Reply #15: I first met Božo in 1977

[DFW]

He was in Southern California then. He "retired" in 1983. I visited him at his home in (then) San Diego, and he
told me his doctor said he was getting too much wood dust in his lungs. Also, he never figured out until late in
life that he could make real money from his craft. In the late 70s, he was making a few guitars for me. He needed
about $2000 worth of material, 9 months to make them, and charged me $2800 for the guitars. I told him back then
that he would never make money like that, and that he should charge way more for instruments that good (they sound
as good as they look--ask Leo Kottke). He kept retiring, and people kept throwing more and more money at him to
come out of retirement, and build "one more" guitar. He made that pair for me in 1999-2000, and they both have my
initials in mother-of-pearl on the fretboard, and he signed them as being specially made for me on the interior label.

Now, he's "retired" again, but still, last year, when one airline cracked the neck on one of my 12 Božo strings,
I sent it down to him, and he made me a new neck and it's good as new. He's still the man!

Some people on Cape Cod put me on to a Canadian custom guitar case builder (Calton), and since I got a case from
them fitted to the one Božo 12 string that still travel with, nothing evil has ever happened to it again.