“Concert in the R ound,” and
the guitar that Jimi H endrix
played at the M onterey Pop
Festival in 1967. H e also built
custom guitars for som e o f the
world’s most visible musicians,
buying out Stuart M ossm an in
1985, after M ossm an fell ill.
By 1988, he w as working
around the clock, and his life
began to unravel. Baxendale
had experim ented w ith drugs
during college; now he started
relying on cocaine to keep up
w ith his intense work schedule.
By 1990, he had a full-blow n
coke habit. A s the drug took
over, music fell away. W hat
follow ed w as a tw o-year horror-
ride fueled by a cocaine addic-
tion that devastated fam ily and
friends, cost him every cent he
had in cash and property (he
estim ates about $ 5 0 0 ,0 0 0 ), and
left him hom eless. A t one point,
he and a fellow addict robbed
som e crack dealers at gunpoint.
Charged w ith three counts o f
aggravated robbery, Baxendale
spent seven months in jail in
D enver, as his case slow ly
w ound through the courts.
Above: Rebuilding a guitar
for Jeff Tweedy of Wilco,
Baxendale has his own way
of holding the bits and piec-
es of soundboard bracing in
place. The flexible dowels
apply just enough pressure
to keep everything secure
while glue dries.
Opposite: A carved-top
mandolin in progress;
Baxendale uses a rasp to
shape a guitar neck; and a
custom 7-string acoustic
made of fine hardwoods
(top) and a 1960s depart-
ment-store instrument
rebuilt with Baxendale’s
signature top bracing to
transform its sound.
In the end, Baxendale’s
prowess as a luthier saved him
from a 10-year prison sentence.
T he judge learned o f his work
w ith M ossm an guitars and
allow ed him to serve tw o
years at a drug rehab center
and the other eight on proba-
tion, calling in each day and
subm itting to random drug
tests. It w as a break that Bax-
endale badly needed;a year
into sobriety, there was more
tragedy: H is w ife and 14-year-
old daughter w ere killed in a
railroad crossing accident.
0 5 4 a m e r i c a n c r a f t
a u g / s c p n
P r o c e s s p h o t o s (2 ): P a m e la B a x e n d a le
