About .:. Beau Leopard    

I started playing bass in 1990 and quickly became obsessed. Soon after that I decided my 4-string P-Bass copy wasn't cuttin' it and I wanted to get a 5-string. I didn't have any money so I asked my dad to help out. Instead of buying a bass he suggested I build one. Well, I thought … I've built a skateboard ramp before, how hard can it be?

I acquired the quintessential book "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock and set out to “build” my first bass. Luckily I had many good resources in the area to help me along the way. Furniture and banjo maker Richard Newman made me a body blank and milled the neck pocket. The good people at Northfield Music helped me with electronics and setup and Ralph Ortiz taught me how to play bass. With some parts from Warmoth and tools from Stew-Mac I was on my way. It worked out and I was hooked, let's just say I did pretty well in high school shop class.  

In 1994 I moved to Amherst, MA to study music at Hampshire College. While at Hampshire I was able to study double-bass at UMASS and jazz theory at Amherst College. I also had a chance to start learning about computers, multimedia and electronic music.

I left Hampshire in 1996 to attend the Roberto-Venn School Of Luthiery in Phoenix, AZ. R-V was an excellent time and I learned a great deal of useful skills from John Reuter and the instructors there. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to pursue luthiery or broaden their knowledge of different methods used in this craft.

After completing R-V I returned to Rochester, NY and did repair work for Bernunzio Vintage Instruments. This was a truly great experience. Doing setup and repair work on vintage guitars, banjos and mandolins was an invaluable lesson.

Following that I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston to study bass performance. Berklee is crazy! So much talent, it's overwhelming. I had many great, weird and frightening experiences there that I’ll probably write about down the road.

While in Boston I briefly worked for Parker Guitars prep sanding bodies for finishing. It was there that I had my first experience with CNC machines, loading in neck and body blanks then pressing "go". Pretty cool stuff! A CNC router is definitely in my future...

In 1999 I left Boston and returned to Rochester. By this point I was getting deep into computers and digital audio recording. I wanted to pursue that further but needed to get a good ‘ol’ fulltime job so I decided to get an internet tech support gig. After gaining a few M$ certifications I went to work for Frontier Communications supporting DSL in small areas around the country. There I learned a great deal about networks and web design. After 3 years of posting outage messages and dealing with irate people I left to pursue something that was not confined to a headset and cubicle.

In 2003 I started working fulltime for my father’s real estate business Linc Management. They were in the middle of major renovation of a derelict 1920’s cold storage building in Ontario, NY. We completely gutted and divided the 70,000 sq. ft. space into affordable workshops for small industrial businesses. My work in this project enabled me to acquire space for a woodshop in L.O.I.C....

Beau Leopard Design or “BLDesign” was started in 2005 as a part time venture. I began to acquire tools and develop skills in the hope to pursue bass-building and woodworking at a much more intense level than I had ever been able to before. I still work for Linc managing apartments in Rochester and providing network and facilities maintenance in Ontario. Most of my time is dedicated to developing BLDesign, continuing research and playing bass. The little time left is spent with friends and family.

-Beau