All From A Block Of Wood
Craftsman or artist? Renowned as a legendary master luthier by musicians around the
world, Randy Wood’s services have been sought out by everyone from Elvis Presley to
Eric Clapton. Guitars, Dobros or Mandolins—Wood has been producing top quality
instruments since the 1960’s. These custom made instruments are as beautiful to the
eye as they are to the ear.
So how did a boy from middle Georgia become one of the world’s greatest known
instrument makers? Put simply, he followed his joy in life—wherever that took him.
In Wood’s case it took him to the mega-center of country music—Nashville,
Tennessee. A trailblazer within the vintage instrument business, Wood along with
his two friends George Gruhn and Tut Taylor moved to Nashville in 1970, opening the
first known vintage instrument store in existence.
“To some extent there was a movement that started in the 60’s probably because
of the folk music movement that came along,” Wood explains. “People started getting
more interested in what is commonly referred to now as vintage instruments.”
Vintage instruments—known simply as used instruments at the time based on the
fact that they were not new—drove the instrument repair business. “A lot of these
older instruments were in bad shape and needed repair,” Wood says. “I came in at
kind of the first part of that and that was really my interest.”
A master of this craft, Wood is one hundred percent self taught. Inheriting a
love of wood working from his father, Wood has worked with wood his whole life. “I
have always been around wood whittling,” he explains, “making ax handles, sling
shots, model airplanes and all kinds of things when I was young.”
Wood jokingly says that instrument repair and construction was a hobby that got
out of hand. As a guitar player, he had to learn to fix instruments the best he
knew how.
Wood always liked music and instruments. Working as a draftsman in Atlanta in
his early 20’s, Wood eventually moved down to Milledgeville to make music with Tut
Taylor. Taylor, best known for winning the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass
Album, was just starting out at the time and was looking for somebody to play with.
“I was not that interested in moving down there just to play guitar,” Wood
confesses. However, when Wood found out that Taylor had a wood shop he could work
in—he jumped at the chance. “I had always wanted to work in a nice wood shop.”
“I basically started working on instruments out of necessity,” he says. “Nobody
in this part of the country worked on instruments back then, so when I needed
something done to one of my instruments I would work on it because it was wood.”
According to Wood, the word soon got out and whenever friends began having a problem
with their instruments, they’d take them to him. “It just kind of snow balled from
there.”
Honing his wood working skills along the way, Wood later moved to Muscle
Shoals, Alabama to work at Rual’s Instrument Service with banjo picker, Rual
Yarborough. Driving a van to festivals and picking up repair work wherever they
went, repair jobs kept coming their way and soon it became a full time job.
It is here that Wood met George Gruhn. Gruhn (now owner of the very famous
vintage instrument store known as Gruhn Guitars) was a pioneer within the vintage
instrument movement. At that time Gruhn had just left college to buy and sell
vintage instruments and Wood was doing some repair work for him.
The interest in these older instruments meant that Nashville needed a good
instrument repair shop and these three guys had a unique fusion of talent. Tut (a
bluegrass musician), George (a vintage instrument expert) and Randy (an instrument
repairman) had far better knowledge of vintage instruments, the market, and repair
than anyone else in Nashville and most others nationwide.
“We three got together and thought it’d be neat to open a store that
specialized in these kinds of instruments,” Wood explains. “They were starting to
get popular and there was really no place to get them, unless you just happened to
run into someone who had one in the closet somewhere.”
This inspired the inception of GTR, Inc. in Nashville. Named both as an
abbreviation for guitar as well as after the first-name initials of George, Tut, and
Randy—GTR was located downtown right next to the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand
Ole Opry. This put them in contact with a wide variety of musicians, many of whom
would hang out at GTR during the week while filming the Johnny Cash show.
GTR was a retail store specializing in the buying, selling and repair of
vintage instruments. It is here that Wood became well known for his skills as a
master luthier, building and repairing instruments for all of the stars. “I mean we
worked on everybody’s instrument, all the different people we met, Elvis Presley,
Mama Cass Elliot, Joni Mitchell, Merle Travis, Charlie Daniels, Johnny Cash, Keith
Richards, Eric Clapton,” Wood recounts very nonchalantly. “Had I the sense to have
taken pictures back then I could make another million dollars by putting out a
picture book.”
