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help, shipped a lifetime supply of rosewood, mahogany and other tropical hardwoods to Phoenix, where he began his guitarmaking business, even though he could only play one chord. It was just the sort of outlet the 19-year-old Eaton craved. “It took me about four months to build a guitar,” he says. “I remember being completely elated.” Fast-forward a few years, after Eaton had earned the title “Outstanding Graduate” from ASU’s business college. He was working toward his MBA at Stanford when he bolted up in the middle of the night. “I had this dream about making a second instrument,” he says, “a 12-string with some unique ideas about it.” Eaton called Roberts the next day to ask if he could come to Phoenix over his three-week break to build it. What he built, it turned out, was much more. Over the same break, Eaton had an assignment to write a business plan in one of his classes. So he composed a 60page plan for a guitar-making school. As graduation neared, Eaton interviewed with large companies, but nothing fit. Having written the plan, he knew the guitar-making venture wouldn’t be lucrative, he says, “but it would be really fun to do.” So, Eaton’s class project became the blueprint for the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, which Eaton, Roberts, Bob Venn and Bruce Scotten incorporated and founded in 1975. (Robert Venn—part of the school’s eponymous name—had teamed with Roberts in 1973, bringing custom electric guitar making to the mix.) As for what Eaton brought, the answer is quite a bit, and not all of it from a university. After starting Roberto-Venn, Eaton took 12 Wavelength
to the desert, sleeping under the stars and living out of his car for two years. He read voraciously, exploring the spirituality and philosophies of various cultures and thinking about the beginnings of music. “You get interested in the origins of things and it takes you back to the hunter’s singing bow, and even the shaman’s bow,” Eaton explains. “Hunters and gatherers would be dependent on finding a species in their local environment to survive. If they were fortunate enough to capture one, they’d use every part of that animal—the skins for clothing, the bones for tools, the gut and tendons for twine. So that’s the origin of strings. And the translation was, ‘Here’s this live creature that has provided sustenance for your tribe. When you pluck the string, the voice and spirit of the animal live on in the presence of this bow.’ That’s the unifying loop. It’s a predominant theme of reverence and
symbiosis in every culture.” It’s that anthropological take that lets Eaton conjure the subtleties of each instrument. He’s known for creating incredibly innovative, almost otherworldly guitars, with unique shapes and tonal possibilities. There’s his koto harp guitar—a birch beauty he built back in the 70’s—with its 20 crossing strings, octave range and Asian sound. There’s also a newer creation, the double neck harp guitar, one of the world’s most sophisticated guitars. Complete with an onboard computer that memorizes positions for six step motors, it essentially gives Eaton the ability to play two guitars at once. “I can instantaneously change the modulation, the key signature or the tuning to get different chord voicings on the electric neck,” he says. “Then I can play synthesizer sample sounds or acoustic tones from the acoustic neck, which is outfitted with RMC midi piezo