Frank Finocchio teaches novices to make beautiful guitars in a little workshop in Northeast Pennsylvania. Finocchio’s involvement with musical instruments began when he was 8 years old; one day his father placed a full accordion on his lap and told him to learn to play it. He did. As a young man in the Coast Guard, Finocchio spent hours in the ship’s machine shop learning to use the machine tools. He then worked as a machinist at a compressor manufacturing company, and in 1989 was hired by Martin Guitar Company to work at the Saw Mill purchasing wood for high-end furniture makers. Soon Frank was consulting for Martin on the purchase of exotic woods for instruments and Woodworkers Dream (an outlet for wood workers).

In 1996, Frank moved to the Main Plant of Martin as a process engineer and there Frank developed many new processes for the work force and the product. Lastly, Frank developed and patented a process for the making of the Martin DX guitar, which included new tools, new processes and new types of molds. The DX guitars were a huge success. In 1998, Frank left Martin to begin teaching guitar making on his own and making custom guitars and mandolins.