Although he was meeting people that he had never even dreamt of, Wood says that
the levity of what he was experiencing was not so obvious to him at the time. Like
everyone in their early 20’s, Wood was just having a blast being alive. Documenting
the incredible life he was living was furthest from his mind. “We were just trying
to make a livin’. We weren’t thinking about history.”
Today Wood can be found in a more laid back environment, at Randy Wood Guitars
located on Highway 80 in the Bloomingdale area. Still making exquisite instruments
for musicians big time and small, Wood moved from Nashville to the Savannah area
over thirty years ago to slow things down a bit.
Leaving the bright lights and big city, Wood now creates and sells his master
pieces out of a small, rustic wooden building with a tin roof, sitting beneath
several enchanting oak trees shrouded with hanging moss. “One of the reasons we
left Nashville and headed back to the Coast is that it was just getting so busy up
there that you didn’t have any time for yourself,” he says.
Wood’s reputation followed him to Georgia. Despite removing himself from the
hustle and bustle of the country music capital of the world, Wood maintained a full
time custom build and repair business—crafting, repairing and selling instruments
for everyone from the most famous of musicians to the every day picker.
From the back of his guitar store (where his wood shop is located) the sounds
of strumming guitars and singing voices can be heard amidst a ringing phone and the
chatting of customers. Along side of his music store and repair shop, Wood has a
concert hall and a BBQ joint.
A blend of artful craftsmanship, musical talent, and fellowship—when you walk
into Wood’s place you can’t help but feel a little magic in the air. Surrounded by
breathtaking instruments made by Mr. Wood himself—it is hard to believe that a place
of this caliber and a man of this great talent is so inconspicuously tucked away in
this small Georgia town.
Well known stars still pop in from time to time, Grammy Award winning musicians
regularly grace his concert hall, and Wood is still considered the best in the
business.
Wood is quick to point out, however, that the every day picker is his most
important customer. “What happens a lot of times when you get a reputation, a lot
of people, especially every day working people think that you’re above them or that
they can’t afford your work so you actually lose work.” He relates this to the
pretty, popular girl at school who sits home on Saturday nights because people are
afraid to ask her out.
“I think one of the big things is that people generally sell themselves short,”
Wood says. “The everyday customer that we get in here, a lot of them are scared to
say hello or something, and they shouldn’t be because they are as important as
anybody else.”
Wood has a great wisdom about life and living that he freely shares. This view
about life was spurred by an awakening of sorts that he had after exiting the
military around the age of 21.
Born and raised in rural Georgia, in and around Brunswick, Wood went into the
service out of high school. While in the service he performed a variety of
technical and engineering drafting duties, a skill learned in high school. He
spent time in many places including California and Hawaii, which also helped shape
his view of the world. After Wood exited the military in 1965, he spent some time
on St. Simon’s Island with his twin brother where he gained his insight.
“I was just kind of acclimating myself to civilian life again. I couldn’t help
but notice that all my brother and the guys that we went to school with wanted to
talk about when we’d get together,” he emphasizes, “is how much they looked forward
to Friday cause Friday was payday and they didn’t have to get up and go to work on
Saturday.”
Wood found this way of living to be uninspired at best. “I thought to myself,
if that is what life is all about then there’s something wrong somewhere. If you
can’t look forward to getting up the next day and doing something you enjoy, then
you’re in a pretty pitiful state of life as far as I’m concerned.”
Wood’s life would be forever changed with this revelation. He lived life to
the fullest, moving and changing jobs frequently just to make sure his life never
got stagnant. “I have done a little bit of everything,” Wood says. “Every couple
of years I would change jobs and move because I was afraid of getting in a rut.”
During these years he worked primarily as a draftsman, performing wood working on
the side.
Wood believes in aligning yourself with your joy in life by finding where your
talents lie and following that path. “The thing that is so amazing about all of
this for me is to be able to do it and actually make a livin’ out of it,” Wood says
with reverence. “I’d be doing this if I did not make a dime at it. This is what I
make a livin’ at but it’s also my hobby.”
“One of the main things that I’ve always said is, do something in your life
that you enjoy doing,” Wood shares, in a manner that exudes great wisdom. “Everyone
has talent. The Good Lord gave everybody talent, the Bible tells all about it, and
even if you only have one talent, get out and do that.”
For more information on Randy Wood Guitars and for a schedule of upcoming concerts,
visit www.randywoodguitars.com.
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