Mule Resophonic Guitars, Saginaw, MI (2026)

12/21/2025

Mango is more ridiculously figured than the most ridiculous maple and has as flattering a tone as Brazilian. There I said it!

And if you go to Muleresophonic.com “Buy Guitars” you can buy a raffle ticket to win this one and see for yourself. You have until December 23. Winner will be chosen at random on Christmas Eve. Proceeds support Gateway to Recovery, an addiction recovery facility here in Saginaw started by an absolutely badass human. Go get them tickets!

12/19/2025

These ornaments were painted by my Auntie Chris and have been shipping with guitars completed this season.

“A.C” for short. The straight shooter Aunt who tells it like it is. But she has that thing that most “tell it like is” types don’t have - she will tell you the good stuff faster than the bad. She will tell you “I love you” so many times that when she tells you you’re messing up you trust her.

Her husband Steve was a truck driver who spoke in an almost unintelligible mutter. They got married young. Watching them argue was as endearing as watching a tough Chicago-Irish truck driver cry when AC surprised him with a bagpipe band when they renewed their vows.

Their daughter Christa was the cool older cousin and powerhouse human being. I drank for the first time at a Blackhawks game with her and we got White Castle and I jumped out of the car and tackled inflatable Christmas yard ornaments to make her laugh. I wasn’t a club kid, shockingly, but when Christa’s cancer came back my uncle rented a limo and we all went to Bar Chicago and we all tried to make her laugh.

Uncle Steve passed away when I was 22. I moved up from Virginia to stay with AC and Christa temporarily. The next year Christa woke up with a lump in her neck. Later that year my dad and her became “chemo buddies”. Christa passed away before Thanksgiving. Chris’ mother got sick the following year and passed away as well.

I was there and I still can’t understand how difficult it is. Life hadn’t just changed it was ruptured. A few years ago I asked herwhat had helped her the most. Could anything? She had tried a lot over the previous decade.

“Things I tried made me think about myself. But that made me sad so I started thinking about other people instead.”

Love. We have tried to fix things by coming up with complicated excuses for being self centered. AC, with a life harder than most, found a better way. If you’re trying to find a way-show love to others.

AC retired last year and got back to her love of painting. She started fallnsnow.com. One of the best humans on the planet has always been part of the story and now you get to see her work too.

12/14/2025

A note about yesterday’s post on discomfort: suffering isn’t a virtue.

It might be shocking to some but some people read yesterday’s post and thought, “discomfort is the way LETS GO BABY” because every few years when the instagram advice gurus start copycatting “discomfort is the way” the algorithm rejoices because hearing this glad tiding makes some people feel …well… comfortable.

If along the way you’ve learned that enduring suffering is valuable and now it’s your whole identity and suffering is your divining rod for direction you got off the train one stop too early.

Know thyself. You have to be honest with yourself here if you’re taking things too easy or making things too hard. It doesn’t have to be complicated. My dad told me once, “people are coins.” Our strengths in some things are our weaknesses in others. Once you know which side of the coin you are on something your work should include polishing the other side a little bit instead of pretending only doing what comes naturally is deep work. You have to choose your “hard” but sometimes we choose the hard that lets us avoid the hard we need. Then your grit is really dishonesty. Funny how virtues we defend aren’t so Eagle Scout with a little shift in perspective, eh?

If suffering is more of a map to you than something that scares you there’s something you need to hear: suffering isn’t a virtue-it’s a clue. We can suffer in short bursts but suffering isn’t a long term solution. It’s a clue something needs to change. The ability to endure it buys us time to try possibilities of solving the problem. Why? So we don’t have to suffer. We need that energy for solving the next problem.

Somewhere along the line we (this side of the coin people) learned that enduring suffering works and then it became the only tool in the toolbox. You can see how if suffering is your radar for being on the right track it could get unhealthy.

Ok so what? The good news is that just as we learned enduring suffering is an effective and essential tool we can learn other essential tools and the discernment for which to use. More on this tomorrow’s post “Don’t survive problems: solve them.”

12/10/2025

I’ll be competing tomorrow in Las Vegas. Will catch up on emails next week. If you’re here and part of the Mule Crew let me know and I’ll catch up with ya after. I will be converging on the eateries of this city with the hunger of 1,000 armies so if you have recommendations in the arts district let me know.

and my fates continue to be intertwined and I ll get to see him rip on some Mules at the Sphere. Life is wild and I’m happy all are a part of it.

12/06/2025

The MuleTide Christmas raffle guitar is underway with this beautiful piece of curly Mango from Hawaii. This year the money will go to Saginaw Gateway to Recovery, a residential recovery center for around 50 people here in Saginaw. It was started by Demetrius Braddock-a former addict who started a successful demolition company and is reaching back to bring people with him.

