Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathy Wingert. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kathy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I fell in love with the guitar when I was just a tiny kid. I begged my dad for access to his hi-fi (I date myself) and promised him that I would only handle the records by their edges. I know I wasn’t yet five because I remember the house we were in. I was especially crazy about Joan Baez because of the simple beauty of her killer soprano voice and solo guitar accompaniment. I was very taken with the picture of this beautiful woman in the field of wildflowers with a pretty little Martin parlor guitar. Of course, I had no idea about the details at that age, I just knew I had to play guitar.

I was in high school when I finally got enough baby sitting money saved up to get a guitar, but lessons were not going to be encouraged in my family, so I figured out what I could by myself.

In college I tried to do what my family could get behind and I dutifully signed myself up for computer sciences and business, um, stuff. And every day I looked longingly at the Music building. One day I finally got to guts to walk into the building. I have no idea why I thought anyone would notice or care, but it seemed a sacred space. The next semester I started signing up for classes.

Unfortunately for me, my attempts at teaching myself were actually a little too good. I had studied music theory and I had studied chord books. Those two things meant for placement straight into Theory 1 and being plunked right into performance classes and ensembles. I was in so far over my head I thought I would crumble.

I hung on by my fingernails and eventually I was able to get my performance up to something somewhat passable, but I discovered I really wasn’t cut out for it. As life began to get in the way, I found it made it easier and easier to not push through stage fright and memorization issues.

Eventually life really got in the way in to form of beloved children, and I put that chapter behind me. Except I really didn’t. I really couldn’t help but practice on a daily basis. I couldn’t abandon the discipline. Part of me thought that one day, if I kept applying myself, I would be the kind of performer I wanted to be. And again, it was my own diligence that made for the problems. If I didn’t know what makes a good performance, I might have been able to just put it out there, but I did know.

I pursued a few things that just didn’t fit. What in the world would make someone with daunting stage fright think that a career in financial services was a good idea? I mean… selling? ugh. Same with real estate. I even spent some time in court reporting school because if there was one thing I knew, it was how to practice. I hated it. And it made me narcoleptic.

One day I hit the end of the detours. I just knew. I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I wasn’t doing any of those things anymore. It made me start thinking of ways I could love the guitar without having to perform… and a light went on.

I was able to find some books on guitar making. One is still around and the other I have never seen since. And in my typical way, I studied until things made sense on paper. There were stacks of books and drives to five libraries. Then one fine morning I woke up and realized that I knew how to build a guitar from top to bottom, from scratch, my way not from a pre-made plan.

I found a class, that lead to a job at a local guitar store, and that store eventually lead to my first few sales.. When I had collected all the tools I needed and no longer needed to borrow access from my very kind mentor, the day came when I could no longer stay. I could not keep up with the day job plus the 8 to 15 hours I was putting in after the day job, and so my career as a solo guitar builder began.

Kathy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

NOTE: MOST OF THIS WAS PART OF THE PREVIOUS SECTION. Reorganize as you see fit. I start with what I make.

*****

Let me say something up front. If I had known about the custom guitar makers that were quietly building amazing guitars all across the country and around the world, I might not have pursued guitar making, I might have just commissioned the guitar I wanted and kept practicing guitar for no one but me.

There was something I really really wanted that I could not find, and that was a comfortable to hold steel string guitar that had a warmer, darker tone than your typical shimmery, treble sounding steel string guitar. It’s not that I wanted to replicate the sound of the classical guitars I had spent so much time on as a music major, but there was a polish, a sophistication, a depth in part of the tonal range that I just wasn’t finding in the guitars at the music stores. There is not one thing wrong with the fine factory guitars that are so famous, I was just hungry for something else.

After a false start, I developed a body style that did indeed do the things I most wanted, and it is by far my most popular model. My Model E is as long as a big bodied guitar, but at 15 inches across the lower bout, it is comfortable. The comfort does not cut into the voice of the instrument. Coupled with my voicing style, the guitar does indeed have a warm, dark voice that never falls into the fault of being muddy. You could possibly say dark and articulate.

My recipe for guitars includes detailed work starting with wood selection, careful thinning and profiling of all the parts as they go together so that they work together in a cohesive voice, and exhausting attention to fit and finish. I’m not kidding about the exhausting part. If something requires many hours to make perfect then that’s how many hours it gets.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Once upon a time I depended upon dealers to sell my instruments. I tried very hard to never undercut my own dealers, or to move custom orders to the front of the line. Unfortunately, not all dealers are created equal, and not everyone has the same idea of what fair means.

I found myself in a struggle with three of them at one time, for very different reasons, and it was almost the end of me. If it hadn’t been so painful, it might have been funny.

