Ryan Thorell is something of a case study for turning your passion into a successful career.
Thorell is a luthier (aka guitar maker) and the owner of Thorell Fine Guitars in Logan, Utah. And much like the handcrafting of his instruments – which are sold for up to $15,000 each – turning his passion into a successful career has taken time.
Thorell built his first guitar at age 14 while attending Butler Middle School in Cottonwood Heights. For years he made guitars in his cabinet shop at night after work while teaching guitar lessons in 2003. Three years later Thorell began to focus primarily on making archtop guitars – which are specially designed for playing jazz music – while installing exhibits at trade shows and tries to publicize his craft.
“I think you’re doing all the right things,” Thorell says of starting his business. “If you have something that you love and you find a way to monetize it or give it back to the community, then it’s really about going out and believing in what you’re doing and showing it to people. has an excitement of its own. I think that’s really true with any job.
By 2009, the word was out. Thorell sold guitars to former Ray Charles guitarist JD Moffat, the late University of Utah music professor Keven Johansen, and famed jazz guitarist Frank Vignola, who played with Ringo Starr and Madonna, toured 21 countries and recorded 30 albums.
When a friend introduced Vignola to Thorell, Vignola knew he had found the right guitar for him.
“A perfect match for my game. I don’t know how he did that,” Vignola said. “His guitars are exceptional instruments. I was shocked when he sent me his idea for a [Frank Vignola] model. It was so good that I immediately took it with me for a tour in the European Union.
This guitar has since become Thorell’s most popular model, and Eastman Guitars began mass-producing it.
Since then, Thorell’s business has taken off. He often has a long waiting list for his guitars at any given time. Since he works alone and makes each guitar by hand, he can only make 10 to 15 guitars per year.
Most of Thorell’s hand-built guitars are custom orders, with many selling for between $8,500 and $15,000 each. A big part of what makes guitars special is the personal attention and dedication that Thorell brings to the creation of each instrument.
“It’s a job where you get paid to bring your A game and do your best every time, on every guitar, or it doesn’t have the value it needs to command the price you need to be able to allow to do it, in terms of time,” Thorell said. “I think that mentality over time has allowed me to become more humble about what is possible in the craft of luthier and what could be the pinnacle of construction.It really is an art, like the sculptor who will never reach his full potential.
However, Thorell wouldn’t go so far as to call himself an artist. With his experience in cabinetmaking and carpentry, he is more of a craftsman.
“I have more artistic moments, but a lot of what I do is try to distill the simplicity of a design,” he says. “There’s already too much going on with most of the guitars I try to build, and I try to distill that into something that speaks well visually.”
Thorell sells his guitars worldwide and has become quite well known in the jazz world. He is already thinking about what his legacy will be.
“I think it was just something I thought I wanted to do in life… [but] I really care about the guitars I leave after I die,” he says. “There are only 180 now, and there will probably only ever be 400 or 500. It’s definitely become something I care about preserving now.”
From making guitars in his shop after work to leaving a legacy in the form of 400 or 500 highly desirable instruments is a big leap, and it didn’t happen overnight. Though he warns other guitar makers that planning to make a living from their trade is risking disaster, Thorell managed to make that dream a reality through balance.
“It’s not configured to work,” says Thorell. “When you build a career like this, you have to take care of yourself first. You take care of your creature, whatever it is. Keep yourself healthy and be able to walk away from it, do another job and letting it grow in a healthy way is the best way to turn it into something that will be a really positive thing for you in the future.