Tuning to Finer Things

Bill Smeltzer’s Love of Music and Woodworking Come Together

Music has been a lifelong interest for Bill Smeltzer. “It started with a guitar,” he says. “I played and sang. In time, I found opportunities to play in groups and enjoyed jamming with others.”

Since his retirement seven years ago, Smeltzer has filled his time developing his musical skills with an infectious joy. “Minutes happen, moments are created: this is an ideology I came up with many years ago,” he says. “I have looked for ways to interrupt what can become repetitive minutes in my day-to-day existence. This is important because it is this realm of continuous learning, enthusiasm, and accomplishment that life is enhanced.” Smeltzer has put his words into practice as he consistently exercises his mind with new challenges, including his current passion project that has evolved over the past five years.

“I chose the baritone ukulele as a starting point on my adventure to create something outside my normal realm of activity,” he says, while describing how he researched, designed, and built this instrument for his seven grandchildren and other family members. Motivated to pass on his love for music, Smeltzer combined his interest with woodworking to craft several ukuleles.

Determined to design the finest of instruments, Smeltzer even built the tools required to bend the wood and develop his design. The process began as 1,000 hours of labour of love for each instrument. “There is a whimsical side to this undertaking,” he explains. “Which is one of creating a new path for used pallets, old furniture, or forgotten timber washed down a northern Ontario river, and giving them a chance to create their own moment. The result is an instrument which has its own voice, its own unique imperfections, but the capability of producing outstanding tone.”

After creating over 20 unique ukuleles, Smeltzer says that “to realize my passion in its full form, my hope is that one day, one of the recipients will create beautiful music involving one of my hand-crafted instruments. This would do two things: firstly, to allow me to truly recognize the accomplishment, and secondly, to demonstrate that we can do amazing things with what is around us—in this case materials destined for waste recycled to create harmony.”

“To move this dream along, each recipient has been asked to enjoy their gift, but also to freely put it in the hands of any young person that could appreciate and benefit from a premium instrument to use for their learning and growth.”