By Linda M. Goodman

The word “luthier” grabbed my attention when a friend and I plotted our journey to visit Fred Casey, of C.F. Casey Guitars, along with various other artists on The Wave Tour two summers ago.  The next time we met, Fred, his wife, Kate Ferris, and their two black cats, Banshee and Fergus, welcomed us with open arms into their Winnipeg Beach home and workshop. Amongst the delicate scent of cut wood that pervaded, a distinct sense of harmony could also be detected. Here were two highly creative and accomplished artists, whose paths seemed destined to join.

With great respect and support of each other’s craft, this enterprising duo have been able to make beautiful music together, literally. Both are teachers and musicians who have taken their respective talents to new heights and in doing so, have found a way to bring joy and entertainment to anyone who chooses to tune in.

As a luthier, Fred has meticulously hand crafted over 170 stringed instruments including guitars, bouzouki (an Irish-adapted Greek invention), harps, ukuleles, bass guitars, dulcimers, plus eight of Fred’s original creation–the “dulcibosysen.”

The DSB, or “that thing,” as one droll friend refers to it, is a cross between a dulcimer, which normally rests in your lap, and other instruments; it is square in shape, and has 4 strings, one of which is doubled.

“It was a great success,” says Kate, a professional song-writer, musician, performer and story-teller, who immediately used it in her work and was able to tell “some good stories about how it came about.” Fred notes that it plays in one key only, “so you can’t really make a mistake, you can only have fun and learn. It’s a great instrument for instant results if you want to learn to play a tune right now,” said Fred, who also keeps busy repairing guitars out of his shop.

As she fulfills her work in the Artists in the Schools, and Learning Through the Arts programs, or when  performing an original song with her group, “Small Rooms - a Folk Trio” Kate, a multi-instrumentalist, will often play the custom guitar Fred presented to her as a wedding gift.

Music, unfortunately, was not taught in the schools Fred attended but he took lessons starting in Grade 12. “The first stringed instrument I made was an Appalachian Dulcimer from a craft book which a student bought,” said Casey. His four year hiatus in Mexico to learn classical guitar helped him to also become fluent in Spanish; Fred also speaks French. Private lessons, a master class in arch top building and an important full year spent with a guitar builder in San Diego, helped Casey, a long-term member of the Guild of American Luthiers, to refine his skills as a luthier. “Mexico, like all the good things in my life, fell into my lap,” explained Casey. That same sense of serendipity occurred again when, in July of last year, Fred was asked to write a review in English on a Spanish book about the tiple (TEE-play), a 5-stringed instrument much like a tenor ukulele. The culmination of his work was an invitation by author, José “Pepito” Reyes, for Fred and Kate to join the biennial Tiple Conference in Puerto Rico this past February.

Fred immediately began building two small travel guitars which would be the subject of the panel at which both he and Kate successfully presented.

“I love stringed instruments from other cultures,” explains Casey whose collection includes a pipa (four-stringed Chinese lute), and Ecuadorian charango, a guitarron (bass guitar), a vihuela (round back ukulele-style), a requinto (small melody guitar), and his latest acquisition, the Puerto Rican tiple, which he happily exchanged with Pepito for one of his own hand-crafted travelling guitars.

The craftsmanship of Casey’s work is impressive; the inlay work, meticulously picked out in bubinga and Oregon myrtle hard woods (his latest design is a perfectly executed miniature Canadian maple leaf), adds to the superior quality of his gracefully crafted designs.

What is remarkable about C.F. Casey’s custom instruments is that they are built one at a time, “with a lot of attention to the wood they’re made of, and how that wood works together as a unified aesthetic total, both auditorially and visually,” he explained. Casey, who understands how personal the sound of a guitar is to a serious musician, adds that, “if a customer is not happy with the finished instrument after taking time to try it out, they have the right to refuse the design.

“As an auditory person, my main focus is in creating an instrument that will sound good. I’ve seen plain instruments that have sounded magnificent. But, if an instrument doesn’t have the sound, it doesn’t matter how pretty it is, it’s just a decoration. I build my instruments to be played.”

Every once in a while something extraordinary presents itself, such as the time when a couple, whose family were from the “old country,” solicited Fred to repair their 7-string Russian guitar.

“It was very decorative and different, with all the keys on one side,” explained Casey, who felt honoured to bring the instrument back to its former glory. Working with the Guild he was able to draft up blueprints of the guitar which are posted on his workshop wall, a small reminder of the gratitude Fred feels for being able to work in a field for which he has such abiding passion.

Casey adds that each commission has it’s own distinct challenges. “It’s no small task to take someone’s dream, expressed in words that necessarily must be imprecise and vague and try to turn it into a reality,” says Casey who is nervous up until he “sees the smile creep across their face as they try their dream-made-real for the very first time.”

Fred is inspired by classical, jazz, Flamenco and Folk music. Manning a booth at the Winnipeg Folk Festival means he misses the main events, but private “jam sessions” and contacts have led to important commissions, such as the New York flamenco guitarist who was in search of a wide-neck steel string guitar.

Once, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Fred found himself saying to someone, ‘I don’t build guitars to sell them; I sell guitars so I can build more.’ When I stop and think about it, I realize it’s so true.”

If you pay close attention, you just might hear C.F. Casey’s strings resonating somewhere in Manitoba, throughout Canada and the United States...or in Australia, Germany, or even Norway. Listen!

For commission and shop rates, Fred Casey may be reached at
1-866-389-2024 or at;
www.cfcaseyguitars.com