I grew up in far North West Queensland in the small mining town of Mt Isa.  My father had immigrated to Australia from Hungary after the war and married a nurse from the NSW country town of Gundagai.  After finishing school I completed an electrical apprenticeship at the mines and worked for the majority of the next three decades in trade related jobs.

My interest in the acoustic guitar began more than 30 years ago listening to friends jamming at parties. After a few failed attempts at learning to play on borrowed instruments I finally bought a used fender acoustic and learnt enough to strum along with some basic chords. Over the years my playing progressed steadily.

I owned a number of instruments (all acoustics) most of which were on the cheaper end of the price range . I would often visit music shops and sit for hours at times just noodling away on whatever was available at the time. I was always dissapointed that the guitars I really liked were way out of my price range. I reasoned that my playing ability could never justify the dollars I needed to outlay. I eventually did buy an all solid wood Cort (a nice guitar) but had been spoilt forever by the pure rich sounds of several Santa Cruz ,  Huss & Dalton , Martin  and Taylor instruments  that I  had played .

One  day late in 2005 the thought to build an acoustic guitar came to mind (divine inspiration I believe).  Woodworking was certainly not something I was accustomed to, however my father was a master improvisor  and a DIY guru. I discovered I had  similar talents, so I set my mind to read and research all I could on building guitars.  For my following birthday my wife bought me “A guitar makers manual” by Jim Williams.  In early 2007 I began construction on my first instrument. Nine months later and after some 300+ hours Szabadics #1 came to life.  Since then, I have continued to build instruments, always aspiring to improve on my previous work.

Craig Szabadics.