Wisconsin father, son work together to build a reputation one handcrafted instrument at a time
(InvestigateTV) — Inside a small town woodworking shop in Hollandtown, Wis., it’s safe to say Bruce Petros has found his niche.
“I’ve been doing this for 52 years,” Petros said.
“We’re trying to have a lasting, lasting beauty in instrument.”
Over five decades ago, while working as a tour guide in Colorado, contemplating what he would do for a career, Bruce purchased a guitar kit at a small shop.
“It was like $15, and I took it back to the resort where I was living,” Bruce recalled. “Put it together and looked at it and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is really cool. I can do this!’”
After starting his guitar-building career in the basements of rental homes, the Appleton-native found an opportunity to move his family to Hollandtown.
“We bought this place and tore down this garage and built the shop,” Bruce said.
The building and growth haven’t stopped since, with Bruce building his Petros Guitars brand into a well-known, well-oiled machine supplying both guitars and ukuleles -- an addition to the brand that started after a trip to Hawaii.
“I went to Hawaii and met up with these guys at one of the biggest ukulele stores in the world and showed them these two instruments and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll sell those for you,’” Bruce explained. “He sold them the next day. He goes, ‘You got to keep sending them to us,’ so we got really busy and sort of stopped taking guitar orders because we’re just so busy making ukuleles which is really fun.”
The ‘we’ Bruce is referring to is his partner in the shop and eventual heir to the Petros throne, his son, Matt.
“It’s just great to be able to create something with your hands,” Matt said, talking about the work he gets to do with his dad every day. “There’s never been any pressure. I’ve never been yelled at by my boss or threatened to be fired.”
“Guitar makers, when they quit, what are they doing to do? You can’t sell a guitar-making shop,” Bruce said.
“You can sell the tools and the wood; you can’t sell your reputation. This is kind of the ideal situation where the reputation is built in, and it continues on.”
While some projects stand out for the father/son duo, like the special edition 500th Petros Guitar ever made, they strive to make sure each one of their instruments they produce has that special Petros sound.
Learn more about this family duo by clicking here.
Copyright 2025 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
