Dave Nichols has always had a knack for woodwork. Raised by a father who always had a woodshop for boat building and woodcarving, Nichols became crafty at a young age.

In his high school shop class, Nichols did the necessary research and built his first guitar. "I surprised my teacher and myself when the guitar was done," Nichols says.

Nichols says the guitar he made in high school was "playable" and the catalyst for building more stringed instruments down the road.

Today, Nichols works out of his shop in Malone as a custom pearl inlayer for Martin Guitars, local musicians as well as musicians around the world. He still rebuilds and repairs stringed instruments, known as a Luthier, and he plays in a bluegrass outfit called Dave Nichols and Spare Change every weekend in the summer.

After receiving degrees from Canton, Oswego State, and a PhD at Syracuse University, Nichols bought a house in Waddington, New York where he set up his first Luthier/inlay shop.

In the late sixties, Dave found, there weren't many people doing inlay. He saw an ad in a folk music magazine and met up with Mike Longworth, who was doing inlay work down in Tennessee.

During this time, Martin Guitars was looking to reintroduce their D-45, a pearl-bound bodied guitar with pearl inlay on the fingerboard and headstock, which had not been on the market since the 1940s.

Mike got himself appointed as organizer of the inlay department by the people at Martin and called Dave and told him he could do all the work and I (Longworth) would do the organizing. This worked for Dave as he felt Mike was better at organizing than inlay and he (Dave) had no desire in organizing Martin’s Pearl Department.

For the next several years, working part-time, Dave and a few helpers did the entire custom pearl inlay for Martin guitars. After the 1960s, Dave affirms most of the inlay work coming out of Martin was done right in his Waddington shop.

To this day, Dave continues to do inlay work for musicians who bring their guitars to their Martin dealers. The dealers call Martin, and Martin calls Nichols.

Each morning, Nichols gets in the shop around 6:45 am and checks his email to see what his orders are for the day. He will then begin cutting pearl shapes for inlays and work on jobs that require more attention. He tries to finish up his work that he doesn't necessarily want to do and make his money by noon. This enables him to get away from the business end in the other half of the day.

"In the afternoon, I like to do a fun repair or an inlay that takes my fancy.

Dave has done work for a variety of musicians ranging from country artists to 80's rockers. Examples include Del McCoury, David Grisman, Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, and even ZZ Top. Dave still treasures a letter Johnny Cash sent him saying how proud he was to own his fancy Martin guitar. The guitar was painted black with a tree of life inlaid on the fingerboard and his signature in the peg-head.

Of the eighties rockers, Dave built a series of guitars for ZZ Top and an Aerosmith guitar which had Spiderman inlaid in it and was used in the movie of the same name.

This year, Martin put out a series of Merle Haggard signature models that Nichols inlaid. Haggard bought fifteen of them and gave them to his friends, the likes of Willie Nelson and Norm Hamlett.

David enjoys what he does. Dave says, "I keep alive at it by playing music all summer, hanging out with musicians and flaunting my work."

In the winter months, he keeps busy doing the inlay bit, so he can go out the following summer and enjoy singing, playing, jamming and I suppose “flaunting” his work.

Why hasn't anyone heard of this man?  This is a question posed by the original author of most of this text. David doesn't have a listed phone number, and he doesn't advertise and he still has all the work he can handle. The truth is that he really is very well known in the industry, just not that easy to find even if you live only an hour away. A big part of his business is the mystique he explains. He says people who want some inlaying work done have to find him first. Dave says, “The mystique of the business is worth as much as a good advertising campaign."