Lewistown luthier caters to some of America's hottest musicians

LEWISTOWN (AP) -- So where does a rising star like Isaac Brock, frontman for Grammy-nominated indie band Modest Mouse, buy a guitar?

Seattle? Chicago? L.A.?

Try Lewistown.

In a modest workshop on Main Street, Lewistown native Brian Wicks is building and repairing instruments for some of the hottest musicians on the indie band scene, including Brock and Modest Mouse bass player Eric Judy.

His journey from musician to artisan is one marked by experimentation, perseverance, a freak accident that cost him a digit, and, above all, a quest for the perfect sound.

Crafted from exotic tropical hardwoods Wicks' electric guitars have been heard on Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central and the Late Show with David Letterman.

A Wicks Custom Electric sells for roughly $3,500, more with custom inlays. Wicks, who spends days, even weeks crafting each instrument, says he doesn't cringe as he watches his creations take some rock star abuse on stage.

''It's a compliment to see a few chips in a guitar I've built if it's being played,'' says Wicks, who tailors each instrument to its musician.

''For Isaac I wanted to build a guitar that was really super-strong because he's a punker and I figured he needed a guitar he could really throw around,'' said Wicks, who is currently working on three guitars for Brock.

As one of Montana's most respected luthiers -- or guitar makers -- Wicks' work is in high demand.

Hansen Music in Billings sends all of its difficult repair jobs to Wicks, 36.

''It's the best guitar repair work that we've ever seen,'' said Cory O'Brien, Hansen's sheet music manager. In particular, he admires Wicks' ability to repair and rebuild fret boards -- the fingerboard on the neck of a guitar.

It's precision work, with no room for error.

''It takes a master's touch to do it like he does,'' O'Brien said.

Wicks' location in the heart of Montana is no obstacle for out-of-state musicians who treasure his work.

On his to-do list on a recent afternoon was a $3,600 Gibson mailed to him from a San Diego rocker who wanted a customized fret job and volume set up.

In the music world, it's all word-of-mouth, says Wicks, who left Lewistown at 19 to play guitar in Portland's indie band scene.

Wicks joined his first garage band, Sergeant Rock, in sixth grade.

His parents ''just kind of laughed,'' he said. ''I don't think they thought I'd do it for very long.''

In eighth grade he built a guitar from a kit, which he spent the next five years retrofitting over and over again, learning the basics of fret work, painting and finishing and electrical work.

Growing up in rural Montana, he was able to play in bar bands, learning guitar licks from older musicians.

At 19, he struck out for Portland, living hand-to-mouth, floating from band to band.

He was flipping through a magazine one day when he saw an ad in a music magazine for the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, Ariz.

Soon he was in the desert, learning the tools and techniques of the trade in the five-month course.

After class, he would hit the public library and take luthier books to the nearby Papago Park, where he would scramble up to the mouth of a cool desert cave to read.

''I checked out and read every book on string instrument building,'' said Wicks, relaxing in his workshop, the walls adorned with guitars and indie band posters.

He eventually returned to Portland to work for a company called Nova Diversified making tongue drums, marimbas, Native American flutes and other wood instruments.

Though he yearned to build his own guitar designs, Wicks developed his talent at Nova, working with rare hardwoods and making connections with the suppliers who shipped them into the port city.

But for all he learned there, he paid a price.

Wicks, who had just turned 25, was pushing a piece of wood along a shaper table one day when it slipped.

His left hand plunged into the blade.

Doctors reattached his nearly severed thumb, but his index finger was too shredded.

''I went home with a cast on my hand and just started playing guitar the same day,'' said Wicks, who now plays with the Electric River Blues Band in Billings.

''It just blows me away that he's missing that finger,'' said O'Brien, who is a fan of Wicks' music as well as his guitars.

After the accident, Wicks moved to Seattle, where he went to work at the Trading Musician in the University District, repairing and selling guitars. He converted a tiny, rented garage into a workshop, building guitars and his reputation.

''I knew that I could be in Seattle forever doing that and make a living,'' Wicks said.

But after seven years there, in 2002, he moved home to Lewistown.

''I just really started to miss the blue sky to be honest and my parents,'' he said. His dad, Charles, is a pharmacist and his mom, Carole, a counselor.

Four years later, his business is steadily growing.

''It's surprising how well it's doing for such a niche little thing like this,'' said Wicks, who looks fresh off the streets of Seattle in a flannel, jeans and work boots. ''I'm not starving so I'm pretty impressed.''

Roughly half of his time is devoted to building guitars and half to repairs.

His guitars are more about maximizing the look and the sound of the instrument than glamour. They're more about showing off the natural grain of the wood than shiny blue lacquer.

Too much finish will inhibit the movement of the wood, especially on acoustic guitars, Wicks says.

''That's a big part of my deal is trying to make it look as natural as possible without looking too hippie dippy.''

He faces the guitars with book-matched exotic wood selected according to the tone the musician wants.

The backs are Honduran mahogany and the necks are an eastern hard maple, usually bird's eye.

For fret wood, Wicks uses Pau Ferro, a Bolivian rosewood that is unaffected by temperature and humidity.

The inlay around the output jack is of Purple Heart wood. Most luthiers use a prefabricated metal part for the jack.

''When you play a guitar that has been built by (Wicks) like that they sound warmer and they feel warmer,'' O'Brien said. ''They feel more real than a production model.''

O'Brien particularly admires the intricate vine and flower inlays on Wicks' fret boards.

''He's got a real artistic bent to him. His electrics are just gorgeous from top to bottom,'' O'Brien said. ''He doesn't leave any detail undone.''