Intent is Everything to Luthier Dennis Lake: The Making of an Expert
By Shirley Stoffer
When I make an instrument,” luthier Dennis Lake says, “my intention is everything. If I know who I’m creating it for, they are in my head the entire time I’m making the instrument.”
Since his early 20s, literally thousands of stringed instruments have passed through Dennis’ hands, giving him that innate “feel” for what is needed to create a fine ‘ukulele or guitar.
“Anything I can do now is because of all the instruments I had in my hands and had apart when I was young. That’s all in my head somewhere,” Dennis says.
He calls it knowing “how the wood wants to be used.” Dennis is a fine luthier (one who makes or repairs stringed musical instruments), and he is also widely acknowledged to be one of America’s premier experts in fretted, stringed instruments.
Dennis’ experience in his field is awe-inspiring to those familiar with acoustic musical instruments. It would be very difficult to duplicate in today’s world the breadth of training he received.
“You really don’t get a chance to get exposure to instruments like that anymore,” Dennis says, “unless you happen to be working at one of the dozen or so major music stores in the country.”
Dennis’ musical journey began in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1960s when he developed an interest in traditional folk music. He started playing guitar at campus coffeehouses.
“Badly,” he says. “I became interested in stringed instruments and then gradually became aware of all the American fretted instruments from the 19th and 20th centuries; they were quite available in the ‘60s. I wasn’t really doing repairs yet. I would restore instruments and ‘make them work.’” He apprenticed at a violin maker’s shop for a short time, then took a job at Herb David’s Guitar Studio in Ann Arbor as a “shop kid.” He was 21.
The 1960s and ‘70s were very exciting, rich times for acoustic music, and Ann Arbor was a “cultural hub” of that period. Dennis was at the music equivalent of “ground zero” when some watershed moments took place in acoustic music. One significant event of that period was when Dennis opened a small folk music store with a couple of friends—the Ann Arbor Folklore Center.
“At that point, there were no real schools for learning how to do instrument repairs or any books about it to speak of,” he says. “You just sort of ‘worked it out.’ There was a network across the country: if you had trouble, you’d call up somebody, and they’d say, ‘Well, this is what I did.’ A LOT of old instruments passed through that store.”
The Ann Arbor Folklore Center was bought out by “some rich hippies from Detroit” who had the same business plan as Dennis and company, “but more money and ‘stuff,’” Dennis says dryly. After a short stint doing repairs for the new owners, Dennis and his cohorts decided to make instruments. “We settled on banjos,” he says, “because there really weren’t many people making them back then, in 1969.” Great Lakes Banjo Company acquired a cult following among players and collectors, with a presence still to be found on the internet.
Soon after the prestigious Martin Guitars company (C.F. Martin & Co.) acquired Vega banjos in 1970, the vice president of Martin “called up the [banjo] shop one day and asked if he could send some people up to see how we made banjos,” Dennis tells me, “which I thought was kind of silly! Here we were, this little shop…”
Dennis’ “little shop” was making ALL their own banjo parts, except for the tuning machines! Martin sent some people out, and shortly after that, Dennis was asked if he would consider doing warranty repairs for Martin Guitars.
“At that time, there were very, very few people doing repairs for them outside the factory,” he says. The fact that Martin Guitars trusted Dennis’ repair work enough to allow him to work on their guitars independently speaks volumes about his ability.
Another landmark event in acoustic music history for which Dennis was present was the inception of Elderly Instruments, which is “perhaps the world’s most well known music store for acoustic instruments.” Stan Werbin and his business partner Sharon McInturff had worked with Dennis in Ann Arbor before moving to Lansing in 1972 to start Elderly. Dennis worked for them on retainer, commuting to Lansing once a week to help Stan assess and restore old instruments.
Dennis continued to hone his instrument savvy by going to music festivals. He says,”There was no internet then, of course, so that’s how you found instruments: people were buying and trading instruments at the festivals. I moved to Tennessee for a year and did a lot of business with George Gruhn in Nashville.” Gruhn’s Guitars is “the” music store in Nashville, specializing in vintage guitars.
From 1977 through the mid-80s Dennis worked with fretted instruments at a music store in Birmingham, Michigan, buying and selling instruments and doing warranty repair work “for pretty much everybody: Martin, Gibson, Guild, Ovation, Fender,” he says. “Then I was hired as ‘a violin guy’ at a store north of Detroit, working on violins and managing their rental program, so I was back in the violin business, where I’d started.” Before long, Dennis opened his own violin shop, traveling twice a year on buying trips to Cremona, Italy—famous as the place where Antonio Stradivari made his instruments. Due to Dennis’ reputation, his store began attracting fine violins to be sold.
