People ask me why I don’t just buy a CNC machine and let it do the work. Here’s why: a CNC doesn’t feel the wood.
Every piece of lumber is different. The grain runs a little different. There’s a knot where you didn’t expect one. The density shifts from one end to the other. A machine doesn’t care about any of that — it just follows the program.
My hands care. When I’m shaping a neck, I can feel where the wood wants to go. I know when to take off a little more and when to stop. That’s not something you program. That’s years of sawdust under your fingernails.
I’m not against technology. I use good tools. But the final decisions — the ones that make a guitar feel alive in your hands — those come from a person, not a program.
Every guitar I build has my fingerprints on it, literally and otherwise. That’s the point.