O God, I will sing a new song to you! Accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, I will sing praises to you! – Psalm 144:9
You don’t have to be a guitar player to appreciate the art and the beauty in a finely crafted instrument. Woods, laminates, inlays; bone, mother of pearl, abalone; cabinet-making, joinery, finishing; precision, acoustics, electronics, technology, musicianship; love, craft, inspiration, physics, mathematics.
Guitars could be hung on the wall and enjoyed as objects of art. But that would be a shame because they are created to be played. And it is never too late. Even a beat-up instrument that’s been in the back of a closet or an attic for years has the potential for restoration, and new life, and finding the music again.
BORN-AGAIN GUITARS: That’s where my friend Hans comes in. He’s a classic renaissance man, with a history in graphic design, painting, advertising, craftsmanship, and music. Now he is blending it all together in a pitch-perfect business known as “Born Again Guitars.”
Hans is a fully trained luthier who can build an amazing guitar from scratch – and he will if that’s what you’re looking for, or he’ll customize a kit (like the brand new Fender Telecaster being built on one on his benches); but for me the theology of it all comes into focus with the restorations, the repairs, the love, the application of light, the instrument that is truly “born again.”
A New Song:
Fact is, we all have music inside us; we all have the capacity for more light; we all have a song that is waiting to be sung. Sometimes we simply need a tuning, or a cleaning, or maybe some manageable recalibration… and then sometimes we need to be stripped down, broken down, re-imagined, and reassembled.
Always, and whenever we allow the hand of the Maker to work on the substance of who we are – spirit and soul – we are a new creation, born over into the beauty and the art of our own song, the one we sing with Jesus.
Acoustic, semi-acoustic, archtop, solid body; brownish, whitish, or anywhere on the disparate palet of race and culture; young, old, female, male; lost, rooted, or wandering; in need of a tune-up or re-born from the raw materials and assembled by The Maker – it doesn’t matter who we are, or exactly where we are so much as that we come to the realization we are some kind of a work in progress. A restoration project, yes, but works of art and with limitless potential.
So I took some photographs around my friend’s shop, studio and luthier’s domain. Take a look, and you’ll see a wide variety of guitars along with an amazingly complete workshop. I believe the images tell the story fairly well.
If you have a guitar that needs a little help, then Hans is your man. But if your own song is even a little bit out of tune, or if you understand that you need some restoration, and some harmony, or some orchestration, then your man is Jesus, and your song is more than welcome at church.
Peace, and love, and the promise of The Song – DEREK
Derek Maul: Words, Photographs, and Food for the Journey 