Marc Ryan; No If Customs

This episode Frankie and I sat down with Marc Ryan from No If Customs. He started building in 2005, in his 3rd floor apartment in Boulder. ========================== Here's his story: "I just wanted to see if I could pull it off. I had basic woodworking skills, but in my 30 years of playing, I had never tackled much more than a repaint. I had a 50 hour a week job as a systems engineer, so this was definitely a free time project. I had no formal training but had made friends with a couple luthiers around the country. Thankfully, they gave me some great advice and were never against talking shop. I had minimal tools (Dremel, hand files/chisels/saws and a drill) but I had a lot of drive. My drive comes from that sense of accomplishment at the end of a project. Even if that project came with some hard-learned lessons, I had completed it. I had done it and knew how to make the next one better. My first two basses were built at the same time. Different shapes, different woods, different preamps; lots of challenges for myself. The process was very crude, but that was expected, given my environment and the tools that I had to work with. My brain’s choice of woods was mostly purpleheart, wenge and bubinga, meaning that I broke probably eighty coping blades and burned out at least two drills. I broke screws because I didn’t have pilot holes big enough for the denser woods. I had many moments of discouragement. There were days I could barely move my arms or use my hands and I asked myself what was I doing? I had two hundred hours invested, was this worth it? I pushed on and when I finished my first two and finally got to play them, it was such a rush. They looked, felt, played and sounded exactly how I wanted them to and I had made them from nothing. I intended on just building myself a bass in the style that I wanted but after showing the first couple off to friends and forums, I was asked if I was interested in selling them. I was even asked to sell them in a local store (which I did.) I had different friends wanting a build and the word spread. I am currently working on a couple of personal projects and have plans of launching the shop again in 2022." Marc [email protected] ========================