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One-man act Ronnie Nichols, of Harrison, builds the guitars and banjos that he plays at area assisted living homes.
His guitar, named Katie, is a 1963 Gibson that was split in three places when he found it at a yard sale.
“I tell people Katie’s the only one my wife’ll let me hold in my lap and not get mad,” Nichols said.
After a little time in his workshop, Nichols said, Katie’s true personality began to shine through.
“I like a good bass response and a well-balanced tone through all the strings,” he said. “That’s not easy to accomplish.”
Nichols repairs and builds his instruments in a shop behind his house where he uses a dial caliper, jigs, molds, a spray gun and other tools to form and finish the instruments.
He said he constantly turns to his hand plane.
“People think that’s a tool that’s out of style, but to someone who knows how to use one, they’re really accurate,” he said.
Nichols finds Harmonys and Kays, thick guitars built from the 1930s to the 1950s, dissects them and thins each piece down to bring out the sound. He uses a thickness sander he made with parts from an old copy machine to get rid of bulk.
“The idea is to take as much wood off as you can right before it explodes,” he said.
His newest obsession is cheap guitars made in China that he can rebuild without guilt. He bought 20 Fullertons online for $59 each, a price he said normally wouldn’t cover a plain spruce top.
“I was able to do some things that you wouldn’t do with a $2,000 Martin guitar,” he said. “It’s the most scientific way to compare sound.”
Nichols said he started out building banjos in the 1980s, but banjo players don’t know what they want, he said. He turned to guitars and hybrid instruments — his Walloon is a banjo neck with a round dobro pot. His Three Holer banjo body is wide and squat, made of wood instead of metal. He said it lets sound out better.
Though he’s sold a few of his instruments, building them is primarily a hobby.
Nichols has found a few Web sites to educate him. He said Frets.com was like going to college, and Frank Ford, of Gryphon Stringed Instruments, is his hero.
“When I found (gryphonstrings.com) I spent two weeks on there,” he said.
Nichols plays regularly at LifeCare Center of Collegedale, Martin Boyd Christian Home on Standifer Gap Road and Southern Oaks Assisted Living on Lee Highway.
He plays original country-style songs about mowing the grass and society in general, mixed with gospel music.
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