Chris Fesker is the finish side of Texas Toast Guitars in Westminster, Colorado. Finish work is the part of any build I like the least, so I wanted to know how somebody ends up choosing it. The answer starts with a 1955 Chevy.

From a ’55 Chevy to kitchen cabinets

Chris learned to spray in 1985, restoring that Chevy with his dad. Later the family took over a painting business. He ended up in the field doing commercial and residential work, and he says he hated it but was good at it. Cabinets and trim taught him the most. Anybody can spray the side of a barn. Cabinets take finesse.

He also ran a bicycle shop for 16 years and custom painted bikes. When he got into guitars, he started buying cheap ones and refinishing them.

How he met Matt Flaherty

Around 2007 Chris had a surf band whose drummer and bass player quit right before a CD release. They put an ad in the paper. Matt Flaherty answered for the bass job, and he was the talker of an instrumental band. The two found out they both liked messing with guitars. Years later Matt built out his garage, texted that he had a buffer, and Chris started showing up every weekend. They built “buddy guitars” for friends in local bands, and that became Texas Toast.

People assume Matt cannot paint and Chris cannot do woodwork. Not true. They can each do the other’s job. They have just gotten better at their own.

Why they still use a pin router

Their CNC is a midsize machine they bought mostly for fingerboard inlays. It does not like half inch bits, and it is not an employee you can walk away from. Chris pressed play and left once during a class, and a minute later someone ran in to say it had pulled the piece up into the cutter.

For bodies they stick with the pin router. With a good template it is just as accurate and often faster, it is easier to pivot on a design, and it is more fun. In their classes everybody gets to use it. Chris calls it one of the safer tools in the shop because you can see exactly what you are cutting. The band saw and the router table worry him more.

Classes as a destination

They started classes after moving into their shop in 2019, expecting mostly locals. Instead the five day class sold first, and nearly everyone comes from out of town, including from England, Canada, and Belgium. A five day neck through class is 40 hours: you show up Monday with a pile of wood and a truss rod, and on Friday you leave with a guitar ready for finish. Chris knew the classes were working when the first student came back for a second one.

The Great American Guitar Build Off

Turning the Build Off into an expo was Matt Flaherty’s idea, and Chris was on board right away. On entry day Chris was guiding people into line. It stopped at 28 and he thought that was it. Those 28 had shown up early. By the actual start time there was a line out the door, and they ended at 45 entries. His hope for next year is around 65.

Some people online sniffed at an all Telecaster contest. Chris’s answer: they were not there. Meeting people in person was the best part, and by Sunday they almost had to kick people out.

Finish choices and hardware

Satin is easier to do well, so it lets them sell for less, and a lot of people prefer it anyway. Lately they do satin backs and sides with a gloss top and headstock face. Chris loves how their satin necks feel.

For hardware they use Hipshot tuners almost exclusively, with Gotoh tuners for vintage builds and Gotoh or TonePros bridges. They have not had sourcing problems. They build a little under 100 guitars a year, not counting class builds.

If he had a magic wand

He wishes people saw a handcrafted instrument as something worth saving up for, instead of asking why spend 2,500 when 250 gets you something that seems just as good. The people who built the cheap one do not care about it half as much. He would like American guitars to mean something again.

Find Chris and Matt at texastoastguitars.com, or better yet, go take a class.

Follow along

One guy in a small shop on his father-in-law’s property in Lindsborg, Kansas. IT Director by day, maker by obsession. Equal parts problem solver, craftsman, and curious human. If you’re the kind of person who takes things apart to see how they work, or watches people who do, you’re in the right place.

Uncut shop sessions go up on YouTube and I stream on Twitch. Everything is @carverwoodworking. There is merch in the shop, or you can buy me a coffee.