We recently connected with Glen “Falcon Eddy” Burke and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Glen “Falcon Eddy” thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

A little over six years ago, we decided to sell our house in Conroe, Texas and move to one of our rental properties in Galveston which was converted to a three apartment old house built in 1931. Two of the apartments were rented to tenants and we moved into the upstairs unit. After the tenants’ leases were up we decided we no longer wanted anyone else living under our roof so we didn’t renew their leases. At the time, I was building custom guitars and flipping vintage guitars and amplifiers and began doing so in the now empty downstairs of our house. We decided to begin offering strings and accessories and ended up opening the retail shop called The Guitar Lounge. Eventually, we began offering repair service due to the demand of local musicians. It was a tremendous risk to give up the steady income produced by renting but as it turns out, it was a risk well worth taking! Now, the entire downstairs of our house is a retail music shop and repair center. We teach lessons and have taken our custom builds to the next level. We get customers from all over the world now.

Glen “Falcon Eddy”, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always been a musician but I started out making a living as a carpenter because I always loved working with wood. I also relish a challenge and worked my way up through the ranks in the construction industry. I remained in the industry for almost 40 years but ended up having to medically retire after a bad auto accident. After numerous surgeries and a lengthy recovery, boredom began to set in so I decided to start pursuing my real passion, building guitars. I began working out of my garage and started building custom guitars and repairing then flipping used and vintage guitars. Business began picking up but then we decided to move to Galveston. We started up our custom guitar company, Fowlcon Guitar Company, and continued building guitars, now adding acoustic guitars to our product line. We then opened our retail store and called it The Guitar Lounge where we have grown into a full retail music shop and repair center as well. We offer full restoration, modification and major/minor repairs. Our builds are world class quality and we have customers all over the United States and even in Europe now. We still deal with new, used and vintage gear but happy our custom guitars are becoming so popular.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the happiness achieved when a client sees the finished product for the first time. During the design/build phase of a new custom guitar, I sense the excitement but NOTHING compares to actually seeing it finished for the first time. Also being a professional musician, I truly love to see people in the audience dancing and/or singing along with the band but creating a custom guitar from a concept to a reality brings a whole lot of satisfaction too!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yes, as I mentioned before, I literally had to medically retire from my chosen profession due to injuries sustained in a bad auto accident. I knew my days in the construction industry were over forever. After a lengthy recovery from numerous surgeries and treatments, boredom drove me to start pursuing my dream job of building custom guitars and playing music live again. We have constantly grown over the last six years in every aspect of our new endeavors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Galvestonguitarlounge.com
• Instagram: @fowlconguitars
• Facebook: @guitarloungeGalveston
• Twitter: @fowlconguitars
• Youtube: @fowlconguitars
• Other: Google: The Guitar Lounge Galveston