1) Three of my guitars ended up with a guy who probably didn’t have the love, patience or experience with guitars to try to be a high=end guitar dealer. He was throwing a lot of money around, and despite turning him down many times, he was eventually able to prevail, but only after having a builder friend call me to ask how much money I had. “Take the money Kat.”

2) There was a young guy who probably didn’t have the money to be a guitar dealer, but after turning him down many many times, he was eventually able to prevail. I mean, how do you say no when someone says, “well if I buy your guitars at retail price, may I have permission to sell them?”

3) There was also a well-established dealer who came to me when my dance card was full, and despite turning him down many many times, we were eventually able to carve out a niche for us to work together, and he was able to prevail.

And then these three threads came together at one one time.

The young guy had contacted me with an order for a client of his. The client wanted a 12 string guitar, but I knew this client and I didn’t want to build for him again. This client had a habit of identifying promising young builders and ordering.. Then during the time that it takes to build a guitar, the buyer would use social media to promote the builder. What blossoming builder could resist? None. But for him it was nothing short of insider trading. Spend a couple hundred bucks on a deposit, place an order, plump up the builders reputation, waiting lists get longer, builder raises prices, plus no one can get one, suddenly this guy is asking builders to ship the guitar upon completion to someone else. Or he would send a guitar back to the builder for some trumped up warranty issue and then say he knew it was fine, he just wanted the little playing dings and things taken care of. Upon completion of all that love and care, he would ask for it to be shipped to someone else. So. Eventually that 12 string came back to me, and I didn’t want to play his game. I just bought it back.

The dealer who had three guitars and didn’t have the temperament to be a guitar salesman wasn’t answering his phone or emails. He wasn’t keeping the guitars in his care, but was sending them to other shops to sell for him. Potential clients would call him for information on guitars, and he would refer those callers to shops a state or more away. The owners of those shops didn’t have any information, so the potential buyers would call me. It was an untenable situation and it wasn’t a proper way for my guitars to be handled, so I called him. He was not really willing to come up with solutions and started complaining about the one guitar that was still in his shop. I immediately offered to buy it back. He immediately demanded that I buy them all back and at retail price. You know what? I did.

So now I’m out the price of four guitars. And I can’t afford my guitars.

I called the established dealer and told him I had an amazing 12 string guitar that had come back to me. That guitar was perfect, and it sounded like a million bucks. The dealer said he didn’t want a 12 string, he wanted nothing to do with a 12 string, don’t talk to him about 12 string guitars.

I was packing to attend a big show in Providence and there was $300 left in my checking account. I don’t even know exactly when auto-pays come out of my checking account.

My phone rang. A very nice man called to tell me that he had just taken delivery of a guitar from the established dealer, and that he was so taken with it, he thought maybe he would like to order a 12 string guitar from me (Cue inner Tigger… jumping up and down) I calmly asked if he had talked to that established dealer about a 12 string, he had not. We struck a deal. As I was breathing a sigh of relief, my phone rang again. It was the dealer wanting his cut and how dare I sell something directly to this guy. Um… you didn’t want anything to do with a 12 string, remember? Again the phone rang, and the very nice man was very embarrassed at having done something wrong, and though I assured him he hadn’t and I would take care of everything, the whole deal fell apart.

There is a bright side to the story. My finish guy, for the only time in our many many years of working together, failed to get any of the guitars I had built for the show back to me in time. I had those four beautiful guitars to take with me, and all four guitars sold off my table that weekend.

Not proof of resilience? There’s more. The young dealer and the guitar flipper happened to be local-ish to that show. They showed up at my table all smiles and buddy buddy. I took the young dealer aside and reminded him that I had not wanted to build that 12 string for the guitar flipper, that I had only built the 12 string because he told me how badly he needed the sale for the sake of his family. So I asked that he put in a little work and help find a buyer for it (It was the first day of the show). “Oh sure Kathy, if you find a buyer I’m totally happy to help you out.” Are you shaking your head? I was and still am. I smiled at found someone else to talk to.

By the way, I don’t really work with dealers.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Starting in January 2023 I will no longer take custom orders..

I have always enjoyed working directly with clients to create the guitar they always wanted. My daughter Jimmi has worked with me for years providing custom inlays for those special projects. I love what she and the clients come up with, but life is strongly suggesting there is a better way, at least for now. Jimmi has a child, and so do my other two. Experience tells me this time goes by fast.

I look forward to building the guitars I have wanted to build, and to not breaking promises because I’m needed for a sick kid or a day at the zoo.

If I’m wrong, or if I miss working directly with the clients too much, I can pivot back.

Contact Info:

• Website: wingertguitars.com
• Instagram: @wingertguitars
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.wingert.3
• Youtube: @therealwingertguitars

Image Credits
Kathy Wingert