Ben Gormly

California, United States

Where he started

Ben had never had woodworking experience before he decided to learn the craft, he was intrigued at how the mandolin was made and decided to try build one! He purchased a book with plans by Rodger Siminoff, and completed his first f-style mandolin in 2014.

Yes, it was definitely a steep learning curve - but of course that didn’t stop him, he was extremely taken with the process and became obsessed. He began to research things to do with woodworking in general, and building jigs to help with the process, and eventually found an excuse to build a guitar.

In 2019, he built his first Ukulele when he came across the most perfect piece of Cocobolo! It was too small for a guitar and at the time he had seen more and more people building ukuleles, one said “you’re basically just building a small classical guitar" and this was enough to twist his arm and go for it!

…I had never played, or even heard in person, any high end or luthier-made instruments.

Something important to Ben is that he’s never played, or even heard in person any high end or luthier-made instruments and this has given him total freedom to find his own voice, his sound. It took alot of pressure off.

He’s still navigating through, whilst he doesn’t have prior training he pulls inspirations from a multitude of people. He purchases and watches instructional videos on specific subjects. He enjoys that others are willing to challenge tradition, because it allows him to grow and design elements that would be unavailable. To name one, Ervin Simogyi has been one of his greatest influences.

“Being able to express myself artistically…”

“That’s a tough one, I’ve always been drawn to tasks that involve working with my hands. The process itself is extremely rewarding. Being able to express myself artistically in certain elements, yet having to maintain a structure, makes it balanced.

“If it sounds good, but uncomfortable to play.. then it won’t be played”

“Honestly, I’m not entirely convinced that one part of building is more crucial than any other. If it sounds good, but uncomfortable to play, it won’t be played. If it’s comfortable to play, but sounds bad, it won’t be played. If it has all of these, but doesn’t look good, it won’t be bought, therefore it won’t be played. The quality of materials chosen, be it the wood, tuners, fret materials, strings etc. can make huge effect on all of these, but without the process, it can be completely ineffective.”