Paradise man builds work of faith
Danielle Switalski
The first thing Rick McCollum does in the morning is go down to his shop, a small wooden cabin built next to his home in Paradise and kneels down and prays. Upon standing, he immediately begins his molding and crafting of hand-made guitars.
“I ask God to help me through the day because building guitars is pretty technical and it’s easy to mess up and you can’t afford a mess up especially when you get too far along,” said McCollum who trusts God for his orders and sales of his guitars.
Precision and skill are two attributes McCollum has, which has given him success in his business he began in 1991. Always having a certain fondness for woodwork and a love for guitars, McCollum found a way to combine these two passions and not only make a living, but become a success story.
A fourth generation Montanan, McCollum moved to Paradise in 1991 and began learning how to craft guitars. He started buying books and accumulating equipment and taught himself this craft. In the first few years upon beginning this new business venture, McCollum worked at Energy Partners in Thompson Falls before taking his guitar business full time.
McCollum makes his guitars specific to each individual’s needs and even does in-lay work on each guitar to make it a personal design for the buyer. He makes sure that a buyer gives him a theme or design and then he manufactures the guitar based on these directions.
“I like them to leave it not too-specific of what they want inlaid and they can just give me a theme or an idea to work off of,” said McCollum.
For example, the last guitar McCollum finished was for a young singer/songwriter named Jaymi out of Missoula who asked for a trillium flower design on her guitar so he went on the Internet and found a flower he liked and got to work. Each guitar takes McCollum approximately three to five weeks depending on the complexity of the design.
“The trillium is beyond words beautiful!” read Jaymi’s testimonial on McCollum’s Web Site, www.montanaguitarshop.com.
McCollum said his most popular design sold has been the ‘snail guitar,’ which is a design he came up with around 16 years ago. The snail guitar is a travel guitar made for people who practice as much as they can because the guitar is durable and can withstand being bumped around in guitar players’ travels.
“You can play them in the car, you can take them backpacking, traveling on airlines and they will help a person’s guitar playing quite a bit because you have a lot more practice time,” said McCollum.
Aside from the ‘snail guitar’ McCollum makes four other designs; the OOO-SP, OM-SP, D-SP and the OOO-N.
McCollum said the guitar making business is very relaxing to him. He also tries to practice guitar every day and plays at the Church of God in Paradise. He explained that a lot of luthiers, which is the name given to guitar builders, are people who love to play guitar, but for whatever reason could not get into it professionally.
“It’s been going really well, it’s actually a work of faith,” said McCollum.
McCollum said for the future of his business, he is always trying to evolve his craft and find the perfect tone and playability.
“One thing I really work hard on is to try and make my guitars easy to play, because it is really important. I’m striving for that perfect, perfect guitar. I haven’t found it yet but we are working on it,” said McCollum.