[sawing]
>> Hunter S. Thompson once said
that, "Anything worth doing,
is worth doing right."
That motto has rung true
for Bruce Lee Rose
for almost his entire life,
and what he found worth doing
was building.
♪ ♪
>> You know, I always enjoyed
building things, whether
it was, you know, probably first
it was probably customizing
my bicycles.
And then it was, bought
an old van and the motor blew up
so I bought a book
and pulled the engine
and rebuilt it.
But I just like working
with things.
>> Eventually Bruce's love
for building wouldn't involve
fixing the sound of
a broken muffler or
the clanking of
a busted bike chain.
[motor whirrs]
No, Bruce's hands were drawn
to the sound of
a different tune.
♪ ♪
>> With guitars, you know,
you have one,
something goes wrong,
you have to fix it.
You start fixing them
and pretty soon realized,
well, I could just build one.
>> For the next 10 to 15 years,
Bruce did just that
in a guitar shop in Neenah.
>> I spent about 10 years
as guitar 911 doing repair
and building, custom building.
>> Bruce was fixing, building,
always using his hands
to make something he loved.
And he was doing it right.
♪ ♪
Until an accident involving
a piece of glass would
cause everything that seemed
so right for Bruce
to go very wrong.
>> Just a little glass cut
which was nothing in itself.
It's just was at exactly
the wrong spot.
You know those--
An inch over and he'd been dead.
Well, if it had been
a millimeter over
I'd have had a band aid.
>> The glass had severed almost
all of the tendons and nerves
in Bruce's right hand.
After a series of surgeries
his hand still only has
limited mobility,
with doctors only able to
reattach half of
the injured tendons.
It took over a year for Bruce
to re-learn to write his name.
>> And I didn't touch a guitar
for a while.
The only time in my life
since I was 10 that
that was the case.
You know, probably feeling
sorry for myself.
You know, it finally hit me
one day, I was raised,
you know, if a thing's worth
doing, it's worth doing right.
And I pretty much believe that.
I certainly try to do that.
But sometimes, I realized, when
the thing is really important,
it's really, the more important
truth is that it's worth
doing badly.
>> So after years of making
guitars the right way,
Bruce was now forced
to learn to make them
the wrong way.
And that included where
he bought
his building material.
>> Mostly cigar stores.
At this point we also--
People have been kind enough
to give us cigar boxes.
>> That's right, guitars made
out of cigar boxes.
Something Bruce was inspired
to build after seeing one
in action on stage.
>> It just looked like a riot.
It was a lot of fun.
I liked the sounds
he was getting out of it
>> And something his wife,
MaryAnn, fully supported.
>> I thought it was fantastic
because I think the first thing
he said was, "I'd like to buy
one of those."
And I think my response was,
"I think you'd like to make
one of those, wouldn't you?"
>> Bruce did just that.
He went home and found some
old cigar boxes in the basement
and started building.
But with the constant numbness
in his right hand,
Bruce could no longer
do the work required
to build one alone.
Luckily for him, he had
someone close by
to lend him a hand.
>> When he's doing a lot of the
sanding because the vibration,
you know, the frayed nerves--
The vibration is pain.
In order to decrease the pain
I take over some of the jobs
that he has a hard time doing.
>> Together, the two have made
dozens of cigar box guitars.
Each one different.
Each one, according to Bruce,
done badly.
But for him, the chance to work
closely with his wife
has been an experience
he wouldn't fix for anything.
>> Definitely the best thing
that ever happened to me.
That's really easy.
I give thanks for her everyday.
That's really what
it's all about.
And that's why this is
so much fun.
>> The two now spend their
summers traveling across
Wisconsin, setting up
a small white tent,
displaying and selling
their instruments to the public.
For MaryAnn, it's been a sort of
therapy session for Bruce.
>> He's blossomed a lot,
'cause I think by, you know,
having to work through
some of the things that
he has worked through.
And when he finishes a project
and then he sees
somebody play it and you know,
you can just--
He lights up.
>> And for Bruce, learning to be
bad at something has never felt
so right.
>> I have always
considered myself
the luckiest person on earth.
You can build the kind of life
that you want to
when you have somebody,
you know, that's there
to build it with you.