said. “If someone is going to spend the money on a custom guitar, I’m going to give them everything they want and more.” A custom guitar by Bowers starts at $1,000. In his former career in the freighting industry, Bowers often bought broken guitars off eBay, repaired them and flipped them for a profit. It was his family and this creative time that got him through the day-to-day drudgery of a nine-to-five. “I sat behind a desk. I punched numbers into a computer and I felt like I was dying,” Bowers said. “It just wasn’t fulfilling.”
Bowers in the basement of his home. At top, he holds the first acoustic guitar he made while attending Atlanta Guitar Works. Above, he talks to Boone, his loyal companion who often keeps the couch warm when Bowers is hard at work.
46 | www.newnancowetamag.com
everyone in the room was playing one of his hand-made instruments. “I thought, ‘Man, how cool is that?’ ” Bowers said. He’s not into mass production and insists on a quality, hand-made product. The selfproclaimed guitar nerd takes his time with each instrument to ensure his client is “wowed.” His first customer and friend, New Orleans musician Matthew Macloud, was exactly that when he was given his custom bass last year. He wanted a specific Z shape carved into the semi-hollow body of his bass guitar. Other luthiers said the Z hole couldn’t be done, but Bowers proved them wrong. “Not only did he do exactly what I wanted, but he impressed his whole school,” Macloud said. “I have bass guitars that I spent a lot of money on that I don’t even play anymore. I’m very happy with it.” Bowers’ shop is full of guitars in various stages of completion. It takes about a month to finish a custom guitar from woodwork to paint. Bowers starts by sketching a template for the guitar. Next, he cuts a slab of wood with a bandsaw into a curvaceous body and sands it smooth. After it’s clamped and glued, Bowers paints it with lacquer — which can take several weeks to dry. Also a musician, Bowers understands what musicians need, and part of the job is figuring out the tonal qualities a client wants from their instrument. Adjectives like “buttery” and “crunchy” take on new meaning in conversations with bassists and guitar players. “I spend a lot of time talking to people,” he
Last year, he and his wife talked it over one day during lunch, and she gave him her blessing to start Guitars Akimbo. He enrolled in school at Atlanta Guitar Works and finished the program last November. Since then he’s been marketing “like crazy,” often having to explain the meaning behind the name of his business. It’s derived from Stephen King’s “The Gunslinger,” a novel in which the main character, Roland Deschain, is always packing two pistols with his hands and arms at the ready to pull them from their holsters. During his sleeping-in-a-van-with-atraveling-band days, Bowers and a bandmate created a five-minute, instrumental guitar duel they dubbed “Guitars Akimbo.” The name stuck with Bowers. Bowers isn’t interested in being the next big boy guitar manufacturer. “That’s not really my bag,” he said. He is interested in working up to a storefront, though, for increased foot traffic, but all that “will come in good time,” he said. Until then, clients can get in touch with Bowers through his website at guitarsakimbo.com. And he’s optimistic about his career change, knowing that with hard work he’ll build a successful business. Quoting Henry David Thoreau, Bowers said, “ ‘Most men lead quiet lives of desperation.’ I’m not everybody. And while that may be great for them, I refuse to admit that’s it.” NCM