On any given afternoon, Champlin Guitars might feel less like a retail/repair shop and more like your favorite musician’s living room. String instruments, tools and band memorabilia hang from every available surface. A rear wall is plastered with Polaroids of customers holding instruments, their names labeled with neon permanent marker. Most conversations are underscored with laughter and the gentle twang of guitars.
This warm atmosphere isn’t by coincidence: Owner Devin Champlin is intentional about making Champlin Guitars a welcoming space. The Bellingham-based luthier/musician is as approachable as his easygoing folk music would have you imagine — but despite his laid-back personality, he’s a master at his craft. Champlin, 45, restores (and sometimes builds) all manner of stringed instruments, from brand-new guitars to vintage, classic and occasionally unusual models.
When he’s not working on guitars, you’ll likely find Champlin playing them — either solo or with his band, the Sons of Rainier. A fixture at venues throughout Bellingham, he’s known for his genre-defying sound, finger-picking skills and observational lyricism. For those attuned to the local music scene, Champlin’s voice sounds like that of an old friend’s.
“I get inspired by different instruments,” he said. “Sometimes, I’ll pick up a guitar that has a different sound I wasn’t expecting — and a whole different song comes out of that.”
DIY origins
Champlin grew up around Chicago’s all-ages DIY music scene and started learning guitar at age 10. Simultaneously, he said he’s “always had an interest in wood carving and working with my hands.”
After high school, Champlin began working carpentry jobs while crafting rough instruments — including banjos fashioned from cookie tins — in his spare time. These interests fully converged when he enrolled in the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Arizona, where he learned how to build and repair stringed instruments.
Champlin moved to Bellingham for the first time in 2003, though he’s relocated several times since. He studied under Todd Cambio of Fraulini Guitars in Madison, Wisconsin in 2008, and began building and repairing guitars upon his return to the Pacific Northwest. To date, he’s now built more than 70 instruments.
After a stint in Seattle, Champlin returned to Bellingham again in 2017. Two years later, he opened his first shop on Cornwall Avenue, after the space “came up for cheap on Craigslist.” (The store has since moved to its current location behind Depot Market Square.)
“I just put up a sign, like, ‘I’m doing repairs!’” he said. “I kind of did it on a whim, which works well for me — but I love doing repair work.”
Though Champlin founded the shop alone, he now has a staff of six. Each employee varies in age and experience: Forrest Meyer, for example, is 20 years younger than Champlin. Another employee, Dave Doucet, started working with the shop in fall 2023, though Champlin said he’s been “repairing guitars since before I was born.”
The art and craft of luthiery
How does one build a string instrument? Champlin is likely to sum it up with a quote: “You start with some really nice wood, and then you just cut away everything that’s not a guitar.”
This answer might be simplistic — but technically, it isn’t wrong. The first step of a luthiery project requires cutting out rough shapes from hardwoods like mahogany or rosewood. Next, “there’s a lot of gluing and clamping” to piece them together. Internal wooden struts, or braces, are added to support the soundboard and back, as well as increase resonance. Thin strips, called kerfing, are attached to the guitar’s curved sides to allow for easier bending.
After basic construction comes sanding and polishing, which Champlin said are in a “category of their own.” Once the wood is thoroughly sanded using an increasingly fine grain, he moves on to French polishing. This entails applying a series of thin coats of shellac mixed with denatured alcohol, resulting in a high-gloss surface, and is among the most time-consuming steps.
The process becomes even more detailed at the end, and Champlin both “enjoys and struggles with” the final stages. Among other things, he cuts slots on the fretboard, drills holes for tuning pegs and attaches strings to “actually make it play like a guitar.” Small errors at this stage can have major impact — but the precision required makes the finished product even more satisfying.
Construction can last anywhere from weeks to months depending on how much time Champlin can devote to it. Fixing an existing guitar is much quicker — sometimes taking just a few days — and tends to be more lucrative. Even so, Champlin said repairs are “always a challenge.”
“For example, I’m working on this guitar here that’s got a bunch of loose braces … I glue something up and then I might find something else that’s wrong,” he said. “It’s a lot of problem solving … You get to see really old guitars from really well-known makers, or new guitars from makers I’ve never heard of, so it’s always something different.”
Though Champlin still builds guitars, he’s not currently taking custom orders, instead preferring to work on passion projects at his own pace. What’s more, he said the social aspect of his job has “changed tremendously” since turning his focus to repairs.
“Building guitars in my backyard is a very solitary pursuit, which I love. I love being quiet and alone and having that attention,” Champlin said. “Here, it’s hard to work straight for 10 minutes without getting distracted — but I love the distractions. I love being embedded in the community.”
Notable projects
Though Champlin has worked on countless repair projects, several instruments stand out — including a one-of-a-kind acoustic guitar belonging to Luca Stricagnoli. The acclaimed musician dropped it off with Champlin to be worked on prior to playing Mount Baker Theatre’s International Guitar Night.
“This was a three-neck guitar hand-built by a luthier in Italy, really unique,” Champlin said. “Sometimes the multi-neck instruments, you’re kind of like, okay … It just seems like a gimmick. But this guy could play the thing!”
Another peculiar instrument, a ‘50s Gibson LG, showed up in a road case alongside a backstage pass for an ‘80s Emmylou Harris show. It clearly belonged to a performer — but the person who brought it to the shop couldn’t identify them. Eventually, Champlin’s coworker found a video of Chicago folk musician Steve Goodman playing it.
“I’m also from Chicago, and he wrote the Cubs victory song, which I grew up singing, so that was just a really special thing,” Champlin said. Though he began restoring the instrument with the intent to sell it, “I’ve been touring and playing with that guitar — that’s like my main performing guitar now.”
Champlin has a soft spot for “classic, old-looking” guitars. But outside of his own tastes, he’s interested in and knowledgeable about all manner of string instruments — and gets great joy from sharing that knowledge with others.
“Customers in the shop come in and they try out, maybe, a different type of guitar, or they pick up a banjo or something,” Champlin said. “They’re like, ‘I’ve never played one like this!’ and get super inspired.”
But whether you’re a guitar nerd or a newbie, Champlin believes “there’s no such thing as a stupid question,” and knows customers walk through the doors with varying levels of expertise. As a musician, he defines his genre as “music made by people, for the people” — and this down-to-earth attitude bleeds into all his endeavors, onstage and off.
“I’ve got … a great crew of folks, [and] everybody’s passionate about instruments,” Champlin said. He continued, “I just feel lucky and happy to be part of downtown Bellingham and to be a part of the culture and community of this town. You know, the shop definitely feels like a community space.”
Champlin Guitars, located at 1121 N. State St. in Bellingham, is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday–Sunday. Info: champlinguitars.com.
Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.
