About me and how I got started building guitars.

My name is Andy and I grew up in the small city of St. Albert, AB, just outside of Edmonton. My obsession with the electric guitar began in 1984, when I purchased the Judas Priest LP Defenders of the Faith. Pulling out the album and seeing Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing on the album sleeve with their guitars (Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Flying V), blew me away. I knew that I must own one of these noise making devices (and I thought the hair was pretty cool too!)

That summer, while on vacation in England with my family, I purchased my first electric guitar from Dawson's music in Stockport. It was a second hand Aria Pro II and I just loved it!!!

Over the next few years I spent many an hour playing that guitar trying to master it like my heavy metal hero's had. But, it was not to be, I never really excelled beyond an average player. But that did not stop my love affair with the instrument.

In 1987 I purchased a Kahler tremolo to install onto my Aria Pro II, I took to the best luthier in the city, Dale Cameron of Cameron Guitars. He installed it (very well I might add) but to me it just did not feel right. Instead of taking it back to Dale, I thought I would let my guitar instructor adjust it; after all, he was a great guitarist. Well, I learned that just because you can play, does not mean you know anything about the workings of the guitar. He messed it up REAL BAD. Then, I took a crack at it, the guitar was completely un-playable after that.

I took it back to Dale and explained to him what happened (yeah, I came clean) He fixed the setup and had the trem playing exactly how I wanted it, and did not charge me a cent for the extra time he put into it. Then he did something that changed my life, he wrote me a two and a half page letter EXPLAINING to me why I should not let unqualified people mess with my guitar and to leave these things to the professionals. I'm sure I have read that letter (which I still have) over 500 times. That letter was the catalyst that started me down the path of guitar building.

In 1988, I built my first electric guitar in grade 12 shop class. I learned a lot from that guitar, like the wrong way to route just about everything. All of the cavities had stepped walls as I had no idea what a template router bit was (and I doubt our school workshop had them anyway). My neck cavity was loose and I had to shim it up (don't worry, that does not happen anymore), but all in all, a pretty good playing and sounding guitar, in fact, I still have the guitar today, although not quite in its original condition, and with a very different logo design than we are using today.

Over the years I have built many different guitars, some of which I still own, but I never really thought of it as anything more than a hobby.

As I hit my early twenties I wanted to start a career in the music industry and took classes on recording engineering at Grant MacEwan college before heading off to Vancouver to attend the Trebas Institute of recording arts. I was excelling in my chosen field and loved working in the studio, but something was not right. Then, one morning I woke up and said I don't want to do this anymore. And I haven't done it since. Even to this day I don't know what happened to that spark. I tried to get the feeling back by working at Axe Music in Edmonton, but it was not meant to be. At least I still enjoyed building guitars

Still bucking my true passion I went to school for computers in 1997 and worked in the computer industry for many years and hated it, I was very good at what I did, but I just HATED IT.

Then, in 2004 my wife took a job working in Banff, Alberta while I stayed behind in Edmonton, working as a computer analyst with the City of Edmonton.

Banff is a beautiful little town in the Rocky Mountains and unless you have been there, there is no way to describe it. We finally decided to relocate to the mountains full time in 2005. That's when I decided to leave my job and start APS Custom. I finally have the career I have always wanted, building the guitars I've always wanted, I just wish I would have followed this path a long time ago Oh well I LIVE IN THE MOUNTAINS NOWBAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I live in the Rocky mountains, building rock guitars My life ROCKS