Graduation season is upon us — from preschool to Ph.Ds, lots of people are moving to the next chapter of their lives. In honor of that, The Show is turning the mic over to some of the most interesting grads in the Valley — including those embarking on a mid-career shift.
Henry Nagle worked in construction for decades. He also played in bands. So when it came time to switch gears, guitar building made sense. Nagle will finish his six-month program at Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in June. The Show met up with him at the school’s headquarters on Grand Avenue.
I've been playing music guitar and pedal steel since I was a kid, since I was about 12. And I've been doing construction pretty much my whole adult life. Raised my daughter and got to a point where I started to get signs from my body that I wasn't gonna be able to keep doing heavy labor indefinitely. And I thought it might be a good time to make a choice while the choice is still mine to make, rather than wait until I have a back injury or something like that. And I was just, you know, weary. I didn't mind, residential construction and carpentry at all, but, you know, 25, 26 years, it's a long time. And I was ready to do something different and it occurred to me that what I really wanted to do was be able to work in a shop at home.
And I, I just, I kept getting this thought in my head like, oh, I can make birdhouses just as a generic idea of what a person can do in their shop at home. And I realized, well, I need to figure out what I can do at home that will make money. And for some reason, it, I really fought the, I resisted the idea of working on guitars, because I think because I didn't want to make the instrument that I enjoy playing into like a symbol of work and toil for me. But I really am interested in guitars and I'm interested in woodworking, and, and it made a lot of sense to go in that direction. So I made the decision about two years ago. And I realized I wasn't gonna be able to learn this trade after work and on weekends very well. It was gonna take me a long time. And I have other things I like to do in my life too. So, I saved up some money and my girlfriend was, she can work remotely and she was up for an adventure. So we're here in Arizona for at least, you know, six months or so.
I've made this decision to change careers, and there's a certain urgency attached to that for me because, so I want to make the absolute most that I can of this time. I mean, we have these great instructors here who have a lot of information to impart and that's a huge part of it, but almost a bigger part of it is just putting the time in. So I'm trying to use every moment of this time to do and learn and build and create.
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I did not expect to enjoy the social environment here so much. I think it was one of the first days that we were here that an instructor said he looked out at all of us and he said, you know, none of you were normal . None of you were normal people, and he was a 100% right. Everybody in there is very different and distinct from each other, but every one of them is an oddball in some way or the other. And I think it takes kind of a unique personality to make a decision to do such a niche thing in, a bit of a risky thing. It's especially a lot of these students are kids.
You know, one of my best friends in here is 18 years old. I'm almost 30 years older than her. And that's a lot to learn starting at that age, all the woodworking skills and how to measure things and how to deal with power tools. I have a little bit of a head start in that from the work that I've done in the past, which I'm really grateful for now.
I am a pretty good carpenter, pretty detail oriented carpenter, but we're about twice as accurate here as we were. As I, you know, in carpentry, out measure of the 16th or the 32nd. In here, we're working with thousands of an inch. So there's a new vernacular of numbers, which is fun. But seeing those numbers and aspiring to that level of perfection, I was actually a little nervous coming in that I wouldn't have the patience for it. And it turns out I do have the patience for it now. I'm wondering if I have the eyeballs for it. It's the first time in my life I've wondered if I should have bifocals trying to see all these tiny little things.
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