Profile of Calgary Guitar Maker Judy Threet, published in Avenue 

by Rhonda Parkinson

Judy Threet means it when she says: "I wouldn't change a thing."

Eight years ago, the Stanford PhD watched her career of teaching philosophy to University of Calgary students evaporate. Not that anyone criticized Threet's considerable teaching skills: the University recognized her twice for excellence in teaching. “It was the old publish or perish thing," the 42-year-old explains, adding that she was never able to summon up the same passion for research that she felt standing before a crowded lecture hall. 

Faced with an unexpected academic respite, Threet discovered there is more to life than tenure, especially when it came to music. Music had been part of her life since she started strumming folk tunes at age 12. And when she was still teaching, Threet unwound on the weekends by playing steel-string guitar in the local folk band Plugged Nickel. When fellow band member and guitar-maker Michael Heiden convinced her to invest in a custom-built model, she found herself frequenting his studio. Before long he recruited her to do the minor inlays (decorative work) on several of his own guitars.

One thing led to another and today Judy Threet crafts steel-string guitars fulltime. She initially apprenticed under Heiden but went solo when he moved away from Calgary. "I thought, why not go ahead and just do it?" she says. "So I hung out a shingle." Still a non-conformist at heart, she builds smaller-sized guitars under the name Threet Guitars, explaining that they’re easier to handle and produce a more balanced tone than larger instruments.

Career-pluses for the gregarious Threet include fraternizing with customers and annual trips to builders' conventions. She has no regrets over her post-academic life. "I make virtually no money, but I enjoy going to work in the mornings."