The first resonator I ever saw in person was an all koa dobro made by John Reuter, Director of training at the Roberto Venn School of Luthiery.  23 years later, this all koa Mule is for him. Attending RV is one of my favorite life experiences and in the cast of characters that run the school John is the “football coach.” John is known for his tough love, his memorable sayings like “it’s a beautiful thing”, and for having an absolutely badass stash of wood. 

I’m thankful for his tough love - for the time I thought the job I had done “driving the bus” was good enough after I had spent hours trying to get it right. I asked him to check it- and he threw his cigarette in the dirt and walked inside without saying a word. Or the time I hadn’t clamped up something to glue correctly and he called the whole class to my bench to show them it was wrong.  How you did things mattered and this was the most important lesson he could teach us. 

I went back to the school about 12 years later to give a lecture to the class. All of my old instructors are still teaching there. I was in the office and showed John a steel tricone I had made. He played it, and while it was looking it over I felt like I was 18 years old again - the long haired version of me, the version of me who had his apartment in the desert with an air mattress and milk crate furniture courtesy of the Dairy Queen dumpster. John looked at me and said, “It’s a beautiful thing.”

I’ve never been prouder. This one’s for him.