Mule

Some people come to Mule for a tour, and some people come to Mule for a tour and bring us beer. We love all people equally, but some people we invite back....

One of the most awesome parts about being a maker is instant feedback.  When I sand a neck, it has scratches or it doesn't.  When the guitar is set up, it buzzes or it doesn't.  It's not arbitrary, someone else's judgement...

Owner-Makers lend your ears. This is a series of blog posts and stuff I screwed up and how I fixed it. Use as you wish. Simplify. When I got over the initial hump of, "How do I cut metal?" and then make a resonator from...

When you work, work. When you rest, rest. When you play, play. If any of these mix you end up just dinking around. Often times we find ourselves resting while at work. But for the majority of us our jobs are not as hard as...

I was on a road trip once and we were driving in and being followed by a nasty snowstorm. Do we stop to let it pass? How many days would that be? Would it be quicker to drive south to try and get out of it? Would we get stuck...

Yesterday I saw a video of Christopher Porterfield playing Away in A Manger on his Mule, his new baby sitting in his lap and his wife filming. Yesterday I also read an interview with a maker of stuff who used a lot of words...

Everyone wants authority. Taking responsibility is more important.  It's our gut reaction to walk into a meeting/work place/internet forum and want to be the one that everyone nods their heads to, but being the guy who says,...

The buzzword in business podcasts I listen to these days is "gratitude".  Big shot business guys, motivational speakers all want to show people the power of gratitude.  But listening to the last couple I hear a common theme -...

If you buy a Mule it was made by these three people. Me - on the left, my twin brother Phil, and the mighty Smithers. The metal resonator guitar has been done the same way since 1928. There was of course a 60 year hiatus...

Everything has a cost, right? Choosing one project means you are not doing another. Choosing to spend your time in one place means you're not spending it somewhere else.  If you aren't aware of the alternatives - the cost-...

If building guitars has 1,00 steps, probably 800 of them are in teh locating/setup. Smithers does them all, very well.   ...

The purpose of making an instrument is to be inspirational and transparent and a component of that is building what people expect.  A guitar should guide players to new songs while also getting out of the way.   A three...

One of the benefits of building resonators from the "make a living" sense is that the pool of competition is much smaller. The group of builders in the world doing metal bodied resonators is small indeed, I can count them on...

The most intense joy of making instruments-seeing someone use what you’ve made to do something you could never do yourself. Perhaps play something that would not have been had it not been for the combination of two people’s...

I coach JV football. Last night I put in a third string running back, his first game ever, and he scores on his first play....