W hen I made my trip to Vancouver Island this summer, Jill insisted that I visited a shop that she had been to earlier that day. There was an open artist studio tour. She said he made guitars. She was very excited about it, so I went. Little did I know that they would be Incredibly beautiful, delicately hand carved golden era archtop jazz guitars. Completely stunned, I played the Oval-hole for about 30 minutes before I realized Jeff was just standing there listening to it sing while he watched me play it. “Where did you get the neck?” I asked. “I made it.” he replied with honest curiosity. “But you didn’t make the bridge…” I assumed. “I made it ALL. tailpiece, Headstock, Pickguard…….I made it.” I was shocked. I look at him and said “Mr. Letain, there is a future for you in the guitar building industry. A very bright future.”
What I didn’t know was that Jeff had been releasing all manner of beautiful objects from blocks of wood in the very same shop I was standing in since 1980. Sculptures, beautiful tables, lamps, chandeliers, Sconces… all out of wood. He made his first guitar in 1995. “I have an art and woodworking background. For me guitar building is a natural progression of art and sculptural woodwork.”
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