ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Illinois - When he isn't at work as a cost/price analyst at Army Contracting Command-Rock Island, Kent Loan's main interest is guitars. Whether he is playing, building, or donating them to local schools, he has a passion for the instrument.
Loan has played guitars since he was 13 and decided eight years ago that he wanted to have a guitar built to his specifications. After searching for someone to build a guitar for him, he only found two people in the Quad Cities area who build guitars and both had a half-year wait list. Instead of waiting, Loan read books on how to build guitars and consulted a luthier (an expert who builds and repairs stringed instruments) and set to work on building his first guitar.
"Matt Sellers from Music Mart is my master luthier," said Loan. "I build the guitars at the store and he's the expert behind me who tells me what to do. Of course, I don't make the parts, I'm assembling them, but I do a lot of the finishing work and everything it takes to make it play."
Armed with knowledge from the books and Sellers's guidance, Loan has built five Warmoth brand guitars. It costs between $800 and $1,500 to build each guitar and it takes about two weeks to build.
Of the five guitars, Loan has kept two for himself, and made one for his friend's son. He donated the other two -- one a real guitar, and the other a replica guitar -- to high schools in the Illinois Quad Cities area.
The replica guitar was donated to Alleman High School for its Heritage Ball benefit on March 28, and he recently donated a real guitar to Moline High School for its benefit this spring. He also donated a guitar that he did not build to Rock Island High School, and has donated custom guitar stands that he built to Moline and Alleman as well.
Loan said learning how to build guitars has been a long process and that some of them turn out better than others.
"I learned from my very first guitar that you should really start out with some cheaper parts and when you think you have it down, then go ahead and buy the nicer parts," said Loan. "I ran right into it, bought all of the expensive stuff and I made some errors. It is an expensive hobby, and I started off with an $800 mistake, but they got better after that."
His fourth guitar -- a "Blue Betty" -- is his favorite.
"It really is the nicest looking and the nicest sounding," said Loan. "It came out better than I thought I could do."
Loan said he has also learned it is cheaper to create a custom guitar by refurbishing an older one.
"My "Dr. Jess" is the last one that I did and it was a rebuild," said Loan. "Just like other people take an old car and fix it up, I took an old $70-to-$80 guitar that plays well, completely stripped it and rebuilt it with all new parts to get a good guitar that is a lot cheaper than going out and buying all new parts."
Loan said he loves the challenge of having an idea of what he wants the guitars to look and sound like upon completion, and making that happen.
"It is very addictive," said Loan. "One of the books that I read recommended that you get all of your affairs in order and make sure your relationships are sound because -- and I laughed when I read it, but it is true -- once you start building the guitars, you won't want to do anything else. Once I start, it completely consumes me."
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