We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Edgar Levy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Edgar, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I first started sharing online, I was using a blog. It’s natural for me to tell the back-story and explain about the guitar and the repair methods in my posts. After the first few posts, I noticed a resemblance in what I was doing to the American home improvement show This Old House. I did not want to be obvious about borrowing that much of the title, so I tried coming up with something different. One day, a friend mentioned that my blog posts reminded him of that show, and suggested I just stay with the brand name This Old Guitar. After explaining why I wanted to use something different, my friend suggested using These Old Guitars. As the saying goes, the rest is history, follow me on Facebook and Instagram!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Music and art are the first two passions I recall pursuing as a child. I have played guitar on and off for over 55 years, and dabble in a variety of creative pursuits. I’m an artist and engineer by education, and have practiced Structural engineering in the state of North Carolina. For the past 15+ years, I’ve been a facilities Project Manager. Although I have enjoyed a great deal of professional success in engineering and project management, I have always gravitated towards others with interests in music and art. In 2014, I established These Old Guitars as a small business, to provide musical instrument repairs for friends, coworkers and acquaintances alike. Although I continue to post to small followings on Facebook and Instagram, the majority of my business so far has come from word of mouth.

The core business of These Old Guitars has been repairing and refurbishing older musical instruments. Over the years, I have worked on a variety of instruments, including mandolins, guitars, banjos and drums. In every repair and modification I perform, my goal is to improve the instrument while maintaining the authenticity of the instrument.

I have also built ukuleles and guitars, and am open to commissions for one-of-a-kind creations.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

From the start, These Old Guitars has been a part time venture. As such, the goal has always been to keep the business small enough that I can handle the work by myself as a sole proprietor. Getting closer to retiring from my day job, I look forward to spending more time at my work bench, repairing and building musical instruments, and meeting more like-minded individuals.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are a huge amount of people doing the same things I’m doing. The internet, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, houses a wealth of knowledge and resources that simply did not exist 25 or so years ago. Even more than that, there is a lot of camaraderie and encouragement to be had in these online resources.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @theseoldguitars
• Facebook: These Old Guitars
• Other: yankeece@gmail.com

Image Credits
Profile Photo: Pam Missimer Instagram:@pmissimer Pineapple-shaped ukulele: Ilyssa Levy Instagram: @illymation White telecaster: Nathan Wellish Instagram: @n8welly All other photos: Edgar Levy Instagram: @theseoldguitars