Raffle tickets are $25. You can buy as many as you want and can be purchased on Muleresophonic.com. “Buy Guitars” - “Raffle Ticket” The winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve.

Mule Team - let’s blow the doors off this one. Share this post, tell your friends.

https://youtu.be/C6aoHKNfRck?si=QD9grhItJjcEfWpq

12/03/2025

“More and more and more Mango!”

The MuleTide Christmas Raffle guitar build continues. With a set of flame Mango back and sides that Chris Kattan would be proud of and a reclaimed piece of redwood siding for the top from the master .

You can buy raffle tickets to win this. Proceeds go to Gateway to Recovery, a residential recovery facility here in Saginaw. Go to Muleresophonic.com, “Buy Guitars”, “raffle Guitar” and buy as many tickets as you like. International? All good.

Winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve via a random entry picker.

12/01/2025

GUITAR RAFFLE: It’s never too early to talk about Christmas.

The MuleTide Christmas raffle guitar is underway with this beautiful piece of curly Mango from Hawaii. This year the money will go to Saginaw Gateway to Recovery, a residential recovery center for around 50 people here in Saginaw. It was started by Demetrius Braddock-a former addict who started a successful demolition company and is reaching back to bring people with him.

Raffle tickets will be $25, you can buy as many as you want, and can be purchased on Muleresophonic.com. The winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve.

Mule Team - let’s blow the doors off this one. Share this post, tell your friends.

11/29/2025

After three days of Fretboard Summit, after eating sushi with friends multiple times a day and conversing well into the evening/morning, I had a conversation with a musician friend about the nature of being close friends with humans you rarely get to see who are also professionally your peers in the age of social media. We talked about a chapter in Stephen Pressfield’s “The War of Art” about the difference between being an amateur and being a professional. We decided that three days of vibe could be interspersed with an hour or two of making art together to share with our mutual supporters.

So at NAMM show I’m going to bring a really great camera (an FX6 for you nerds) and mic and after the show is over we are going to make some art. If you are a Mule Teamer and are going to the NAMM show and want to do some content let’s be intentional and set up a time. And then get sushi.

11/24/2025

“Guitar making isn’t for everyone…. In fact it’s for almost no one.”

It’s not glamorous. There’s no striking glowing pieces of steel on anvils in slow motion or shaving paper thin strips of wood with hand tools while classical music plays. Its exact work with an in exact medium. You’re trying to convince a tree or a sheet of steel to be a musical object and they will make you earn it. You need a tolerance for ambiguity - there’s a problem to solve, but you may not know what the problem is or what question to ask. There’s a deadline with 500 steps in front of it that have to managed with minute precision. Appreciation of music and guitars is great but won’t get you through when the novelty fades.

But the trade off is getting to be part of the few people in history who get to watch someone play a song on a resonator in front of 50,000 people, their one true love, or their phone that wouldn’t have been written without that guitar. It’s a beautiful thing.

If you’ve got a set of hand skills and that sounds like your type of fun send me a message. This is located in Saginaw, MI and would be for sanding, finishing, and assembling acoustic guitar rims. If you don’t have experience making instruments some substantial experience making other things is required.

11/22/2025

“Guitar making isn’t for everyone…. In fact it’s for almost no one.”

It’s not glamorous. There’s no striking glowing pieces of steel on anvils in slow motion or shaving paper thin strips of wood with hand tools while classical music plays. Its exact work with an in exact medium. You’re trying to convince a tree or a sheet of steel to be a musical object and they will make you earn it. You need a tolerance for ambiguity - there’s a problem to solve, but you may not know what the problem is or what question to ask. There’s a deadline with 500 steps in front of it that have to managed with minute precision. Appreciation of music and guitars is great but won’t get you through when the novelty fades.

But the trade off is getting to be part of the few people in history who get to watch someone play a song on a resonator in front of 50,000 people, their one true love, or their phone that wouldn’t have been written without that guitar. It’s a beautiful thing.

If you’ve got a set of hand skills and that sounds like your type of fun send me a message.

11/21/2025

It’s never too early to talk about Christmas.

The MuleTide Christmas curly Mango raffle guitar is underway. This year the money will go to Saginaw Gateway to Recovery, a residential recovery center for around 50 people here in Saginaw. It was started by Demetrius Braddock-a former addict who started a successful demolition company and is reaching back to bring people with him.

Raffle tickets will be $25, you can buy as many as you want, and can be purchased on Muleresophonic.com. The winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve.

Mule Team - let’s blow the doors off this one.

Mule Resophonic Guitars

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