I was born in Budapest in l944 and am American by naturalization. My family and I arrived in this country when I was fifteen. Besides Hungary and the U.S. I have lived in Austria, England, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Spain.

As a child I was a puttering, craftsy, nerdy kind of kid who played with clay and wood and made model airplanes. Moving around as much as we did, and being uprooted so often, I learned to be the source of my own stimulation and entertainment. I made my first guitar out of a cigar box when I was a Cub Scout, at about age eleven: it collapsed at first stringing. This was my start as a guitarmaker.