Dick Wagner owns Wagner Music. He creates, repairs and teaches students how to play stringed instruments. In his shop there’s an ensemble of violins, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, upright basses, acoustic and electric guitars.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN
IN BUSINESS?
22 years.
HIS MAINSTAY
“I design classical instruments that are comfortable to hold. I’m doing sculpture instead of traditional fare. I also do custom work in modifying an existing instrument. I look at an instrument as a whole new invention. On a technical level, I’m coming up with ideas that are not being done.”
MAD SCIENTIST
“I’ve invented devices for sound in piezo electronics. A piezo is a type of pickup that revolves around a crystal that converts mechanical [physical] energy into electronic signals.”
WHAT’S A PICKUP?
“A pickup is any device that converts instrumental music into electronic signals that can be put through an amplifier. The electromagnetic technology behind electric guitars operates on a similar principle. I don’t dabble in the electromagnetic since that field is perfected. Piezo electronics are not fully developed.”
WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
“Affluent hobbyists. My biggest clients are from Europe, the Middle East and parts of America. I have clientele I’ve never met or talked to.”
WHERE DO YOU GET
YOUR MATERIALS?
“A lot of the instruments I make are with locally-made, high-grade lumber. I buy rough lumber — mahogany, walnut, oak — from speciality companies. The highly-flamed maple and ebony I special order.”
ODD SPECIALTY
One of Wagner’s techniques is to grow fungus in the wood to add color. The process is called spalting and requires the fungus to be cultivated in a method similar to wine yeast. Wagner adds splashes of his own touch to other creations with specialty woods, metals and/or religious carvings. “I make what I want and it sells. Making instruments is not particularly creative. It’s like a blank canvas. The creativity part is making it sound the way I want it to and putting art on it.”
FUN MONEY
To counter the ups and downs of the retail world, Wagner has a side business, gathering and publishing criminal statistics to a closed market.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE
By the end of the year, Wagner will be teaching music to the recently released juvenile delinquents moving back into society through the Inside/Outside House.
HOW WILL GUITAR LESSONS HELP THESE CHILDREN?
“I wouldn’t have survived my youth emotionally without music. It was really important for me to get alone and play. For other kids, I think it’s good for their self-image and will help them get out of themselves.”
SUITED FOR THE ROLE
Wagner has a background in dealing with troubled youth. After three combat tours in Vietnam, he took a job with the Child Services Department’s Youth Detention Center. He has also ran a group home for boys that were chronic runaways, protected children from abuse as a supervisor for Emergency Child Protection and served as a counselor at daniel, all while keeping his music store open.
WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT HAVING
THE SHOP?
“I get to work at my own pace. It’s great for creativity and to keep me open to whatever I imagine. I love wood and I’ve been playing strings all my life. This is what I enjoy.”
WHAT’S CHALLENGING FOR YOU?
“I enjoy every problem that comes to me. Right now I’m doing an upgrade on an antique guitar. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.”
HOMETOWN
Savannah, Ga.
FAMILY
Wagner has two sons, his assistant, Erik, and Richard II. Wagner resides in Arlington with his sweetheart and shop pearl cutter, Julie Smith. His grandfather was a German immigrant who made his living as a shoemaker and helped create the modern orthopedic shoe. Like Wagner, his father was an artist and craftsman. Additionally, Wagner worked in electronics during a stint in the Navy and apprenticed in a music shop to learn the trade.
OUTSIDE THE SHOP
Wagner is a big fan of comedies and adventure stories. He also likes watching The History Channel, eating ethnic foods, riding the Skyway, shopping at thrift stores and walking the nature trail at UNF. Having grown up in the area, Wagner felt compelled to write a book about it. He is compiling short stories about Northeast Florida in the 1950s and 1960s.
— by Monica Chamness