Guitar-making on local chef’s menu | Local News

Fidler grew up locally and attended Brooks Institute of Photography in California. When he returned to this area, he played music in local bands while beginning his career as a chef.

He began as a chef about 15 years ago at the Garryowen Irish Pub in Gettysburg. He built on that experience by operating his restaurant, Fidler & Co. Craft Kitchen, in Biglerville, for four years, until 2018. Next came a stint at GearHouse Brewing Company in Chambersburg. During the pandemic, he opened Mela Kitchen at Jack’s Hard Cider at the Outlet Shoppes at Gettysburg.

But, over the long term, nobody can maintain a chef’s physically punishing work week of 60 to 70 hours, Fidler said. Accordingly, he began to seek new options.

For several years, Fidler had been enjoying woodworking as a hobby, and had begun to build items for others, including cupboards and cabinets. He created tables for the new Sign of the Buck restaurant in downtown Gettysburg.

After people said “if you can make furniture like you make your food, I’m going to like it,” Fidler had the idea of opening a collective space that woodworkers could share. The result is The Joinery, a light-filled space full of machinery and planks of wood nestled deep inside the warehouse.

“As my woodworking skills progressed, I realized I knew everything I needed to build a guitar,” Fidler said. “I’d been playing guitar for so long, it just kind of made sense to go that direction.”

Fidler soon had built an instrument for a friend, and then about a dozen more, of which he sold a good number.

From that success, his Bear Mtn. Guitarworks was born, named after the rugged heights near Aspers where he lives with his family. He and his friend Aaron Baker also record music as Bear Mtn. Band.

“If you’re a creative person, the medium you create in isn’t the most important thing, it’s that drive,” he said.

Once a craftsperson makes “the transition to another medium’s requirements, you can get pretty far pretty fast,” Fidler said. It helps when both the old and new disciplines include the satisfaction of “being able to work with your hands every day.”

“Whether it’s a plate of food or a guitar, to me it’s the same process” of meticulously assembling ingredients, although instrument-building requires more time than “producing food to be immediately consumed,” he said.

But there is one important difference. Because woodworking is much more solitary, Fidler said he hopes to retain the “community-forward” aspect of restaurant work by offering cooking classes through the Adams County Arts Council.

Similarly, The Joinery fosters collaboration and community.

Fidler met Tipler in January. Not only did the pair mesh on a personal level, but Fidler realized Tipler’s technical skills strongly complemented his own.

Plus, Tipler “needed a place to grow his repair business,” and The Joinery was a good fit, Fidler said.

“We both needed a better shop to work in than we had at home,” he said.

Tipler too is a longtime woodworker and began repairing instruments professionally last year from his home.

Like Fidler, Tipler has longstanding connections with the local music scene, including experience as a performer with area bands and as sound engineer for live performances. He was a studio engineer for approximately three years at Tone Town Productions in Hanover, and has recently been working to make connections and book acts with local venues.

Tipler started out by building guitars from parts, but realized he wanted to learn more about woodworking. Through local musician Gary Ferguson, Tipler said he learned of Fidler and “reached out with an overwhelming amount of excitement.”

Within days, Tipler and Fidler two visited a wood supplier, and as they selected exquisite pieces, Tipler said it became clear they would “trade work and join forces.” Tipler Instrument Pair soon began operating at The Joinery.

It will be a challenge for two businesses based on painstaking handwork to become self-sustaining in a “fast-but-cheap world,” Fidler said, but said he is confident they will prosper despite “going against the grain.”

“There’s a certain esthetic” that won’t be found in a $200 guitar churned out by a factory, Fidler said. No two of his products “are the same in appearance” because, when he selects wood, “I’m looking for something that speaks to me,” just as his customers are “looking for something not existing somewhere else in the world.”

“I learn stuff from Josh every time I’m here,” said Tipler, who returns the favor by sharing rigorous knowledge about placing frets, adjusting necks, soldering electronic parts, and more.

“It’s a good partnership because we both possess different skill-sets,” Fidler said, and “it’s a very harmonious relationship as far as give and take.”

The right people meeting at the right time “doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s pretty cool,” Tipler said.

And, yes, Fidler said, the two musicians do pick up instruments and “jam in the shop sometimes.”