After a few semesters of pre-pharmacy college I decided that a job dispensing drugs was not a good idea. Instead, I studied instrument building under the direction of Charles Fox who currently owns the American School of Luthiery . Charles taught much more than building instruments. He includes engineering and art in everything everything he creates. He was the consummate mentor. He teaches by example and I strive to pay attention to the details, following his example to this day.

After my time with Charles Fox I worked in a couple different guitar shops in Buffalo NY and gigged steadily. I began to hook up with people who were very good at what they did. I spent a little time with people like James D'Aquisto on LI, NY and took a job at Top Shelf Music, a reputable warrantee guitar shop in Buffalo. I worked on hundreds of instruments there and when the time was right I started my own shop, Preston Instrument Repair in the early 80's. That shop was a warrantee repair center for Epiphone/Gibson, Martin, Hamer among others. Thousands of builds and repairs went through.

Instrument building requires proficiency in many skill sets. Aside from learning the woodworking skills, there is finishing, electronics, part fabrication and much more. At this same point in time I started going to evening electronics classes and veraciously reading books and papers on acoustics. Rewinding vintage guitar pickups was my first introduction to electro-magnetics. It is this field that makes up the bulk of my studies today.

In the mid 90's the guitar market changed. Many of the best older instruments were being shipped to Asia, mostly Japan, and thousands of cheap guitars were being shipped from Asia to the US. Since our gigging schedule at that time was robust  I left the guitar biz behind and shifted into pro-audio and recording.

As a service to my previous professional customers I still perform repair and restorations on professional instruments. E-mail for appointment.