Most guitar players learn to play
out of love of music, but Flora resident Matt
Kingery appreciates the instrument that produces
the sounds he loves. To Kingery, every
guitar has its "very own sound and lone," and
he says there's a good reason for this.
Kingery has been making electric guitars for
the past two years. He starts from scratch, at the
lumber yard, choosing materials that he says,
"makes all the difference in the world," in the
process of creating the sound he wants his finished
product, a custom-made electric guitar, to
make.

Whether it sounds like "ringin' a bell" as
Chuck Berry described in "Johnny B. Goode" or
like a soft cry, as in George Harrison's, "While
my Guitar Gently Weeps," Kingery knows how
to develop the sound.

"I can change the sound by using heavier
wood on the body of the guitar," said Kingery.
"Maple makes a brighter sound because it's a
hard wood, a sound something like Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitars made.
"Eric Clapton, on the other hand, started out
with a rich sounding guitar, probably
mahogany. The wood is porous and produces a
more rich and mellow sound," he added.

Kingery's guitars are styled from the three
traditional body shapes: Les Paul, Stratocaster
and the Telecaster. These instruments are solid
with the electronics located on the outside of
the body. He pointed to a guitar on display on
the wall of Applebee's Restaurant "Now, that
one is a semi-hollow body guitar."