so guitar bodies (as of 5/07). I still build my own instruments but not nearly as many as I used to. Currently I don't build acoustic guitars on commission but anything else is doable. Contact me with your wishes and we'll talk.
Over the years I've discovered that the species of wood that comprises the back and sides of an instrument hardly makes a difference in tone (regardless of what you may have been told), which has led me to explore as many kinds of interesting looking wood as I can find. You might be surprised at what you find in these pages, but I promise you that the best tone and volume possible has always been my grail.
I still do a limited amount of repair work, especially refrets and neck resets. If there is no one in your area to take care of your instruments please e-mail me. Or contact me for any other reason.
Email me.
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Most of my pages are photo-intensive and slow to download. I hope you'll put up with it and check them out.
Recent Work...I only finish 2-4 instruments a year, so this page is slow to grow. It has by far my most mature work on acoustic instruments.
JC's Electric Instrument Page...Rock your socks off.
JC's Acoustic Page...Before there was RECENT WORK there was a ton of other acoustic instruments.
JC's Weird Instruments...Solidbody ukes? Furry electrics? You bet, and more.
Mark's Guitar, Part 1...Watch an acoustic guitar come together, step by small step.
Mark's Guitar, Part 3 Some stuff that didn't get captured in the first 2 parts
Banjo CrazinessNew stuff as of 7-29-07. As of 10-14-07. As of 10-21-07.
