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My name is Ferdinand van den Berg. In 2001 I graduated at the Amsterdam HMC. This school educates a four year course in furniture crafting and woodworking. Besides furniture, I made in the school two acoustic guitars and a lap steel guitar.
During the course, I started helping repairing guitars for guitar shop "The String" in Amsterdam under guidance of Ritch the guitar doctor of the shop. After graduating I kept working as a repairman for the shop, mostly for guitar electronic repairs. I was fortunate to have had the chance to travell with Rienk († 2024), the owner of the shop, several times to USA to buy vintage guitars for his shop, a valuable experience.
Later I worked for a few years as a technician for the Dutch National Opera and Ballet. Besides technical light and decor related work, including follow spotting, I learned what is needed to prepare a show and how to reduce the chance for mistakes to a minimum. I would later adapt this way of thinking to guitar repairs.
At free moments in between the theater work I kept myself busy with guitars and after building another one, I decided to start as a guitar builder.
The workshop called "Fern's Guitars And Parts" was started in January 2005 in Haarlem, nearby Amsterdam. Working space was found at an industrial area, called Waarderpolder, in a multi company building with lots of startup businesses. Here, production started of the first guitars and lap steel guitars and contacts have been made with suppliers and surrounding shops. An important part was the start of supplying Lollar pickups in 2007. Within three years, the workshop grew to become a professional place for repair work and crafting. The nickname Fern was given by a waitress in Florida, during a guitar tradeshow visit, as a respons by introducing my name ("Can I call you Fern?").
At the night of 31st December 2007/ 1st of January 2008 a huge fire broke out in the building were the workshop was located. After a week of doubts slowly a start could be made of checking the damage. Two big companies had been completely destroyed, and many small companies were seriously damaged. As by a miracle, Fern's Guitars did not suffer from any material damage. The building was of course not suitable for work anymore, so everybody had to find a new place to start. A space was found around February 2008 in the center of Amsterdam in a shared woodworking space.
(Fire at Waarderpolder area at 1st January 2008)
(The colapsed building at 7th January 2008)
From January 2008 the name of the workshop changed to 'Fern's Guitars' as a fresh start. The location, after years of sharing the space, now is fully in use and made into a unique workshop in the center of Amsterdam. Local and international customers find their way to the shop and many keep returning from time to time. Good contact is established with surrounding guitar shops and venues like nearby Paradiso and De Melkweg. The workshop has a spacious setup with several working tables. After Fern's Guitars became a accredited training company, often an intern from the HMC school is helping. Although nowadays more focused on repair work, I keep on making a few guitars each year that are worth the label made in Amsterdam.
