Musicmaker

The Fed Ex truck pulled up on Friday and dropped off two cartons. One is marked: How To A/C Your Hot Rod, and the other bears the label: Guitar Building Basics.

Both of these titles experienced a long gestation period. The Air Conditioning book actually started four years ago. We pushed it back on the schedule more times than I can count, but I knew that Jack Chisenhall, owner of Vintage Air, would eventually get it done. And that once finished, it would be a book that any motor-head could use to better understand and install air conditioning in their street rod, hot rod, classic American ride or pick up truck.

The new How To Air Condition Your Hot Rod book contains so much good technical information and so many photos we had to add 16 pages just to fit it all in.

The second book, our Guitar Building Basics book, carried a Fall of 2009 publication date. As they say however, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The fall season came and went, with no completed Guitar book. Finally, with a little help from my friends, we finished up all the chapters and sent the whole shebang to the printer.

In typical Wolfgang and ArtKulture fashion, the Guitar book contains a wealth of assembly sequences, and a number of interviews with the individuals who make and assemble the guitars and guitar kits. While at first it might seem that only experienced musicians would have an interest in a project like this, Jerry from Musicmaker’s Kits in Stillwater, Minnesota, explains that a lot of the buyers and builders are woodworkers first and musicians second. “A guy will buy one of our guitar kits,” explains Jerry, “because he’s looking for that next woodworking project. Many are not musicians, but will hand the finished guitar on to a daughter or grandson, who plays music. The instrument then becomes a family heirloom.”

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. If yours has six strings instead of four wheels, we have just the book you need.

Building Dreams
I like to think that what we do best at Wolfgang and ArtKulture is more than just to help people build cars, or motorcycles – or learn a new skill necessary to build that project. What we really do in a larger sense is help people build their dreams. And dreams are dreams. Some roll on four wheels, some on two, and some don’t have no wheels at all – but they’re someone’s dream just the same.

So keep dreamin’ and we’ll keep making those dreams obtainable.