Walter has been the lead guitar tech at Alpha since 1994- he moved with us from our Norfolk location. Experience and continuity is something you will find refreshing about the Alpha staff. Twenty plus years in, Walter is still the “go to” tech in Tidewater for guitar set ups.

“My earliest guitar memory is sawing the bottom 1/2" off my mom's mini-clipboard with a coping saw to shim up the floating bridge on my hunk o' junk Sears acoustic with the musical notes spray-painted on it; I've been taking apart and fixing guitars ever since for myself and my friends.”

“I was a left-handed 5th-grader fortunately issued a right-handed cello in orchestra class. I took to stuff with strings immediately. As a teen I couldn't decide if I wanted to be Ace Frehley or Gene Simmons, so I learned guitar and bass, and have played both ever since. Later I couldn't decide if I wanted to be Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones, and learned mandolin, banjo, lap steel, and other fun string instruments (hurdy-gurdy, anyone?).”

Walter is still out there kicking it in the local music scene. “At the moment I'm playing guitar in one working band, guitar, lap steel and mandolin in another, recently ended a long run playing bass in a third, and serving as the occasional "mercenary" in a few more.”

Walter sums up his repair philosophy: “My life as a gigging player has always influenced my approach to guitar repair; to me, these things aren't furniture to be looked at, they're tools to be used, essentially paintbrushes for creating music. I want the instrument to get out of the way of the player, so they focus on the music itself, the whole point of the exercise.”