A Music Man with the Touch of an Artist

A Music Man with the Touch of an Artist

Photo by Leonard Shapiro

Gregg Helvey makes the guitars that make his music.

Growing up in Fresno, California, just like many teenagers around the world back in the 1960s, Middleburg dentist Gregg Helvey was enamored with an up-and-coming English musical group calling themselves The Beatles.

It seemed only natural to start taking guitar lessons, but he also was fascinated by the instrument itself. So much so, he managed to craft one from scratch by himself back then. It’s now proudly displayed at his office on Marshall Street.

There are other far more complicated electric guitars on walls all around as well, each also designed and built by Helvey. The garage at his Middleburg area home is loaded—his family members would likely say overloaded—with countless machines and tools to support his rather eclectic (and electric) hobby. And that’s where he also goes to play and sing all by his lonesome, loving every minute.

After graduating from Georgetown’s dental school in 1976 and spending two years in the Air Force, Helvey and his wife, Anne, came to Middleburg in 1978 after he purchased the practice of retiring local dentist. The family, including sons Gregg and Joseph, lived in the village and he served one term on the Middleburg Town Council and seven years on the Planning Commission.

Music always remained a passion, and about ten years ago, he decided to get back into creating guitars, this time electric. He’s made ten, each with a slightly different design, all with their own distinctive sound.

“I’ve had some patients who were semi-pros with guitars and they tried them out for me to see if I was on the right track,” Helvey said recently.

“One of them asked me ‘how much did you pay for this, like $3,500?’ I said ‘no, I made it.’ To me it’s just a form of art.”

Helvey said that over the years “I’ve only bought three guitars in my life. Two of them I tore down and rebuilt them to change the sound dynamic. All of mine sound different, and it’s all due to their electronics.”

As a skilled dental practitioner, Helvey obviously has uniquely magical, nimble hands, one reason his guitar-making seems like a natural fit for a man used to working in the close quarters of a sensitive human mouth. He’s also been helped in his guitar making with how-to videos he watches on You Tube. None are for sale.

“I do it because it’s fun, and it’s relaxing,” he said. “I make up my own music. I record myself, then I usually say ‘oh my god, this is just terrible.’ But then my wife will listen and she’ll say, ‘hey, that’s pretty good.’”

Helvey has his own musical heroes, including masterful Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and of course, The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

“Keith Richards changed the way you play it,” Helvey said, adding that in the 1920’s, instrument manufacturer Gibson came up with an inexpensive six-string guitar “A lot of musicians were playing banjos that were five strings so they took off the sixth string and played with five. Richards only plays with five strings in a lot of his music, and no-one does it better.”

Helvey also has other artistic interests. During Covid, he started to paint. Along with a few of his electric guitars, there’s a lovely framed painting he did of Mount Vernon displayed prominently on another office wall.

Magical hands indeed, and clearly multi-talented, as well.