Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Mackelburg.
Hi Alan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
So I took the scenic route through my education and career search. I’ve been playing music since elementary school, and picked up guitar when I was 13. Shortly into my adulthood I began making electric guitars for fun, taking advantage of a woodshop space where I was fortunate to be living. In 2018 I briefly worked for Taylor guitars, thinking I wanted to pursue guitar making as a career. At this time I also started to learn a lot about climate change and biodiversity loss, and suddenly I didn’t feel like working in the materials economy was all that important. I didn’t stop making guitars on my own but it took a backseat as I returned to my previous part-time hospitality management job to facilitate a return to college; through the SDCCD I transferred to SDSU for my four year degree in Sustainability. My parents were very supportive of this decision, and every day I think about my incredible privilege to have had opportunities to explore my interests and passions, and how many people are denied those opportunities by the same structures and through the same processes that perpetuate our ecological crises and so on. General systems literacy and holistic thinking are really central to the degree program I was in, and I learned so much about real solutions in those few years. It was also a lot of internal work; I learned a lot about what I’m good at, and what I’m not particularly good at. So really, I came back to music and guitar making with a completely new sense of purpose and motivation, because I really feel it’s the way I personally can do the most good and be my most authentic self. And I think art is maybe more important than ever.
So I design and build these guitars by hand, using – as much as possible – wood which is upcycled from San Diego’s and LA’s urban forests. Taylor does this too on some models, which was a big part of my inspiration here. Why cut down endangered tropical forests and such, sacrifice these absolute treasures of biodiversity and ancient wisdom, displacing indigenous communities, damaging our climate resilience, when a lot of our street trees provide beautiful, great lumber at the end of their lives, especially for electric guitars? These trees sometimes get cut down because of power lines, or they fall down etc. and typically just go to rot in a landfill which is a total waste, and drives further deforestation, patterns of exploitation, climate change, and so on. So to me this urban lumber movement is a really cool way to get people thinking about not just about supply chain ethics in the gear world or whatever, but also just about interconnection in general and the broader ways that we can think about our place in a world that we all share.
I’m very active as a professional musician these days, and I almost always play my own guitars, which people often ask about and then there’s a cool opportunity to build community, maybe get people curious about externalized costs and cyclical economics, or even just trees. Literally even if I just inspire someone to really think about the entire lifecycle of a tree for example, I feel like that’s significant. Plus then sometimes people order guitars, which supports me doing my art. So it’s been a really encouraging little self-perpetuating cycle.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think the biggest challenge is juggling these time commitments, or sometimes just figuring out where my energy is best invested. These things I’ve chosen to do take a lot of time and care and discipline. With guitar making, there’s been a lot of trial and error, there have been a lot of things that I sank tons of time and effort into and then deiced to completely redo, stuff like that. I try to hold myself to a really high standard, and sometimes that means being completely done with a neck for example, finish and all, and then being like “this sucks, I can do better”. But then if I redo it and nail it, that feels great. So it’s all growth, it’s part of the process.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So I’m really inspired by ecology and wildlife. I also just love wood, not just as a medium for art but also as art in itself. A tree tells a story in its wood, and part of the art of guitar making is just listening. Just like with music – and I would argue, with anything – listening is quite central. I hope to honor the tree by using the wood as thoughtfully as I can. To that end I also exclusively use clear finish. I appreciate a cool paint job as much as anyone but I really like having the visual connection to the wood, remembering that it was a life, and likely supported many lives. That inspires me and I hope it inspires anyone who plays my guitars.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I guess the general trend is toward more automation and consolidation. For my part I’m just counting on people continuing to want handmade guitars – again I consider myself more an artist than anything else. But art is also under attack in a lot of ways. And with all kinds of applications of AI now shaking things up as well, everything is moving really fast and it feels pretty destabilizing. But there’s a lot to be excited about too. The San Diego music community (at least what I know of it) is just incredibly special. A lot of really great people working to uplift one another and the scene as a whole. I do think that live music will endure – the intimacy and uniqueness of communication between a player and listener is something so profoundly human, I think a lot of us can’t live without it. It’s an essential service. Still, in large part, I think most kinds of artists have always struggled to support themselves as such, and it’s not obvious that this will change for the better absent a much more serious reevaluation of our economic system.
All I can do is try to be a healing force through art, in my community and beyond,
Pricing:
- Pricing varies based on build complexity and materials.
- Lower limit: around $1,300
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackelburg.wood/
Image Credits
Ben Carpintero, Robert Carver
