Here’s an aspect of my life in the Philippines that for whatever strange reason I haven’t blogged much about and a story about how my retirement plan changed. Twenty five years ago I embarked on an obsession to become an amateur or semi-professional luthier. BTW for those who don’t know, luthier means stringed instrument maker.
For five or six years I was insane. My children were very young and my routine was the same 7-days a week, 365 days a year. I put the kids to bed, doing the story reading thing, put my wife to bed, and then went downstairs to unwind. That generally took an hour. After that I went down into the basement where I had a tiny, insect ridden shop and built guitars. I was in my 40s and had enough energy to go until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning before going to bed, getting up at 6:00 to get the kids ready and going to work. I loved making guitars.
But when I began, my then wife said, “We have a baby. You can’t make noise or dust.” “No worries, “I replied. “I’ll do it with hand tools.” And so began my second obsession – to make guitars solely with hand tools.
As the kids got older and the marriage got rockier, my obsession waned. Actually that’s not true; I still had the obsession just not the time or energy to make it all happen. So I eventually stopped making guitars. By my 50s when asked I would say, “when I retire I’ll get back to it.” That’s what I told Janet for years. The tiny shop and all the tools sat in our Portland basement but I rarely did much, other than clean and sharpen tools and remind myself that I would get back to my obsession someday.
About a year before I actually retired, Janet asked me why I was waiting for my actual retirement; why not start now. It was like I was being given permission to get back into my love; and so I did. I assembled a guitar that had been sitting in pieces for ten years. I refinished two other guitars via an ancient process called French Polishing – another of my obsessions.
By then it was time to pack, sell the house and move to the Philippines. But at least I knew what I was going to do. Or did I?
Once we were settled in a rental house in Valencia and the balikbayan boxes with my tools and materials arrived I got back to work. I started building a new guitar for the first time in many years. And then fate would kick in. Via Facebook people in Dumaguete began to find out that I was a luthier. One day a guy contacted me. His guitar wasn’t properly set up and could I look at it and see what I could do. He came over, I improved the instrument’s action a little bit, and off he went. And then it happened again on Facebook and again. I came to realise that not only was there almost no one in Dumaguete capable of doing basic repairs and instrument setups, but outside of Manila there is hardly anyone in the Philippines. Today people all over the country contact me.
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My goal was not just to help “rich” foreigners but to serve the community with a service that Filipino musicians could afford. Therefore my services are a small fraction of what similar services in the U.S. would cost.
Now that our house is built, as I’ve blogged to death about, I spend much of my time in my shop, located in the back of our lot, under a huge and cooling mango tree. It’s the best shop space I have ever had. My old hand tools have proper places, and I have three work benches so I can readily work on multiple instruments.
The best part is that it’s all a great challenge, good for the ageing brain. People bring in instruments that I’ve never worked on and sometimes have problems I’ve never encountered or even thought about. I’ve managed to save a few guitars that were too broken to be used.
Some of my friends ask if I’m doing this as a business to make money. I’m really not. Not meaning to brag but I’m a retiree and don’t need the income. But it feels good. Recently a Filipino customer gave me a 50P tip. His appreciation felt very cool. With my newfound “obsession” I have a few extra pesos in my pocket and take Janet to lunch – or buy myself another tool!
