Meet the Maker: Charles Fox

by Fred Carlson

Originally published in American Lutherie #52, 1997



I had the opportunity (blind luck, you might call it) to study with Charles Fox in 1975 at the beginning of his School for Guitar Research and Design’s rise to prominence as one of the premier guitar-building schools in the country. Much more recently, in August of 1995, I attended a session of The American School of Lutherie, Charles’s updated take on lutherie education. I had been asked by the GAL to interview Charles, but our schedules made it difficult to connect. We finally sat down and had a fine, rambling phone conversation in late fall of ’95. What follows here is my notes from that conversation, organized into this interview format with a bit of journalistic license.

Charles, I know you have a background in the fine arts; in fact, I remember seeing some paintings of yours back in Vermont. Is that what led you to lutherie?

In a way, I still think of myself as a painter who is currently not working. In the mid to late ’60s I was studying flamenco guitar, taking lessons through Sherry-Brenner, who import fine guitars. I found that they had materials for guitar construction, and a British instructional pamphlet; I built a guitar at home, and loved it. I stopped playing, built another and another, a couple of flamencos, a classic, and then a couple of steel strings which sold immediately.