Art Alvarado’s work life unfolds in crowded spaces where chunks of raw wood compete for space on benches piled with tools, battered old guitars, beautiful new instruments in various states of completion, record albums, and precision measuring instruments.

The organized clutter reflects commitment, hard work, and a passion for fresh ideas. And it demonstrates what happens when a father desperate to make a connection with his kids discovers a unique skill — guitar making — that he never knew he possessed.

Twenty years ago Alvarado, a Toledo-area native and former Blade pressman, found himself in the middle of a divorce. His sons were 3 and 9 at the time and their mother moved with them to another state after the marriage disintegrated.

This was his crossroads. He had to find a way to stay connected as they grew up hundreds of miles away.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be in their lives to guide them and I knew music was a good thing for them,” he said in his East Toledo guitar shop recently where incense burned and an old Eagles album played softly in the background.

“If I encouraged and supported their interest in music it would give us a way to connect and talk and it would give them a way to achieve their goals in small steps.”

Over the years one of his boys took up the trumpet, which he now plays in various bands and also teaches. Alvarado said he had a trumpet custom-made for the boy and his talent took him around the world playing on cruise ships.

His other son was interested in guitar and one day while shopping for an instrument for him and looking for “what would be the next thing,” he had a revelation.

Dressed in a Marshall amplifier T-shirt and looking fit for a man in his mid-50s, Alvarado was sheepish as he described what happened next.

“I heard a voice and it was all inclusive in one statement: ‘What are you doing here?’” he said, taking pains to point out that the voice didn’t specifically tell him to build guitars.

He headed to a lumber store where he was given the name of a place to buy high-quality wood to build a guitar. He started cutting the $96 piece of maple and thought, “man, this is beautiful.”

With some helpful advice from a fellow woodworker, Alvarado was on his way to making his first electric guitar. He still had his day job, but he was on his way toward transitioning into the life of a full-time luthier.

Moving forward

Over the years, Alvarado has refined his designs and added modifications such as the “brass ass” and “tone bones,” and he gets passionate when discussing guitar making. His instruments, which sell for between $1,200 and $2,400, are beautiful, with supple curves and designs that are fresh and unusual.

The Falcon King is modernistic and practical with a lightweight body and contoured neck designed for ease of play. You can literally balance it on one finger while holding it (not that you’d ever need to) and it reflects Alvarado’s goal of building comfort and playability into the instruments.

Another of his creations looks almost like a classical instrument and has the feel of something you would find in an old cathedral.

All of his instruments — including the 69er, the Black Widow, the Lemondrop, and the King Louie — focus on pushing guitar design forward. One of Alvarado’s points is that Leo Fender and Les Paul revolutionized the electric guitar 60 years ago, so why keep repeating their work?

“We’re stuck in ’50s designs and they’re great designs … but there’s no reason to stay there,” he said.

Foot traffic

Once Alvarado decided to set out on his own and make a living building and repairing guitars, he knew he needed a location that would bring him into contact with players. About two years ago he set up a storefront on East Main Street in East Toledo just down from the busy live venue Frankie’s Inner City.

His decision on the location has paid off.

Jason Null of the hard-touring rock band Saving Abel strolled by the 312 Main St. store last year and was intrigued by what he saw, so he went inside.

“He was a really nice guy and handed me guitar after guitar and I kept playing and left there with one of my favorite guitars,” Null said in a phone interview from a tour stop in Rhode Island.

He said he will be 40 soon and has been playing for 25 years. A series of car accidents when he was younger has left him with a bad back, so Null was looking for something lighter to give him a break while standing on stage for a couple of hours every night.

The 69er he acquired from Alvarado has become one of his live work-horse guitars and he will be sure to use it when the band returns to Frankie’s April 16.

“That guitar may weigh five pounds at the most and it’s just like a relief in the middle of the set. … That was one of the main things I noticed, was how light they were,” he said.

He also was impressed by the sound. “I sat there and played with them and they’re very clean and in-tune guitars and I’ve only owned a few guitars in my career that were like that.”

Even though he has an estimated 60 to 70 stringed instruments — most of them guitars — Null has commissioned Alvarado to build a custom model that he will play in the alternate tuning many of Saving Abel’s songs were written in.

“I know he’s one guy in there building guitars, but I can’t wait to get what he’s making,” he said. “It will be literally a guitar that if I could go into any factory and make it, it would be that one.”

Dave Ratliff of the Detroit rock soul band Old House New Door echoed Null’s comments. He just bought one of Alvarado’s Falcon Kings last weekend after discovering the store following a gig at Frankie’s.

A self-described “tone person” who has been playing for 30 years, Ratliff said the guitar doesn’t buzz or have extraneous noise with a “quiet motor” and he loves its size and aesthetics.

“The feel is really great and it fits my hand perfectly. It looks small but it packs the power,” he said.

Ratliff expects it will be a go-to guitar when he’s playing onstage.

“I’d like to use it in a lot of shows, just to play it,” he said. “I feel comfortable with it, I feel almost at one with it.”

‘Music is emotion’

For now Alvarado is content with custom making guitars rather than mass producing them. He values his independence and the way the work allows him to express himself.

Oddly, he does not identify himself as a player and he’s not likely to pick up one of his instruments and begin shredding to show it off.

“It’s like NASCAR. You’ve got the guys that build the cars and the guys that race the cars. They can both drive to the track, but I’m no racer,” he said.

But he highly values the power of being able to pick up a guitar and play.

“Music is emotion. When you have problems, you can play them out. You can rock out in anger and it’s a release, or you can cry,” he said. “It’s not only good for you, but also the people around you.”

Twenty years ago Alvarado built guitars to maintain closeness with his sons, who are now grown men he speaks of with great pride. The instruments were expressions of his love to them.

Now he does the work for a different reason.

“I’m not really making a whole lot of money, but I never set out to make what’s already there,” he said. “This is my contribution and it’s either going to be appreciated or not, but it’s mine.”

Alvarado Guitars’ Web site is www.alvaradoguitars.com and he also has a Facebook page.

First Published March 1, 2015, 5:00 a.m.