Evo Lutherie

Hi

I am Roger Pierce, founder of Evo Lutherie. A lifelong musician, I have also been an avid woodworker for over 50 years. I always thought it would be rewarding to combine these two passions, and have long dreamed of building instruments. 

Around 1999, I finally started to build a 5-string bluegrass banjo, trying to find time after work and on weekends. I had to learn to steam-bend wood, inlay shell designs, build a sturdy, stable neck, install and dress frets, laminate a curved back for the resonator, and many other new skills and processes. Four years later, I finally had my first completed instrument. I love how it plays and sounds, and my evolution-themed inlays.

In the midst of finishing the banjo, I decided to build a soprano ukulele from a kit for my wife, Katherine. It was a fun, relatively easy project and a good introduction to building ukuleles. From that point on, I was hooked, though until I retired, it was often slow-going.

With my newfound skills, I built a couple of banjoleles as gifts, but had not yet built any all-wood ukuleles from scratch. I bought a very nice tenor ukulele from my brother-in-law Howard Replogle of Ebi Ukuleles, who started building them shortly after I did, but by then had already built around 20 ukes. I loved playing that uke, and soon my factory built guitars and banjos were mostly languishing in their cases while I picked my new friend. I became a little obsessed with playing and building ukuleles, moving increasingly towards fingerstyle playing. When I found I couldn’t create satisfactory arrangements of several songs I wanted to play, I built a pair of harp ukuleles, to get the sound and range of notes I wanted. As I gained skill and confidence in incorporating the harp strings, they have now become my favorites to play.

Since I first began this journey, I have focused on creating custom instruments, with a theme determined by whom each is built for. It keeps things interesting and feeds my creative yearnings. Crafting special beaded straps for some of them follows the same logic. I have always incorporated somewhere in each instrument the double helix logo from my first banjo. I recently decided that Evo Lutherie would be a suitable name for the products of my hobby, even though I have no real intention of building a business from it. I ran a business for 31 years, and don’t want another one! This is way more fun.

Now, besides building and playing solo, I love to arrange music in multiple parts for my ukulele orchestra, AKA Roger’s Rat Pack. We are working towards a fairly regular performance schedule in various local venues, including the Reno Uke Fest.

As of this writing, I have started to build a classical guitar, which seemed inevitable from the beginning. I look forward to also playing 6 strings again.