Dr. Allen Platt escapes the business of his dental office to his workshop
basement where he designs and builds custom guitars.

PHIL JACOBS

EDITOR

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f anyone ever needed
to
the whereabouts of
Dr. Allen R. Platt, chances
are good Dr. Platt would
be in "hiding."
His hiding place is the
basement of his Oak Park
home where he and
Tfind
wife Arleen and their
two daughters, Danielle, 6,
and Hallie, 4, live.
There is no sofa there, no
paneling or wide-screen
television set.
Instead, there are tools,
machines and the smell of
woods, beautiful woods.
Using these tools and rose-
woods and mahoganies, Dr.
Platt can do what few oth-
ers know how to do: He can
hand-carve and build a gui-
tar.
During the day, Dr. Platt
takes care of fillings. At
night, he bends, carves and
paints wood.
Dr. Platt, 35, has played
guitar for more than 20
years. During those years,
he often thought about what
it would take to make his
own guitar. He always was
good with his hands, mak-
ing etrog boxes and jewelry
boxes for family and friends.
Then three years ago, he
decided to become a luthier,
a maker of stringed instru-

ments.
"I started getting inter-
ested in woodworking," he
said while preparing the
inside of a guitar in his
basement. "I've always
enjoyed working with my
hands, building things. I did
some carpentry as a teen-
ager. It's just something I
love doing."
Mrs. Platt calls the guitar
building "therapy" for her
husband.

"Each instrument
has its own soul
in a way,
and I feel a
certain way
toward each
instrument."

"My husband has golden
hands," she said. "He's very
creative, and this has been
wonderful for the whole
family. The children love to
go downstairs and watch
him. They have their own
table next to his where they
can work on something and
spend time with him. It's a
nice education, and it's a

positive experience for all of
Dr. Platt still owns the
us."
first guitar he ever played.
Bending the wood to
It hangs with three others
make a guitar is, according
on display in his basement
to Dr. Platt, one of the keys
workshop.
in learning the craft, as is
On a warm summer
the carpentry skill of joining
Friday afternoon, Dr. Platt
wood. Historians write that
chisels down wooden sup-
the basic shape and size of
ports for the inside of a gui-
the modern guitar can be
tar. There's nobody in the
traced to the late 1880s in
waiting room, no instru-
Spain.
ments needing sterilization,
An acoustical guitar, like
no phones ringing. Dr.
the ones Dr. Platt con-
Platt, in his basement, is in
structs, produces
sound from the vibra-
tion of the strings.
More modern electric
guitars have an elec-
tromagnet that picks
up the sound of the
vibrations and sends
the sound through an
amplifier. Guitars
are largely made
with curved sides and
a flat or arched back.
Dr. Platt receives
wood from all over
the country, which he
uses to build the
soundboard (front) of
the guitar and the
fingerboard. He even
carves the finger-
board fret positions.
Frets mark the posi-
tions of a specific Dr. Allen Platt escapes the day-to-day of a dental
practice to do craft guitars in his workshop base-
tone.

ment.