The car in the driveway of Steve Barkman’s Macandrew Bay house is a giveaway, with its ‘GTRMKR’ number plate.
Here in a well appointed shed the luthier creates custom guitars for a largely local market. Surrounded by wood and tools, various stringed instruments and books on the topic, he talks about Barkman Guitars.
‘‘Certainly you need good wood working skills,’’ Steve says. ‘‘Determination and discipline are pretty important. You need to be interested and always questioning what you’re doing. And have an engineer’s brain rather than a musician’s brain.’’
He first worked with wood as a child, helping his ‘‘absolute wood nut’’ father with boat building projects. But when he started working in automotive machining and fitting and turning Steve moved away from the material.
For as long as he can remember he’s worked on his own instruments, and in the 1970s began repairing them for other people. This gradually led to making his first guitar in 1989, now hanging up in his workshop.
‘‘Coming back to wood was pretty exciting for me,’’ Steve says. ‘‘I still get fired up with chunks of wood. It’s our only renewable resource; it’s wonderful stuff.’’
At first it was a hobby, but he pursued it fulltime when finding another job was difficult after being made redundant in 1998. Since then Steve has made over 200 stringed instruments, including guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles. All of them are unique.
‘‘I’ve never made two guitars the same,’’ he says ‘‘And I try not to copy instruments. I try not to build a Gibson or Martin copy, but their designs influence me, because they influence my clientele.’’
For custom orders, the first step is for Steve to sit down with the client. They’ll discuss various aspects, including how the instrument will be used; is it for performing on stage, or perhaps for recording in a home environment?
Among Steve’s current projects is a guitar for an Arrowtown client who he’s known for a long time.
‘‘He wants a guitar that is nice and easy to play and that doesn’t need a huge amount of volume,’’ he explains. ‘‘I recommended the cedar top to him because it’s really nice at a low volume, and has a lovely tone.’’
The lack of availability of some woods traditionally used by luthiers has made Barkman seek out alternatives. Among them are native woods, including kahikatia, Southland beech, puriri from Great Barrier Island, and recycled kauri.
‘‘It’s wonderful, but it’s so hard to get,’’ he says.
As well as the continuing joy of working with wood, it’s the people he creates beautiful instruments for that Steve most appreciates. Especially when he gets to see them performing.
‘‘It’s lovely hearing someone make them really sound great.’’ he says.
