Padanaram (pay-duh-nair’-um)
Fair question. Padanaram is a small seacoast harbor and village in the town of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The harbor opens to Buzzards Bay, with views of the Elizabeth Islands. Paul spent many wonderful days there in his formative years.
Paul was a sailor and a sailing instructor, learning to sail at age 9 – just about the same time he started taking guitar lessons. He attended and then worked at a summer camp quite close to Padanaram, thriving in the culture of wooden boats and wooden guitars that infused both. Sail all day and play folk music around the campfire each evening – what could be a better way to spend summers!
Padanaram was the home of Concordia boatyard – the supplier of the boats Paul learned on and then used to teach the next generation of camp sailors. He was enthralled with the idea that someone could take lumber and then bend, shape, plane and cajole it until it took on the graceful curves and perfect utility of a boat… or a guitar!
He often brought his students to the boatyard so that they could watch and learn from the boatbuilding master craftsmen working there to build the craft that they themselves sailed each day! And through it all, none was more moved by the hours in the boatsheds than Paul himself.
Determined to someday create such beautiful products of the shipwrights art, Paul threw himself into woodworking, learning as much and as quickly as he could. Life, employment and space limitations put a giant pause in his production and hopes to build his own sailboat, but eventually the thought emerged to create hand built guitars with the same dedication and craftsmanship that he had witnessed firsthand in the Concordia boat sheds. Thus were born the first Padanaram Guitars – an homage of sorts to the ideals of hand hewn craftsmanship and old fashioned gumption.
Many years later, moving cross country – from Arizona to Florida – it was clear that Guitar Repair Tucson needed a new name. And so was born Padanaram Guitar Works, in honor of the many craftsmen who labored with loving hands over each and every Concordia Beetle Cat and Yawl.
Today a scrimshaw drawing of the iconic Concordia Yawl embellishes the heel cap of every Padanaram guitar. It is a reminder to the owner of the pride of handmade achievement that is embodied in the instrument he or she is playing.
