Technical Thinking By Mark Jones
The most interesting man in the world? Doug Irwin’s death was in the news recently, as was the $11.56 million paid for a guitar he made. I’d never heard of Doug Irwin, who was Jerry Garcia’s luthier. I’ve heard of Jerry Garcia and Tiger, one of his iconic guitars. I’ve only met one luthier in my life: Springsteen’s luthier. When I walked into Phil Petillo’s shop, in the basement of his New Jersey home, I was immediately in awe. As I left after that first visit, I was thinking, “Phil is the most interesting man in the world.” Dos Equis was running its iconic ad campaign at the time, with lines like “he once parallel parked a train” and other quips leading up to, “he is the most interesting man in the world.” The campaign was recently resurrected. That resurrection brought Phil to mind. Phil’s shop was semi-curated chaos. A well-illuminated workbench sat near a window. More dimly lit areas contained a number of instruments in various stages of construction or repair. On one of my visits, he was repairing a Stradivarius for a museum, the Smithsonian, if my memory is correct.
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Stradivarius and Springsteen are connected through Phil, part of what made Phil the most interesting man in the world. There is more. At the entrance to the shop were three distinct areas with pictures and patents on the wall and binders in front. On the wall hung a gift from Bruce, the platinum Darkness on the Edge of Town. The book below contained pictures of many famous artists: Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, and more. Not Jerry Garcia. There were also musical instrument patents. Petillo invented a new fret shape, pointed and made with special alloys. Springsteen was a tester, 60 or 70 different alloys, each fret handmade until they selected a proprietary stainless-steel alloy. Other guitar and instrument patents decorated that area of the entrance. Adjacent were the medical device patents. Lots of drawings for devices associated with delivery of stents and clamps. Phil collaborated with physicians
to make surgical interventions and equipment. The third area was fuel cell patents. It was fuel cells that brought me to New Jersey. Phil worked with Millenium Cell, developer of a proprietary process using sodium borohydride to produce hydrogen on demand. Sodium borohydride is a chemical reducing agent that can serve as a chemical means to store hydrogen. Sodium borohydride reacts with water to release the hydrogen. In the technology Phil developed, a borohydride solution was passed through a proprietary catalyst to give a controlled release of hydrogen. That hydrogen went to a PEM fuel cell. Phil was instrumental at making a drivable, working car. He holds many patents on hydrogen generation. Petillo held an Industrial Engineering degree from Columbia, a master's from LaSalle, and eventually a doctorate in engineering technology, also from LaSalle. He held 30 U.S. patents. In 2010, at the far-too-young age of 64, Phil Petillo died. Springsteen paid Petillo $185 in 1973 for a Fender guitar made from a Telecaster body and Esquire neck. Petillo modified it over the years. It toured the world before being retired in 2005. Decades of intense, sweat-soaked, and physically demanding performances took their toll. It appeared on multiple album covers and was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll.” The guitar slung over Springsteen’s back on the Born to Run cover and tour poster — that’s the $185 guitar. It is every bit as, if not more, famous than Tiger. Phil may never have parallel parked a train, but he deserves the title of most interesting man in the world. His craftsmanship, engineering excellence, and creativity were truly one-of-a-kind. The market may someday value the mutt guitar Phil sold Springsteen. It will be a letdown for me, putting a price on something that is truly priceless. DW
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