Guitar Healer
Luthier takes holistic approach to fixing instruments
BY JORDAN MILLER
News Staff Reporter
"I found this arch top guitar at the Normal Park garage sale for ten bucks,'' Mickey Richard says excitedly, getting up out of his chair to open a black case that is resting on the wall behind him. "Want to see it?''
Richard, a certified luthier (guitar maker), musician, and self-titled holistic guitar healer, pulls a shiny, variegated wood guitar out of the case and holds it up. Two women at the next table make oohing sounds.
"That's an awesome guitar,'' one of them says
He holds the guitar out, showing all of the changes he's made to it. Richard says he put about 40 hours of work into restoring it.
"I feel that I don't want to use any more resources,'' he says. "I want to get old guitars and heal them.''
Richard, 54, of Ypsilanti Township, has made a business out of mending guitars and vintage amplifiers, both those that he finds and those that are brought to him. Holistic repair, he explains, means that he not only takes into consideration the technical specifications of a particular instrument, but also the person playing it and what type of music he or she is playing.
Steve Osburn, owner of Oz's Music in Ann Arbor, refers customers to Richard and employs him to tune and repair some of the instruments in his store. He explains one example of Richard's method:
"He usually thinks one step ahead of me. For instance, I tune my instruments different sometimes so children can pick them up and play them and sound good. He wants to know exactly the tuning I use so that he can prepare the instrument with the right specs.''
The holistic repair is in line with Richard's general philosophy of life, he says, to be aware of everything that he does.
"The breath that we take is charged with the energy of the universe and we should be mindful of what we take in and mindful of how we let that breath out,'' he says. "I apply that in my work, to be mindful of what I'm doing at each moment. ... I do work that means something to me.''
That mindfulness, according to some of his clients, is why Richard stands out at his job.
Dave Sharp, a professional musician and guitar teacher at the Ann Arbor Music Center, says Richard went above and beyond the norm, starting with personally picking up and dropping off the instrument.
"Most places you drop it off and pick it up, and you don't see the guy who works on it,'' he says. "He doesn't just change the strings and tune it for you. He really talks to you about it. ... He does a great job. He's really devoted to his work and it's a really good thing.''
Richard is a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, Ariz. He spent 25 years as a custom woodworker and furniture maker on the West Coast, and moved to Ypsilanti in 2002 from Washington. In 2003, he fell off a ladder and shattered his wrist.
"It was one of the best things that could have happened to me,'' he says. "It was a wake-up call. I wish it were a gentler wake-up call, but before that I guess I wasn't really listening.''
After his accident, Richard started working at Oz's Music and repairing instruments. In October 2006, he decided to strike out on his own as a full-time guitar healer. He currently works out of his home, and is an independent contractor for stores like Oz's Music and Dennis' Music in Depot Town, and also works independently for local musicians like George Bedard and Joe Summers.
"I love working on guitars,'' he says, "I don't get tired of it. People are either handing me a guitar or handing me money for fixing a guitar, and it's like, wow, what a great way to make a living.''
Jordan Miller can be reached at jmiller@annarbornews.com or 734-482-2263.
