Just off the Downtown Mall on West High Street lies one of the city’s most unknown but profound musical treasures: Rockbridge Guitars. Here, a quartet of master luthiers hand-fabricate around 60 custom-designed, top-shelf acoustic guitars a year for some of the world’s most talented players.
Since opening its doors, Rockbridge has accumulated a star-studded clientele that includes Dave Matthews, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Jason Mraz, Jon Russell (The Head and the Heart), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses), Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and The Heart Breakers), Ray LaMontagne, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Waddy Wachtel (session guitarist for Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards and more) and Warren Haynes.
Sixteen years ago, however, this success story was little more than an ambitious dream harbored by Rockfish Guitars co-founder Brian Calhoun. “While in high school a teacher of mine brought in a musical instrument he’d built,” says Calhoun. “Fascinated, I wound up doing an independent study that involved building a mandolin.”
The project got Calhoun hooked.
“After graduating, I did a couple of apprenticeships building mandolins then violins,” says Calhoun. But, as a passionate guitarist more into rock ‘n’ roll than bluegrass or classical, the 20-year-old realized he needed to switch gears: “I decided I needed to start building guitars,” says Calhoun. “I gave up the other stuff and something just clicked—I knew I was going to make my living building acoustic guitars.”
Aflame with inspiration and ambition, Calhoun had the prescience to seek the help of someone more established—enter Randall Ray, a childhood friend and guitar-maker with whom Calhoun would eventually co-found Rockbridge Guitars.
“At the time I was making three, maybe four guitars a year,” says Ray. “When Brian approached me, I knew he did great inlay work, so I got him to do an inlay on a guitar I was building for somebody, and the whole thing grew organically from there.” Within a matter of two years, Calhoun convinced him to go into business full-time.
“Brian kept nagging me about turning the ‘hobby’ into a profession,” says Ray. “He was too young and stupid to know you’re not supposed to just up and easily be able to do this for a living.”
In 2002, after much conceptualizing and a variety of prototypes, the duo formed Rockbridge Guitars, moved into their present downtown studio and officially went pro. But doing so came with a caveat—they wanted to take the route less traveled.
“A lot of builders—and especially hobbyists—set out to try and make their guitars sound like an old Martin, Gibson or whatever,” says Calhoun. “What Ray and I did was different. We wanted to make guitars that were unique and absolutely our own.”
Ask what this process entails, and the guitar maker responds in two ways. First in highly technical geek talk, then with vague references that tread in the territory of mystery.
“The process of chasing a sound is notoriously hard to describe,” says Calhoun. “Simply put, we wanted to combine aspects of our favorite guitars, our favorite guitar sounds from our favorite albums, and then somehow add some ideas of our own.”
Whatever they did, it worked. The guitars were different—a Rockbridge has its own sound. And that sound struck a chord: Within a year of opening, with not a penny invested in advertising, the company had booked a year’s worth of orders.
“I’d carry a guitar around bluegrass festivals and ask the players if they’d like to pick a tune or two,” says Calhoun. “At first they’d kind of groan, but then they’d play the guitar and be blown away.”
In fact, flat-picking progressive legend Larry Keel purchased his Rockbridge in just this manner.
“I think Larry bought the fourth or fifth Rockbridge we made,” says Calhoun, “which gave us a huge, huge boost.”
Another bolstering came when Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics introduced Rockbridge to the rock world. “Soon enough, Dave Matthews had bought one,” says Ray. “Then Jason Mraz saw him playing it and got one, and then Richie Sambora saw him on the ‘The Tonight Show’ playing his, and so on.”
While the Rockbridge duo has made a name for themselves selling instruments to stars, when asked about future expansions, they shrug and say that although they enjoy the notoriety, above all else they love the idea of hand-crafting heirlooms that will get handed down from generation to generation.
“Every guitar we make is a custom work of art,” says Calhoun. “We made a guitar for a guy that had us put his father’s ashes inside the neck. He’ll wind up passing that guitar down to his kids and, to me, that means more than anything.”
–Eric J. Wallace