My Name is Gary Krepak, founder and sole luthier of Sole Food Diddley Works in Shreveport Louisiana.I am married to Alison Yvette Simoneaux Krepak and have two sons, Alexander Vladimir and Zachary Austin.This is a family business that one day, may actually BECOME a business, at the moment, it is a hobby that has become a business. I never envisioned the day that the Gispert box I grafted of piece of poplar to, would evolve so quickly into so many different instruments. Instruments that people wanted to buy and play...Maybe it has to do with my location. Shreveport is a mecca for the blues and roots music, home of greats as Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, The Louisiana Hayride, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Buddy Flett, Dirtfoot, The Bluebirds, Jerry Beach, Jay Davis, Joe Osborn and more gold and platinum recording musicians per capita then any other area I know of. The deep blues culture here has embraced my work and taken it into their homes and stages.The instruments are my at my home workshop almost entirely by hand with as few power tools as possible. Granted, increases in production will no doubt create the need for more automation and efficiency, but for now, I take a good deal of pride in the fact that these are essentially hand-made instruments and every one is unique in it's own way.I use only locally sourced materials whenever possible, and use only tonewoods that meet Greenpeace MusicWood FSC guidelines of forestry management and sustainability. I use as much recycled product as possible on my instruments and operated at a nearly ZERO carbon footprint. My shop consumes less than 20 amps of electricity from the grid. I love the my Family, My Planet, My Country and The Blues.
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