Steve Helgeson has a long history of craftsmanship with his moonstone guitars. The man who pioneered the use of quilted maple in luthiery and supplied esteemed players such as j.J. Cale chose long ago not to go the production route. Instead, Steve has focused on constructing the finest handcrafted instruments from top quality materials, combined with dazzling inlay work. Moonstone provides players with a wide range of selections in acoustic and electric instruments including many baritone scales.
SH: It was back in the 70s, I decided I wanted to build an acoustic bass so I could jam with a bunch of people. There were like fifty guitar players out in the(Yosemite) meadow, but no acoustic bass players. I could pick up chicks; what else? So I built an acoustic bass. It was kind of crummy but it worked. Then I build a six-string cutaway where I milled all the wood at the(College of the Redwoods) woodshop there and bent the sides around a hot stove pipe where I was living in Ferndale at the time. I didn’t have a mold, so it was asymmetrical. But it wasn’t half bad. I was self-taught.
GC: Would you say that there was a community you were involved with that motivated you in those early years?
SH: No, my woodshop teacher didn’t even know what rosewood was. I was just kind of winging it. I bought a book called Guitar Construction by Erving Sloan, showed how to make classical guitars. I moved up to Moonstone Heights, right on the coast. Up in the woods, I lived in an old Silverstreak trailer by a off-set saw shingle mill. I rented that place and built my first ten acoustics up there. It was kind of in the commune scene. I had a lot of hippie-type friends living in the woods. I had a friend who lived in a Redwood stump.
GC: According to your bio, you pioneered the use of certain kinds of woods indigenous to the pacific coast. What made you break from the norms of the time and move and take new directions with your materials?
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