[pbe]

Back in the mid 1980s when my guitar repertoire was limited to Smoke on the Water and Cat Scratch Fever (intros only, and incorrectly played), I lived a few blocks from Hoffman Guitars in Minneapolis. I never went in.

I made the 20-mile trek today to get my Maton set up to eliminate a buzz. They offered to do it in the next 90 minutes or so, and asked me to play a little to demonstrate the buzz. The tech (I never got his name; my bad) recognized the buzzing was due to my (poor) technique. “A setup would do so little I’d feel guilty charging you.” Who says that anymore! We chatted awhile and I felt great that he was so friendly and was not trying to rush me out the door.

Gabriel was in the room and added to the conversation, and I learned he is Charlie Hoffman’s son, who is doing (most? all?) of the custom builds these days. He invited me to play the models hanging on the wall.

I tried a few including a piccolo guitar, which shimmered. I pulled another from the wall and asked, “Who’s this?” “Go ahead and try it but it’s not for sale. That’s number one.” Charlie Hoffman’s first build from 1970 and it sounded great! The craftsmanship was pretty darn good for a first build, it was no slouch, but in the subsequent years he really honed his craft to produce stunning works of art, both for the eyes and ears.

Great honest people and great guitars. Life is good. But I feel a whopper of a case of GAS coming on...