Guitar builder Bryan Hibler struts his stuff in his Marble Falls workshop
Bryan Hibler in his Marble Falls woodworking shop where he custom builds unique guitars. After years of playing and then fixing guitars, Hibler realized he could also make them. Photo by Terry Schroth
Bryan Hibler took his lifelong love of guitars from pickin’ and grinnin’ to carvin’ and sandin’. The 44-year-old Marble Falls musician jammed with some of the greats, including Chubby Checker, and local favorites like the Larry Salinas Band before his love of the guitar took him in another direction: a woodworking shop.
After years of playing and then fixing guitars, Hibler realized he could also build them.
Known for excellent craftsmanship and unique style, Hibler’s six-string creations are carving out a niche in the world of custom-collectible, eclectic-electric, made-here-in-Texas guitars.
“I wanted something I couldn’t buy,” he said.
So he learned how to build them himself.
Hibler grew up in Marble Falls, where his father and grandfather both played guitar. Naturally, young Bryan wanted to play, too. Dad Ricky started teaching him on an acoustic guitar when he was 10.
“My dad figured I should start on one of them (acoustic) since they are harder to play,” Hibler said.
He practiced daily, playing the country and 1960s rock ’n’ roll tunes his dad knew. A year later, he saw Stevie Ray Vaughan on the “Austin City Limits” TV show.
“I wanted to play like him,” Hibler said.
He doubled down on his practice time.
Hibler bought a black Fender Stratocaster when he was 14 and spent his high school years playing ’90s grunge rock with friends in talent shows and an assortment of garage bands.
Knowing it would be helpful in many fields, including the care/maintenance of electric guitars, Hibler studied electronic engineering technology at ITT Technical Institute in Austin while fine-tuning his playing skills.
After college, he returned to Marble Falls and played lead guitar with the Larry Salinas Band for a few years before joining a German polka band. It was then he started learning to fix his own instruments.
“The drive to Austin was just too far,” he said. “It was too much time and money when I knew I could do it myself.”
A fellow player introduced Hibler to Reid Schaub, a guitar maker/pastor from Lampasas, who took him under his strings. Soon, Hibler was also fixing his friends’ guitars.
He bounced around in different bands until he found himself a steady gig in entertainment town Branson, Missouri, playing in a 1950s-style bar band called Jukebox Journey. He finished the season with the Icon Theatre house band, backing up 72-year-old Chubby Checker on the marquee.
“Chubby had the most energy I’ve ever seen in an entertainer,” Hibler said of the 1950s and ‘60s rock icon.
The Marble Falls artist is still in awe of the legend.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” Hibler said.
When Branson shut down for the holidays, Hibler returned to Marble Falls and, like many musicians, got a day job while playing nights in local bands. He also married his high school sweetheart and opened a guitar repair shop.
“I’d come home after work and just start working on guitars,” he said. “Then I realized if I can fix them, I can make them.”
With a background in woodworking, an education in electronic engineering, plus firsthand knowledge of what guitar players are looking for in a first-class instrument, Hibler set up shop.
He built his first guitar, a mesquite, T-style electric, and christened it Texas Twang.
“As soon as I took it on the road, people saw it and wanted to know where I got it,” he said.
Word traveled fast. Noel Bullard, who plays for blues artist Ben Beckendorf in Fredericksburg, sought him out and placed a custom order. Hibler built him an S-style guitar with a sonic blue-transparent finish modeled after a John Lennon guitar. He named it 62 Tejas.
It was a lightbulb moment for Hibler.
“That’s when the hook bit me, and I knew I could do it,” he said.
Hibler tried selling spec guitars in Austin, but the market was saturated. He changed his strategy by playing a different guitar at every gig. People liked what they saw and heard, but the guitars still weren’t selling.
Hibler gives his wife, Amanda, full credit for keeping him focused when things were moving slowly. Among other things, she photographed his guitars and wrote a short story about him for Guitar Player magazine.
“She’s kinda my muse,” Hibler said. “Whenever I get in a slump, she pushes me past it.”
Things picked up when Mandi Holley placed an order for her brother Ryan’s surprise birthday present. Ryan Holley has played all over Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma and is known for his cover band talents and original music.
Hibler took photos of every step in the process, which Mandi made into a book. He was also invited to the birthday party, where guitar and book were presented to Ryan.
“That was probably one of the most fantastic things I ever did,” Hibler said. “It was one of the most humbling events of my career. Very emotional because I nailed it. (Ryan) loved the guitar.”
Holley loved it so much that, three months later, he ordered another one. He played the guitars everywhere, including the SXSW music festival in Austin, where the instruments got a lot of exposure. He commissioned several guitars that sold at The Musicians Woodshed, a renowned retail store/music school in South Austin.
Redd Volkaert, who played lead guitar for Merle Haggard, placed an order in 2020.
“He is a real music mentor to me,” Hibler said. “I couldn’t believe I was making a guitar for him.”
Volkaert soon ordered a second guitar and two necks for some old Fenders.
“Redd has a large following and plays on TV,” Hibler continued. “People see (the guitars). It has been a great public endorsement for me.”
Casper Rawls, who performed on the classic TV show “Hee Haw” with Buck Owens, started following Hibler on Facebook.
“Next thing I know, he’s asked me to build him three guitars,” Hibler said.
James Burton, who played with Elvis, had a particular guitar The King loved called the Pink Paisley. The original had clear varnish over pink paisley wallpaper. Rawls wanted to pay tribute to that old favorite, so he commissioned Hibler to make three such guitars, one to keep for himself and two for gifts. One gift was for Burton.
Hibler asked if there were specific details that Rawls wanted, to which he replied: “Do your own thing.”
The result? The Texas Twangs—three one-of-a-kind, laser-engraved, paisley print guitars with a candy apple-red, ghost-paisley finish.
So, exactly what goes into being a guitar artist?
You first choose the wood, Hibler said. Although he uses industry standards like flame maple, ash, and alder on request, Hibler prefers locally sourced hardwood like mesquite, pecan, and Texas ebony.
“I like to use Texas hardwoods because, you know, we’re here in Texas,” he said.
Once the order is placed, Hibler finds just the right section of wood, orders the hardware, and makes sure he has all of the buyer’s detailed specs: “the look and style they’re after.”
He uses a band saw to shape the body and a CNC (computer-programmed) router where he can. He hand routs the rest.
Then, he starts on the finish. Whether oil and wax or lacquer, it takes three to five weeks for a finish to cure. While waiting, Hibler works on the necks, all of which are shaped by hand.
“People say the best feature of all my guitars is the neck,” he said.
He uses the CNC router to precisely cut the fret slots while hand routing special engravings. After executing some detailed hand carving to shape the back profile of the neck and installing the frets and inlays, Hibler adds one more feature that makes his guitars instantly recognizable.
“Every one of my guitars has a Texas quarter embedded in the back of the headstock,” he said, referring to the Lone Star State’s commemorative quarter released in 2004 by the U.S. Mint.
The last layer of finish is applied, left to dry, then buffed and shined. The two pieces are joined, the pickups wound by hand just so, and voila! A guitar is born.
If you’re interested in strumming a one-of-a-kind Bryan Hibler guitar, visit HiblerCustomGuitars.com or Hibler Custom Guitars on Facebook.