Achieved guitar maker Brian Calhoun is the co-founder of Rockbridge Guitars. When you could not acknowledge the corporate’s identify, there’s a great probability you’ve heard one among its high-end acoustic guitars strummed by one among your favourite musicians. The roster of celebrities who haven’t solely carried out with Rockbridge Guitars however have publicly sung its praises is intensive and far-reaching, together with Dave Matthews, Harry Kinds, Keith City, Zac Brown, Marcus King, Richie Sambora… the listing goes on and on.
The enterprise of turning ardour into revenue
With all his success, you may think Calhoun was born right into a household of musicians, however he wasn’t. Though, by the point he was 6 years previous in his hometown of Lexington, Virginia, nestled inside Rockbridge County, his mom might already inform he had the makings of an entrepreneur when he created a retailer in his yard promoting snails and earthworms.
In center faculty, Calhoun began hanging out with what he calls “outcasts” who began stepping into music. He started taking part in guitar in early center faculty and took classes from a good friend’s dad, Steve Hoke, a neighborhood guitar trainer who additionally made devices, together with some very distinctive ones such because the Quad-Meister—a four-necked instrument that’s half banjo, guitar, mandolin and violin. Hoke not solely taught the group to play but additionally inspired them and launched them to different musicians. On the similar time, Calhoun was studying woodworking, and in highschool, as an unbiased examine, he selected mandolin constructing. When he was 18, he landed an apprenticeship with a mandolin maker, and he additionally labored for a violin maker. Every craftsman had their very own method, and Calhoun used this publicity to cherry-pick what finest served him.
“I used to be ending these mandolins, however I didn’t actually play mandolin,” says Calhoun, who grew up taking part in rock ‘n’ roll and later bluegrass music. He wished to be a guitar participant. “It simply began to really feel like it might make much more sense to make an instrument that I might check out.”
Utilizing the ability of connections to construct a enterprise
Calhoun reached out to Randall Ray, somebody Hoke had launched him to years earlier. Ray was a neighborhood Rockbridge musician who had dabbled in guitar constructing, creating about one a yr as a passion. When Calhoun was 16 and Ray was in his mid-30s, he used to joke that Ray would begin a enterprise with him sometime. Then, in 2002, it really occurred.
“He says I used to be too younger and silly to know that you could’t make a residing constructing devices,” Calhoun laughs when recalling the launch of their enterprise, Rockbridge Guitars.
Two different longtime buddies have joined alongside the way in which, making them a small however mighty group of 4 craftsmen—all of whom are musicians—who meticulously construct devices out of the basement of a historic residence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Rockbridge Guitars’ secret to locking in movie star shoppers
So how did Calhoun leap from making acoustic guitars to putting them within the arms of well-known musicians? It’s easy: phrase of mouth. He began by toting one alongside to small music venues and festivals and approaching artists to see in the event that they wished to take a look at a guitar he had made together with his good friend. Oftentimes, he says, they’d discover it was higher than they’d anticipated and so they’d need to go to a spot the place they might actually hear it. As soon as he made his first few gross sales with touring musicians, Calhoun would analysis who else the artist performed with to find out who to method subsequent.
“Then you might go say, ‘Hey, we simply offered a guitar to this man. You need to test it out?’ It simply makes it a little bit simpler, and it was like stepping stones,” Calhoun says. “And I imply, I’ve been doing that now since I used to be 18. So, you simply meet so many musicians and it will definitely results in greater and greater artists.”
What units Rockbridge Guitars other than different manufacturers
Regardless of constructing devices for musicians who’re promoting out stadiums, Calhoun says he doesn’t get starstruck. The sound of an acoustic Rockbridge guitar is a little bit completely different than different manufacturers—extra delicate—and could be exhausting to pinpoint precisely in phrases, however he says an skilled participant will have the ability to hear the distinction. A part of this intangibility is as a result of every instrument is crafted by hand somewhat than in a manufacturing facility, so there are minute millimeter variations that have an effect on the sound. As a result of Rockbridge’s increase in reputation, bespoke guitars, which begin within the 1000’s, at the moment have a year-and-a-half waitlist. Pivoting the enterprise to scale up simply doesn’t make sense to Calhoun.
“I really feel like we’re this magical firm, the place we’re all good buddies with one another and we’re constructing these devices we care about,” he says. He feels that in the event that they have been to rent extra individuals and purchase extra machines to supply at a sooner tempo, it “would take away a number of the magic.”
Co-founder Brian Calhoun’s further inventive endeavors
What’s nearly as outstanding about Calhoun’s spectacular guitar-making endeavors is that his creativity doesn’t end there. He additionally writes youngsters’s books and invented Chickapig, a child’s chess-like technique board recreation, full with a pooping cow, which he partnered and launched with musician and good friend Matthews.
Calhoun invented Chickapig after complaining to buddies one vacation {that a} recreation they have been taking part in collectively was boring, and positioned a wager that he might provide you with one thing higher. As a fan of chess, he began there. It solely took a few week earlier than the entire recreation’s methodology crystallized for him, and shortly he began taking part in it with buddies—who then began taking part in it with out him.
Identical to Rockbridge Guitars, Chickapig’s reputation grew from grassroots advertising and marketing. Calhoun, who describes himself as an introverted particular person, pressured himself to method strangers in bars to see in the event that they’d play his recreation. With out most individuals realizing he was the inventor, he was capable of glean precious feedback to boost the sport.
Following his curiosity has served him effectively over the a long time and increasing his artistry to little ones made him understand how a lot he enjoys creating for youths. Chickapig is now performed on the Virginia Institute of Autism and is being studied to see the way it may be used to assist enhance social expertise amongst affected adults.
Serving to youngsters study music in a brand new manner
His most up-to-date invention is a line of one-string youngsters’s devices referred to as TinkerTar, which has been touted by The Toy Book journal as a “one-string marvel.” The concept initially started when a good friend urged he make an animal-shaped guitar for youths, however when he introduced his small dinosaur-shaped guitar to a birthday celebration, he discovered that different than simply strumming on the strings, the youngsters couldn’t actually play a tune as a result of it required an excessive amount of accuracy. Then it dawned on him that if he transformed the guitar to solely have one string, youngsters might all of the sudden play a melody.
When he confirmed his revised prototype to his good friend’s 3-year-old little one, he was capable of educate him find out how to play Smoke On The Water. It blew him away as a result of he’d by no means seen a toddler this younger have the ability to play the guitar, solely the violin, and with the ability to play a melody is what retains individuals —and excited—about studying.
“You possibly can rip it on one string,” Calhoun says. “Any melody that you could play on fifteen notes of a piano, you’ll be able to play on a TinkerTar.”
Utilizing music training for optimistic affect
He likes that it offers youngsters a straightforward entry level to taking part in an instrument. He additionally developed a color-coded finger positioning system on the fingerboard that correlates with music.
“If this goes effectively, it might have an effect on the way in which youngsters begin taking part in music,” Calhoun says. He’s hoping it would get extra youngsters taking part in guitar, as a result of he believes it will possibly make a giant distinction.
As a troubled child, he says music was what he grasped onto. It gave him something to be passionate about, and may need saved him from stepping into much more bother. He needs to open that very same door for others, which is why the corporate is specializing in training in early music studying facilities. “You get to affect these younger minds and see dad and mom that say, ‘Hey, this actually introduced us collectively,’ and it’s simply so fulfilling, and I adore it,” he says.
You will discover TinkerTar at Walmart, Goal, Amazon and different retailers. Pictures courtesy of Buffalo Video games.
Emily O’Brien is a author and editor primarily based out of Raleigh, North Carolina.