I’m Brian Dickel. I’m 50% of the ownership of Huss & Dalton Guitars. Soon to be 100% this fall. So, yeah, I will be Huss & Dalton without actually being either Huss or Dalton.
Cooper Wentz: And how did you get into that position?
Brian Dickel: Well, I was in college a million years ago, and at that point, I was kind of disillusioned. Back when print ads were still a real thing, I saw an ad in the back of Acoustic Guitar magazine for Bryan Galloup’s Guitar Hospital Repair school, or whatever it was called back in the day.
So, I took that, dropped out of college, and went straight there. Then I had a friend who owned Huss & Dalton, which I had never heard of at the time. They were fairly new, having just started in 1995. This was around 1998-99, so I went down and talked to them. I thought, This is pretty cool.
I was trying to use what I had learned at Galloup to build a career of some sort. I started talking to them, got a job as an employee in 2000, and eventually had the opportunity to buy in when Jeff Huss wanted to retire. Now I’m the owner of Huss & Dalton Guitars. It’s been a 25-plus-year journey, and suddenly, here I am, ready to take it all on by myself.
Cooper Wentz: And how did you position yourself so that this opportunity came your way?
Brian Dickel: I think I was just eager and showed up early for everything. I had good building skills, but I also understood business. I grew up in a small business with my father, so I had at least seen that side of things.
Jeff and Mark must have seen some potential in me. They moved me up the ranks, and I became the production manager of the shop. That was my first real management role. I still build to this day, but I also handle the business side and help guide the team.
So yeah, I just organically rose through the ranks by developing my skills, showing up all the time, and making myself available to learn new things.
Cooper Wentz: I’m assuming, though, that when you were fresh out of Galloup and just got this job, your skills weren’t fully fleshed out?
Brian Dickel: No, not at all. I think I was pretty good. Hopefully, Bryan Galloup would say the same thing if you asked him. But I was still as green as they come. I showed promise, I guess.
I started out making small parts—milling out rough things, learning how to thickness and sand. I definitely started at the bottom at Huss & Dalton. Eventually, I did a lot of fretwork. For about ten years, I handled all the fretwork for Huss & Dalton, which ended up being around 2000-2500 fret jobs. That’s like a lifetime’s worth of re-frets for some people, you know?
Cooper Wentz: I see one electric here, but you guys do both acoustics and electrics?
Brian Dickel: We’re mostly an acoustic company. In 2018, we started developing an electric. We have a single-cutaway and a double-cutaway—nothing too outside the box—but we started there with carved tops. We figured if we could pull those off, then moving into a flat-top model would be an easier thing to figure out.
Cooper Wentz: What’s the mission statement or differentiating factor of Huss & Dalton?
Brian Dickel: Tonally, first and foremost, we fit into our own little pocket. We’re known for having a warm, organic, woody sound. Our radius bracing voices the guitar a little differently than some manufacturers. It’s all about attention to detail.
We build on tradition, more or less. We do a lot of traditional designs. We’re not doing anything too modern, but we take traditional designs and execute them exceptionally well with our own twists. So our mission statement is essentially: Everyone builds a square-shoulder dreadnought—how do we make ours the one we want to play? That’s what it comes down to.
Cooper Wentz: How big is the business?
Brian Dickel: Right now, I have six full-time builders. Mark and I are still partially in production—we count ourselves as about one person between our other duties. Then there’s one person in the office. With that team, we turn out roughly 200 guitars a year. So we’re pretty efficient.
I’ve worked hard to make the shop efficient and repeatable. I don’t want it to rely on any one person’s specific skills. It’s great that I know how to do certain things, but I don’t want to be the only one who can do them. So, we focus on creating repeatable processes, setting up jigs, and placing people in roles that play to their strengths. I’ve got a great crew, and I couldn’t be happier.
Cooper Wentz: So, you’re on the more boutique end of the market, correct?
Brian Dickel: Yeah. We’re in the same category as Collings, Bourgeois, and Santa Cruz. We do production, we do a lot of custom work, but we are boutique. That said, we’re making up to five guitars a week.
Cooper Wentz: So, Huss and Dalton founded the business?
Brian Dickel: Correct. They both still live in the area. I see Jeff Huss quite frequently. There’s still close enough if I ever want to tap on their shoulder, I can totally do that.
Cooper Wentz: A lot of people here have taken nontraditional career paths. What advice do you have for Galloup School students pursuing a passion as a career?
Brian Dickel: Totally, totally. This isn’t a job you’re just going to find listed anywhere. You have to have some skill set, but you don’t need to be completely polished. What I want to see in a new hire is an attitude that’s willing to work, learn, and show up—not someone who thinks they already know everything.
For me, Galloup gave me the confidence to even have the conversation with Huss & Dalton. I might have thought, Oh, I don’t qualify for any of these jobs otherwise.
One thing I always tell my employees is: I want to hear your ideas, but don’t change anything without asking me first. Do it the way I say first, because I know it works. Then, if you have a better idea later, I want to hear it. I might say, Oh, we tried that before, and here’s why it didn’t work, or I might say, That’s brilliant—let’s adopt it.
Come in with an open mind, be willing to learn, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Cooper Wentz: What advice would you give to someone fresh out of Galloup?
Brian Dickel: Don’t get discouraged. I didn’t think this was what I was going to do. I wanted to do repairs. I went to every music store in my area, and they all said, Why would I need you? That was the attitude back then. It has changed for the better—now people realize that every guitar probably needs a setup.
I got turned down a ton. Eventually, I was literally working in a rock quarry when I got the call from Huss & Dalton. You never know when an opportunity will come. Keep putting your work out there. Keep practicing. Be humble–if you want to be employed by a manufacturer or if you want to start your own thing–either way, you just have to start at the humble beginnings.
Be confident in your work, but realize you still have things to learn.
Cooper Wentz: You’re about to take 100% ownership of Huss & Dalton. What are your future plans?
Brian Dickel: First and foremost, I’m not going to rock the boat. Huss & Dalton has a 30-year success trail. I don’t want to take something and just completely turn it upside down.
That said, I’d like to be a little more present to the public. We only go through dealer networks at this point, but I’d like to invite the public in a little more. I’d love to make a showroom, so you can see our work. Beyond that, we’ll continue the high mark of excellence: always striving for perfection, nitpicking over the tiniest details.
I think alternative tonewoods are a really cool future. Some of these changes are being forced on us, but we’re getting some happy results. I’m excited to see where things go.