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Arrest Of Third Teen Expected 
Today In Incident At Dallas School

By ALAN K. STOUT; Times Leader Staff Writer
 Wednesday, January 15, 1997 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1C 





PITTSTON -- Last July, prior to the Allman Brothers Band's concert at
Montage Mountain Performing Arts Center, Karl Kaminski of Larksville presented
Allen Woody with a gift: a specially designed, custom-made electric bass
guitar. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "He said `I knew it was gonna be nice, but this is crazy,' " says Kaminski
with a smile. "He used it for the encore on stage that night." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kaminski smiles, because he had built the instrument himself. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And although a custom-made mandolin for Bret Alexander of The Badlees is
also on his list of finished products, national recording artists aren't his
only patrons. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Kaminski can build an instrument for anyone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Exactly how you'd like it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Within the walls of his Pittston shop -- Karl's Guitar Works -- he's
crafted everything from custom-made guitars, to mandolins and basses and has
done restorations on all string instruments, including cellos, fiddles and
banjos. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "You say what you're looking for, and you get it," says Kaminski, 32,
sitting in his spacious shop while taking a break from his work. "Any kind of
wood, any kind of shape, any style of construction, any number of strings, any
inlay -- it's totally up to the musician to think of what they want and relay
it to me." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Average special orders begin at $800 and can go up to $15,000. Kaminski
uses high-grade woods, including European spruce, flamed maple and mahogany
and various rose woods. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Kaminski says he built his first guitar when he was a junior at the West
Side Vocational-Technical School, using wood from a discarded dresser drawer
as a foundation. After seeing a picture in magazine of '50s Gibson "Modern"
model, he decided he wanted one for himself. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I couldn't afford to buy it," he says, " and I wasn't going to ask my
parents for the money. ... I took the drawer fronts off of the dresser and
took them up to Tech (where he studied electrical occupations) and started
building a guitar. ... That's how it got started. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I've always been around wood and I've always been around music," he adds,
explaining that his father is both a musician and a carpenter. "I took some of
my dad's tools, asked a few questions of a few people, took measurements off
other guitars that I had and did it." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He says the first time he played the guitar he'd built remains a memorable
experience. "It was just a big adrenaline rush," he says. "It didn't look
professional, but it worked." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Later, when one of his guitars broke, he learned how to do repairs himself.
After a frustrating experience with a repair shop, he bought a guitar repair
book and began fixing equipment for friends and associates, slowly progressing
to more and more complex work. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Eventually, I thought `If I can do this, I can just build 'em,' " he says.
"I'd already made one. That's the point that I started making serious guitars
and making all of my own components." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In 1995, Kaminski opened his shop in Pittston and began building
instruments on a regular basis. Over the course of a year, he says he repairs
more than 100 instruments (at an average cost of $35, it's a lot more
affordable than a custom instrument) and receives about a dozen orders for
custom-made jobs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He says it takes about three months to hand-craft an instrument, but
because special parts must be ordered and electronics must sometimes be
specially manufactured, it takes about a year to complete one. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Kaminski says his goal is to eventually expand the business and hire
someone to do repairs while he focuses on custom-building. He's says he'd also
like to develop his own mail-order catalogue. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Most of his business, he says, comes from ads in music magazines and
word-of-mouth. And although he's in the shop from about 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
every day, he prefers advance appointments to discuss repairs or inquires on
custom jobs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Kaminski says the reaction of seeing musicians play their custom-made
instruments -- and simply working with wood -- are still what he likes best
about his work. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Someone can go into a music store and see a guitar they like in the rack,"
he says, "but it's not quite the same as going to pick up the guitar that was
made for you . &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It's the expression on the face of the musician when they're playing their
instrument for the first time. ... I love working with wood, and every wood
has its own character and its own grain and smell when your working with it
... but it's the overall satisfaction of seeing somebody play something that
they had made for them that I enjoy most." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER PHOTOS/LEWIS GEYER A custom made guitar built by Karl Kaminski
Karl Kaminski of `Karl's Guitar Works' sands the sides of a custom made
semi-acoustic bass guitar &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 11 Tunnel St., Pittston &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 655-7890; call in advance for an appointment to discuss repairs or custom
orders. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Made To Order Local Man Finds Expression And Satisfaction In The Creation Of His Custom-made Guitars And Other Stringed Musical Instruments