Focus on Entrepreneurship

Strumming up business

Guitar maker seeks marketing avenue for unique instrument
 

By KRISTI ALBERTSON
Flathead Business Journal

For years, no guitar Daniel Talago owned was quite right.
The problem with his first guitar, an inexpensive plastic instrument, was the look. Talago painted cutaways on it to make it look cooler, and painted knobs on the body to make it look like an electric guitar.
It set the pattern for his life.
"The very first guitar I had, I butchered," he said. "I don't know how many guitars I've ruined."
He modified nearly every guitar he owned, always in search of just the right sound. Despite his constant modifications, Talago, 52, never managed to find what he was looking for.
Then, in the early '80s, he had an epiphany.
"Instead of buying something and souping it up, let's just start from scratch," Talago decided.
That decision led him and a buddy from Whitefish, Kevin Witbrod, to build a new electric guitar. In 1984 they created their first prototype. The original is long gone, but Talago still has the second incarnation of that guitar in his Creston-area living room.
Several other guitars are on stands next to it, including the instrument based on the 1984 creation: the No. 3 Boiler.
With it, Talago has finally managed to achieve the ineffable quality he's sought his whole life. Now he hopes other musicians will find the Boiler as incredible as he does.
The name comes from the arched resonant plate on the face of the body.
"It looked like a boiler [plate] on the front of trains," Talago said.
That plate is what makes the No. 3 Boiler unique. It is made of carbon fiber, which synthesizes the top and ensures the guitar always sounds the same, Talago said.
"I suppose I could synthesize it out of wood, but wood is thicker," he said. "And no two pieces of wood sound the same."


Working with carbon fiber allows him to have "much more control over the end product," he said.
The carbon fiber resonant plate is covered by a sapele veneer. The wood is a strain of African mahogany, Talago said, and it allows for the guitar's low range.
That sets the Boiler apart from many other guitars. Talago compared it to the Fender Telecaster, an electric guitar with an ash body and maple neck. Those woods made the guitar popular for country musicians, Talago said -- they created almost no bass.
With the sapele body and maple neck, the Boiler has a full tonal range, from low to high frequency, Talago explained.
"If you want that Nashville twang, you'll have a hard time getting it out of this guitar," he said.

The search for the right sound is what has driven Talago to tinker with guitars for most of his life.
He recalled a guitar he'd played in local bars in the early '80s as part of Holy Smoke, "the world's worst band," Talago said. "We made Spinal Tap look like Yes."
The guitar he played then had an aluminum neck that expanded whenever the bars got warm, so Talago was constantly retuning. He ended up destroying the body and building a new one. The old aluminum neck now hangs on the wall in his living room.
After the band broke up in 1983, Talago and Witbrod created the original Boiler prototype. At the time he was building fiberglass shower stalls and knew about carbon fiber.
People seemed to like the 1984 instrument, he said.
"The original I would loan to people and have to fight to get it back," he said.
Then, about 10 years ago, Talago set a new goal.
"I really started moving toward building a full-on acoustic guitar, a jazz archtop," he said.
He hit a snag when he lost the middle and ring fingers on his left hand to a saw in the shop where he worked at the time.
The accident hindered his ability to play. The left-handed acoustic guitar he bought the year after the accident has barely been touched; the original strings are still on it.
"I can't embrace it," Talago said.

One unexpected benefit came from the accident: Talago received a workman's compensation settlement. He put some of the money toward building the Boiler and paid a digital mill in Missoula to create carbon fiber forms and guitar parts for him.
Now he has two finished prototypes, both with some defects. Even with a few flaws, however, Talago is certain he has built an "awesome instrument." It weighs in at 5.75 pounds and is well-balanced; ergonomics were second only to sound when Talago designed the instrument.
But he has reached a stalemate. He lost his woodworking job two months ago and lacks a facility to build the guitars. He also needs help with sales and marketing.
"I'll do the handwork, but I need an investor," he said. At the moment, "even if I sold one, I couldn't built it. I have no access to a shop."
When he does build his next guitar -- the No. 4 Boiler VIT (variable impedance top) -- it will be for sale, he said.
He said he will be able to tailor that guitar to the owner's specific needs. Talago estimates the guitar will sell for around $3,500.
"It's definitely high-end for an electric," he said.
But for that price, the buyer will get a unique instrument. As far as Talago knows, no one else in the world is making guitars like this.
"I'm trying to be a bit of a pioneer here. If I was going to duplicate someone else's work, I'd work in a cabinet shop."
Few people have come up with guitar design innovations in modern times, he said. Even one of today's most in-demand guitar makers is really just duplicating a Gibson design from the 1950s, Talago said.
"It's the same girl, different dress, basically," he said.
For additional information about Talago's unique guitar, contact him at talagogtr@hotmail.com.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com