By Dexter Mullins
NBC News
As the radio plays softly in the background, a steady scraping sound emanates from the workshop in Rich Kelly’s guitar studio. Standing over a freshly cut guitar body held steady by a vice grip, Kelly has the slightest hint of a smile as he works over the century-old wood.
In just a few short hours the guitar body crafted from the now-defunct Chumley’s Pub in New York City will join a piece of wood from the famous Hotel Chelsea to become the neck of a guitar.
At Carmine Street Guitars, Rich Kelly, 62, builds custom guitars from the “bones of New York,” using reclaimed lumber from historic New York buildings like the old Lincoln Hotel once housed on Bowery Street.
The store is on the ground level of a small two-story unit – the landlady lives upstairs – and the building once served as a speakeasy during prohibition. Except for his 85-year-old mother who works at the front desk, Kelly works alone, methodically carving and sanding away at wood nearly double his age.
While the Chelsea and Lincoln (now Milford) hotels aren’t gone, they’ve seen significant renovation over the years and Chumley’s has been closed for several years for renovations that have slowly progressed. All this modernizing created an opportunity for Kelly to work with historic lumber.
“The first batch of this wood, I actually got from the filmmaker, Jim Jarmusch's loft,” Kelly said. “And a friend of mine, his neighbor, he had already been coming in a few times and asked me if I wanted the wood and I said sure why not.”
The wood can be badly damaged and heavily used when Kelly gets his hands on it. He turns old roof rafters and floor joints into unique musical instruments, only after he’s removed nails and smoothed down cracks and knots.
“People actually love keeping the knots in the guitar,” Kelly said. “It adds to the character and feel of the wood.”
The native New Yorker is a self-taught guitar maker who calls himself a “sort of good” musician. He’s made guitars for some pretty big music heavyweights; Lou Reed, GE Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Alan Woody and Bill Frisell to name a few.
As he works on a guitar for Steely Dan’s Walter Becker, the unmistakable smell of freshly cut wood fills the shop from front to back. Kelly always seems to have a thin layer of sawdust on him – but he said he doesn’t mind -- he’s always loved working with wood.
“I always say I slept in the wood chips for 20years before I actually could afford an apartment where I could have a separate shop and separate work place,” Kelly said. “So yeah it’s a passion of love, you really have to love it.”
He only makes three or four guitars each month, all by hand, and the waitlist tops a year. Vintage and custom guitar building can be very lucrative, with guitars going for well into the five-figure range for just one piece. One reason Kelly is in such high demand could be his significantly lower price point.
“When they [customers] buy one of my guitars made from vintage wood it has the same feel and sound as an old vintage guitar and they don't have to worry so much about it costing $20,000,” Kelly said. “Right now my guitars are running just under $2000.”
He said his habit of scavenging wood developed more out of practicality than anything else. As a young student studying sculpting, some materials were too expensive so Kelly got creative.
“I would go to Drew Hill State Park and get logs and carve them and that's kind of where it all started, finding materials that we're available that weren't something you had to purchase,” he said. “It's an economical way to build guitars.”
His portfolio of work is very diverse; a guitar made from wine corkscrews hangs on the wall, right below another shaped like a machine gun. Others resemble eagles and have colorful coats of paint.
Kelly has been in the guitar-making business since the 60s, but has only recently been working with reclaimed wood. A lot of the demand for reclaimed pieces comes from online, he says. That online community has helped to propel his reputation and generate steady clientele, both domestically and abroad. He’s shipped guitars as far away as Germany, Norway and England.
Kelly says he’s just happy to see the wood get a second life.
“I mean I'd much rather see the building stand but it’s nice to be able to re-use the wood and turn it into something that will last, outlive my lifetime so I look at it that way too, is that that's the reward.”
