Post a picture of the machine you run for a living

[DFW]

25. He did have the Japanese thing in the seventies

All of mine are made by Božo himself. I have six 12 string guitars he has made for me (all different, either wood, neck length, cutaway, no two are identical) and two six strings.

I first sought him out when I was 25 and new at my job. I was handling mostly domestic stuff then, and on my first working trip out to Southern California, I rented a car on my day off and drove down to Escondido to find his studio. I bought two guitars and ordered a third one. I speak very little Serbian, but he was so blown away to find ANY non-Serbian who spoke any of the language at all that we became friends. Over the years, I have visited with him a couple of times, and we usually still speak on the phone once a year. The pair of guitars in the pic are a custom-made matching pair with my initials inlaid on the fretboard, and a dedication to me on the label on the inside. I have had him make some instruments for me that he hasn't made for anyone else. He has retired I don't know how many times. His health isn't the best, due to all the wood dust and chemicals he has been inhaling all this time. His English still sucks, even after all these years in the States. We still joke about that. He never swears, just says, "gosh, you know, my English, it still not good."

No kidding it's not good. But his instruments are amazing. And he STILL never learned to play the guitar. He's a violin maker by training. He's also 100% artist and 0% businessman. He should be rich, but he's poor as a church mouse, and now well into his eighties. When I first met him, I asked him how much he would charge me to make me a new 12 string to my specifications. He said $2800 (this was 1977, don't forget), and it would take 9 months. I asked, out of curiosity, how much the materials cost him to make one of his masterpieces. He said about $2000. I said, "but Božo, you can't make these things for $100 a month!!" He was just worried that people wouldn't pay more. I told him he was nuts. Finally, some 20 years later, after retiring for maybe the fifth time, people started throwing money at him to make "just one more guitar." Against his physician's advice, he started again, and this time started at $10,000 for friends and up to $30,000 for the really fancy ones. He FINALLY figured it out. But he never made many at those levels, so he'll probably fade away in poverty--one of the true master guitar builders of the 20th century.