“I have been building guitars for four years, two full-time. There’s always music in my head and that is a gift from God. I’ll never get rich making guitars, but that doesn’t matter. I am excited every morning about getting up and working. If you offered me a gazillion dollars but told me I couldn’t build another guitar, I would turn down the gazillion dollars.

The name is Two Hands Guitars because it’s just my two hands. These are God’s guitars and making them is like dancing with God. I offer my hands and follow his lead. It also honors Jesus’ two hands stretched out in the cross for me. I start each day by reading scripture and listening to meditative music such as the hang drums or the Tibetan meditation bowls. 

I grew up painfully shy with anxiety and self-doubt. I went to the University of Montevallo for three semesters and dropped out because I wasn’t interested. But a guy sat in the stairwell and played his 12-string guitar. I spent hours listening to him. That December, I used my Christmas money to buy a used Alvarez, a 12-string guitar, at a pawn shop. I quickly found out it was tough to play that many strings. I removed six of them and learned how to play. I’m not technically a gifted guitar player. I am left-handed and very linear in the way that I think. I can hardly do anything with my right hand unless I really focus. I realized I could build guitars and hear gifted musicians play them the way God intended them to be played. My son is learning how to play and it’s a joy to listen to him.

I wanted to build guitars for over 20 years but didn’t know where to go. The voice in the back of my head kept saying you will never do this. But God works in mysterious ways and introduces you to some amazing people. Then I met Steve Sheriff who built guitars in Seattle. He became my mentor and taught me every step of building guitars. He moved to Alabama to care for his parents, then I convinced him to move to Fairhope and work together in my shop. His guitar brand is called Edwinson Guitars.

I built this workshop behind my house. I had managed a printing company for 17 years when I started construction. I was laid off and was ready to give up.  My wife told me I was going to finish building the workshop and begin my dream. She said she wasn’t going to look out her kitchen window at a slab. It took about four years to finish it up.

I have three styles of guitars: Venus, Solis, and Luna. I am honoring the creator of the heavens and the earth. I inscribe Psalm 92:4 inside every guitar: For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

I build three sizes of guitars. It takes about six months and 200 to 250 hours. There’s a lot of glue-drying, finishing and polishing, but I can work on several at a time. I have four in different stages right now. My creator created me with his creative spirit, but I never dreamed that I would be able to build nice-enough guitars that people would trade their hard-earned money for. Many of the guitars I’ve made are used for worship music.

 I moved to Fairhope in 1995. It was a time of upheaval and assessing who I was. Fairhope is my Renaissance. I was originally going to name this Fairhope Guitar Company and play off of the creative image and mystique around Fairhope. I see my life in sections and have a lot of history packed away in boxes in my brain. I am grateful for the contentment of creating what I love and being right here with my family.”