Reader Guitar of the Month: Bald Cypress and Lindsey Buckingham Inspire a #1 Instrument

I started my journey into guitar back in the 1980s. Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac was my biggest influence because I was mesmerized by his ability and presence. I wanted to play like him, and though I could never really master his licks, I did teach myself to play guitar. It just took 30 years.

I never had the time to play much because I was in the service and worked on the road for so many years. But when I finally settled down, I was almost 50, so I got serious. I played every day, soaking up information—and, yeah, Premier Guitar was there with me every month since 2008. Over the course of my search for that mojo, I’ve had Stratocasters, Telecasters, an Epiphone Casino, a Takamine, a Firebird, SGs, and Les Pauls (a lot of ’em). I’ve lost count of all the mods I’ve done. But through those experiences, I learned that no guitar would have everything I need unless I had it custom built. So, getting near retirement (and now pretty good at playing, too), I decided I would build my own in my garage. I’m one of those guys that loves his garage.

About a year before retiring, I started educating myself by watching videos and speaking with other builders in my area. Then I started to put it all together. My father-in-law knew about my interest, and while I was visiting his farm in southwest Louisiana, he showed me something he’d kept for years, thinking I might appreciate it. Long ago, he had been to another family’s farm and discovered old-growth bald cypress hidden in the rafters of a barn. According to him, the wood had likely been there for at least a century. This wood, like some other boards that were found, was likely from a tree felled during a hurricane. Bald cypress is slow growing, and these particular pieces were probably 200-300 years old. I kept two and gave one to a coworker who had guided me through the building process.