VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — “I fell in love with wood,” said Brian Hawkins as he laughed. “That sounds crazy, but I did.”
For nearly three decades, Hawkins has been carving out chords in his small Virginia Beach workshop, handcrafting guitars with unique backstories.
On the workbench in front of him lay pieces of 100-year old mahogany from furniture a family member had back in the 1920s, soon to be a guitar for his daughter’s 21st birthday — in the back of the shop, large chunks of black walnut from a man’s family tree that once stood tall at his grandfather’s home…