Ben Harper

"IT STARTS OFF WITH A BIG CHUNK OF WOOD," says Ben Harper. And it's not Nick Nolte's acting technique he's talking about, or the history of baseball, but the precision guitar-making process which still goes on in the lutherer's shop at the back of the Harper family music store. "You've got to get it quarter sawn, then go through all the different grades of fine sanding..." That sounds like hard work. "It is, but I'll tell you what – the fulfillment of completion is considerable."