Gary Kean/The Western Star
“I said to myself, ‘I can build that,’” he recalled of the epiphany he had around six years ago.
Ever since, the Springdale native now living in Corner Brook has been learning and fine-tuning his skill at building guitars. He has done a lot of his own research on the craft, but learned a lot of the more intricate details — like making the all-important neck and fret board — from his great uncle Larry Newbury of Botwood, who has been making guitars for three decades or so.
Hancock, 26, has sold seven or eight of his guitars to friends, but now he plans to take it beyond a hobby. Last week, that dream took another step forward when the City of Corner Brook granted him a permit to open a home-based business to make guitars and teach music lessons.
Hancock currently teaches music out of SonRise Ministries building on Wellington Street, but hopes to eventually move the academy to his home.
“It’s exciting,” he said during an interview in his guitar-building shop. “Now, the plan is to work on the consistency of my guitars and to get the brand out there.”
That brand will be Psallo Guitars, named after the greek term for making melodies on a stringed instrument.
Using standard woodworking tools such as a band saw, table saw, thickness planer and a drill press, Hancock needs just a few specialty tools, such as a fret saw and fret press, to shape his line of electric guitars.
He hopes to one day get the specialized equipment needed to expand into building acoustic guitars like his great uncle does.
The shop has a couple of guitars needing some last-minute setup before they are ready and another half dozen in earlier stages of their build. Blank boards of various types of woods, from ash and rosewoods to monkeypod and bubinga, await to become instruments.
Hancock likes his guitars to highlight the different characteristics found in each type of wood he uses.
“I try to stay away from paint, unless a client wanted a certain colour,” he said. “I really like the exposed grain and seeing how the wood is naturally.”
