Heather Latter
He got his first guitar when he was in Grade 5.
Now former Fort Frances resident Joe Egan is designing and building guitars with his business, “Egan Custom Guitars,” based out of Vancouver Island, B.C., where he resides on a farm with his fiancée, daughter, Poppy, and two dogs.
“I’ve always wanted to build,” Egan stressed, noting as a kid he had a subscription to a guitar magazine and there was a school that taught stringed instrument building and repair featured on the back.
“I cut it out actually and I wanted to go there, but I wasn’t serious enough,” he explained.
Years later when Egan was back in Fort Frances, he came across the clipping.
“That’s when I decided I’m just going to do it,” he remarked.
He attended the school on Vancouver Island, where he learned everything from how to set up guitars properly to doing basic and advanced builds.
When he graduated, Egan even stayed on as a teacher there.
“That’s where I learned a lot more,” he said.
Egan noted it’s not easy to build a guitar, especially since he didn’t have much of a background in woodworking.
“I still struggle with the finer details,” he admitted. “While teaching, my goal was to slow down and do the smaller stuff better.
“Even the simple stuff, just go back to the first step and do the easy stuff again.”
Egan has been building guitars for people for the last three years, but only opened up his own shop back in April.
“It’s good so far,” he remarked, adding that heading into the new year, he has seven commissions locked down and will be shipping guitars to the United States, as well as the United Kingdom.
Egan makes both electric and acoustic guitars, with prices starting around $1,600.
“I don’t say no to anything,” he remarked, noting he’ll try new designs as well as the standard ones.
There are other builders he sometimes works with and enjoys the collaboration.
“I always learn from it,” he reasoned.
Egan said the reason people might choose to purchase a custom guitar, instead of a store-bought one, would be for the experience.
“You are involved right from the beginning,” he explained. “We discuss wood, design, exactly the way you want it set up.
“And more than anything, there’s more passion and care put into the making of it.
“You get a unique, one-of-a-kind instrument,” he added, noting his guitars also offer superb sound, as well as a water-based finish to be environmentally-friendly.
Egan brought one guitar to Fort Frances with him when he came back for Christmas that was a present someone here had ordered.
He often has been sending guitars east, such as to New Brunswick, Ottawa, and even Thunder Bay.
And he’d like to concentrate more on selling guitars on Vancouver Island.
But thanks to the Internet and word-of-mouth by some of his musician friends who tour, Egan is getting plenty of business from all over.
He said he tends to have about two-three builds on the go at once, and that it takes about 150 hours to complete one from beginning to end.
“I try to keep a relationship with whoever gets one,” Egan noted, admitting he gets sad when he puts it in the mail because he might never see it again.
“After putting that much time and [effort] into it, I like to know how it’s doing,” he reasoned.
Egan is enjoying be able to make a living at something he is so passionate about.
“I get to work from home, which is really nice,” he said.
And living on a beautiful piece of land on Vancouver Island gives Egan plenty of inspiration to create unique instruments that suit the players’ personality and style.
For more information about Egan’s guitars, visit his Facebook page by searching “Egan Custom Guitars.”
