HANDCRAFTED Harmony Maysville man creates one-of-a-kind instruments by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop he story has been the same for Kelly Stillfield ever since he picked up his most recent hobby, to put it lightly, more than a decade ago. He peruses musical instrument social media pages and message boards full of people looking for custom-made pieces. He'll bypass the request for the standard cigar box guitar or ukulele until he finds the person looking for a Princethemed electric ukulele patterned after the guitar the musician played. " I get back to them and tell them 'that's right up my alley,' " he says. " Then we start talking and texting and come up with a plan. That's the quirky stuff I'm into. " Kelly is a mechanic by trade, but has taken to building a myriad of string instruments in the basement of his Maysville home. He specializes in one-of-a-kind instruments that pay homage to the owner's interests. It started for Kelly while working in Des Moines, Iowa in his 20s. " We had a family friend that had a banjo. An heirloom family banjo. And I thought that was the coolest thing ever. So I built that thing, " the United Electric Cooperative member says pointing to the decades-old instrument in his kitchen. " Just built it on a shoestring budget and a whim. " 24 RURAL MISSOURI | JULY 2022 T