FALL RIVER – After years of working as a professional oboist for symphonies around the country, Bill Anderson is settling into his more recent role as luthier, crafting guitars at his studio at the Narrows Center for the Arts.
Anderson calls the first acoustic guitar he designed and made an A-style, for Anderson. He also crafts OM, dreadnought, jumbo and custom-designed acoustic guitars. As a singer-songwriter and professional musician, Anderson said the quality of instrument makes all the difference, even for beginners. “You play a bad instrument and you’re going to quit, but if you play a good instrument you can fall in love with a single note,” he said. “That’s the thing that draws you in — what the instrument is giving back. And it doesn’t take years of experience to get a good sound,” he added.
Anderson, who has a bachelor's degree in music performance from Boston University and a masters degree from the New England Conservatory, has performed with symphonies and show bands throughout New England as well as in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. For four years, he lived in Colorado after he was accepted into the prestigious Air Force Academy Band. The list of famous people he’s performed with during that time includes Marvin Hamlish, Henry Mancini, Audrey Hepburn, Avery Brooks, Bebe Neuwirth, Whispering Bill Anderson, and Christian performer Michael W. Smith.
Along the way, he started working with his hands. At first, he worked with a jeweler in New Hampshire during the time between undergraduate and graduate school; that led to him studying jewelry making at the renowned North Bennet Street School in Boston. He started out making instruments with renowned Massachusetts-based flute-making companies Powell Flutes and Brannen Brothers Flutemakers.
“I tell people, there’s no one who's had more jobs than me,” he said, adding he has two resumes: one with about 30 jobs with different symphonies and another with as many jobs in the artisans fields. “Being a musician is never a straight line…. I’ve done a lot of things and I love doing a lot of things.”
While he was freelancing for various orchestras in New England, Anderson worked for an organ company restoring organs; and right before he went into the Air Force, he worked for Parker Guitars, which was based in Woburn at the time. “That was my first experience with any kind of guitar-building and I didn’t play guitar at the time. (Founder Ken Parker) is a big deal. Every book that talks about guitars that have been made in history either has his guitar on the cover or inside,” said Anderson of the Parker Fly electric guitar. “I was producing 16 guitars a day – it was a lot of handwork and a lot of experience.”
He also decided to start making his own oboe reeds, which led to him starting a company making the finely crafted reeds to sell to other oboists. But after a while, Anderson realized there was little satisfaction in putting so much work into making the delicate pieces that have a short lifespan.
Nine years ago, Anderson started playing guitar and writing his own songs and that led to him making the decision to return to school to learn guitar-making. So he headed to Michigan for a two-month journeyman guitar-making program at the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair. “Because of all my past experience making instruments, I thought, 'If I can’t build a guitar with this much teaching behind me I probably won’t be able to do it.' We built two guitars, an electric and an acoustic, and I got the second-highest grade on the electric and the highest grade on the acoustic out of about 25 students,” he said.
Anderson has built about 15 guitars since he started the business. “There’s nobody famous playing my guitars, but I have sold guitars,” he said.
After relocating the guitar-making shop a few times, Anderson, a native of North Reading who now lives in Milton, found the space he was looking for in the new second floor studios at the Narrows Center for the Arts.
He sells them mostly through word of mouth and to people he meets while out he’s out playing at acoustic gigs. “People will hear me playing and say, 'Whose guitar is that?' and I say, mine,” said Anderson adding he prefers to sell to players and as opposed to collectors.
Though his guitars are handmade from scratch, Anderson also offers classes at his studio for those who want to make a guitar (acoustic or electric) using a kit.
For more information about his guitars or performance schedule, visit www.andersonacousticguitars.com.
Email Linda Murphy at lmurphy@heraldnews.com.