Dennis’ love for Hawaiian music was ignited in the mid-90s. “My first exposure to it was when a tour put on by Dancing Cat Records with Keola Beamer, Cyril Pahinui, and the late Ray Kane came through Ann Arbor.” Dennis took a vacation to Hawai‘i, wanting to see “where the music came from.” He visited Moloka‘i and Hawai‘i Island on his first trip. He says, “It was clear then that I wanted to move here: when I got off the plane on Moloka‘i, it just felt ‘right.’”
Dennis began making ‘ukulele in 1999, naming his line of ‘ukulele and guitars Pō Mahina. In the Hawaiian language Pō is night and Mahina is moon—literally a moon that shines at night—also used for full moon. It is also the title of a beautiful old song by Charles E. King which Dennis first heard in the ‘90s recorded by both Keola Beamer and Cyril Pahinui and was really taken with.
In 2001, Dennis saw a magazine ad for the first Aloha Music Camp, presented by the Beamer ‘ohana, which was to be held in Puna. Dennis signed up, and he and his wife Nancy also used the trip to travel around Hawai‘i Island to see where they might like to live. They settled in Nā‘ālehu, Ka‘ū in January of 2002. Nā‘ālehu’s relative dryness makes for a good environment for musical instruments, and Dennis and Nancy both loved the “real community” feel of the area.
Pō Mahina ‘ukulele and guitars are hand-crafted one at a time at Dennis’ shop in Nā‘ālehu.
“I do a lot of different body shapes and sizes, depending on what I’m trying to accomplish with the sound,” Dennis says. As an example, Dennis makes nine different guitar sizes, all geared toward slack key and fingerstyle playing. Although he can and does do “fancy” inlays, Dennis’ focus is on creating wonderful-sounding instruments. “I hope they’re attractive,” he says, “but I’m not interested in making instruments for someone to put in a display case. I know some of my instruments end up in one, and that’s fine, but it’s not what I’m hoping for.”
Dennis’ instruments are owned by some of Hawai‘i’s most talented performers. He is especially gratified to have worked closely with the late Hawaiian cultural icon, Aunty Nona Beamer, in designing an ‘ukulele. “She was very particular about what she wanted,” he says. Copies of her instrument, made entirely from Hawaiian wood, are available to the public. “She was a wonderful person and teacher,” Dennis reminisces. “Once when I was looking for her at Aloha Music Camp, someone told me, ‘listen to where the laughter’s coming from, and go there.’”
Aunty Nona’s son, slack key guitar master Keola, was so pleased with the double-hole ‘ukulele that he and Dennis collaborated on, that the labels for Pō Mahina’s Keola Beamer Artist ‘Ukulele carry his signature. Dennis has made other instruments for Keola, including a koa guitar. Pō Mahina features an Artist line of Keola Beamer double-hole guitars.
Other top musicians who play Dennis’ instruments are Jeff Peterson, Owana Salazar, John Keawe, Keoki Kahumoku, Robyn Kneubuhl, Kaliko Beamer-Trapp, Chris Yeaton and Mark Nelson, among others. Dennis also made a custom ‘ukulele for the late singing legend, Buddy Fo. Abigail Kawānanakoa, great-grandniece of King David Kalākaua and Queen Kapi‘olani, purchased one of Dennis’ ‘ukulele at his booth at the by-invitation-only Merrie Monarch Hula Festival Crafts Fair in 2005.
Since the first Aloha Music Camp held on Moloka‘i in 2004, Dennis has been teaching ‘Ukulele Building as part of that camp. It is a one-of-a-kind workshop he’s developed in which campers are rewarded with their own handmade uke at the end of the week. They do almost all the work on their ‘ukulele themselves, under Dennis’ watchful eye.
Hawai‘i Island is fortunate to have many talented ‘ukulele and guitar makers in residence. It is doubly blessed, however, to be the home of a luthier with the background and knowledge of Dennis Lake. ❖
Dennis can be found most Fridays doing repairs, including Martin and Taylor warranty work, at Hilo Guitars and Ukuleles.
Contact Dennis Lake: 808.929.9591, dennislake@pomahina.com
Pō Mahina ‘Ukulele & Guitars: PoMahina.com
Hilo Guitars and Ukuleles: 808.935.4282
Contact writer Shirley Stoffer: shirley@konaweb.com
