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WINTERS, California (KCRA) — In Winters, California, Al Calderone has dedicated 35 years to teaching the rare craft of building acoustic guitars at his shop, ARC Guitar, and he has no plans to stop.
“It’s the joy in my heart,” Calderone said.
Calderone, a luthier—a term for someone who builds instruments—teaches both day and night, helping students create their dream guitars.
“When people come in here, they tell me they are surprised that a business like this still exists because this is a lost art,” he said.
He ensures students learn basic woodworking skills to work safely while crafting their instruments.
“It turns out half of building a guitar is sanding,” Calderone said.
Calderone built his first guitar at age 40, fulfilling a dream he had since he was 18. Since then, he has crafted nearly 90 guitars.
“It is one of the most incredible things. You take raw wood and sculpt and fashion it and tune it, and when you finally hear what I call baby’s first cry, that first sound it makes, it’s like hearing your baby make that first sound. Nothing like it. It’s magic,” Calderone said.
One of Calderone’s students, Finn Abiko, drives two and a half hours from Lake Tahoe to work on a guitar he is building as a surprise for his father.
“My dad has been trying to get me to play as long as I remember. I just never got into it, so I’m learning along the way what most of these parts even are or what they do or what they mean,” Abiko said.
Abiko started the project last year and is still working on it, as it typically takes about 200 hours to complete a guitar.
“Al calls this my labor of love for my dad,” Abiko said.
Abiko makes the long drive to Winters every month to continue his work. He is not the only student traveling from afar.
Matt Hader, from Utah, is also learning from Calderone, hoping to use the skills to start selling guitars back home.
“It’s very rare to find a guitar maker, luthier, somebody who teaches you on a hands-on basis,” Hader said.
Calderone’s shop is one of only about a dozen in the country that teach guitar building, and he is the only one in California.
“There are a lot of factories that make guitars, but very few people hand-build guitars and even fewer that are willing to teach,” Calderone said.
With Calderone’s guidance, 136 students have shaped their soundboards to scale, bringing their dream instruments to life.
“The way every little piece comes together is such a challenge,” Hader said.
For Calderone, the joy of teaching is as fulfilling as the craft itself.
“I’m a retired pastor, so I worked with people for a long time. I’m a life coach, so having young people like Finn come in here, it’s a joy. There are no words to express it. We become friends with a lot of people. Yeah, I would say everybody that comes in here becomes my friend,” Calderone said.
At 68 years old, Calderone has no plans to stop teaching.
“I hope to die on my bench. In fact, that granite bench back there, I told my wife I want that as my tombstone with the epitaph, ‘He worked on it,'” he said.
For Calderone, the work is “too much fun” to ever stop, and he plans to continue mentoring those who build the music and those who want to play it.
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