Meet Aaron Lucas | Aspiring Luthier and Wood Enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aaron Lucas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I am not sure it was a conscious decision. Our culture pushes very hard for us to fill every moment with attaining goals, typically related to attaining a status and or wealth. I believe the constant pushing really just pushes us into an unhealthy state riddled with mental and physical problems. I left a successful and stable career when I realized that, for a long time, I had not been happy or emotionally satisfied. But, I did not, however, have a plan. My future wife was in medical school and we had bills. The plan was for me to fall back on my large amount of contacts in the area, utilizing skills I had developed over my life time, but were strictly soul soothing hobbies, while I figured out what I would do to make a living. At some point I realized that being creative and using my natural artistic talents created an environment that nurtured an overall healthier/happier me. The fact that I could actually make a living at it was a bonus that kind of blew me away.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think that observing the natural cycles of nature and applying them to ourselves is amazingly helpful. The ability to learn, change and evolve ourselves to suit our overall goals can really make things easier. My goals/dreams now are not those of when I was 13, but the time in between, 30 years, have given me the tools and experience to better decide what the real accomplishment should be. I became a full time craft person to pay the bills, remembered how much I love creating, and ran with it. High volume production in a one man shop, large multi year commissions, hyper custom pieces and running a sawmill all gave me the foundation stones to focus my creative yearning a bit more. The entire time there were two constants, a drive to be challenged creatively and wood. I learned that high volume production stifles my artistic side, while hyper custom one offs mean a large variety of specialized tools/jigs that might collect dust. The sawmill opened my eyes to a side of the wood world previously unknown to me, giving me an entire new approach to timber and its potential, but was lacking in constant personal satisfaction. Then the idea of guitars hit me. It felt like my entire life’s bumpy, pot hole filled road had been pointing me to creating something that not only can be a piece of art but can create art itself. How cool is that!!!! By taking my life time of playing and loving music, passion for all things wood and my consistent nature of challenging myself, rolling them into one, Lutherie seemed like the fit that I had spent my life looking for.
It is a long road and I am not quite there yet, just making guitars, but I can sense it just around the corner. Additionally, after years of relying on whatever products I create to pay the bills, I am setting things up to to support itself in leaner times of the year by offering tone wood for sale when I have it available.
As I said in the beginning, learning from the past and rolling with it might just mean that one day, suddenly you realize you have been where you were trying to get to for some time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well I live outside of Charleston, SC and have 3 kids so my views might be skewed. Seek out the privately owned restaurants where ever you go, chains are chains are chains. Go find that tourist trap view that you have seen in movies and don’t feel embarrassed. Always find the botanical gardens and parks, take a stroll! My wife and I are trying to relearn how to stroll, kids make that tough. Find an art gallery or museum, get out of what makes you super comfortable and see what is out there. Try and learn something or gain a new perspective. Whatever it might be experience it, make the memories and tell the stories that you learn.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think that an initial idea is wondrous and unknown in its potential possibilities. That idea, if nurtured properly, can become all that we hoped it would. Understanding that it takes focus, determination, hard work and most importantly time, can cause many dreams to be left by the wayside, mainly do to the immense difficulty of actually getting there, from a small craft persons perspective, when facing global online, mass production markets. My wife is an incredible woman, loving, determined, focused and capable, as well as a bit less mentally lofty than me. Her foresight and ability to reign in my exuberant nature, while helping to guide my focus, is the biggest reason I am where I am today. Over a decade of shifting how I attain my goal, which really is a satisfying and thriving career while being able to express myself, has been difficult. Through out the shifts she has always been there supporting and encouraging with every step. She took a chance, a long time ago, believing in me and my dreams and I could not be more grateful. Running/starting a business is tough and when we take that chance having family, friends and industry professionals believe in you can be that little bit extra that helps to get you one step closer.

Website: Www.aaronlucasguitars.com

Instagram: Instagram.com/aaronlucasguitars

Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/aaronlucasguitars

Twitter: @ALGuitars

Facebook: Facebook.com/aaronlucasguitars

Youtube: Youtube.com/aaronlucasguitars

Image Credits
Aaron Lucas of Aaron Lucas Guitars