Joining together his lifelong passion for musical instruments with an irrepresible inclination to fix broken stuff, Paul Hemmings established Spuyten Duyvil String Instrument Repair to help better serve the lutherie needs of the North Bronx, Upper Manhattan, and the greater New York City area.

An inveterate tinkerer by nature, Paul first cut his teeth on musical instrument repairs as a college student at UC Davis in the mid-1990s. While working at Davis Music (subsequently Second Street Music), he got his initial taste for guitar repair work and apprenticed for a time with local lutherie legend Keith Cary. After graduating from college, Paul packed up his car and drove across the country to Ithaca, NY, where he continued to soak up guitar repair know-how from co-workers Harry and Jordan Aceto at Ithaca Guitar Works. Then after a short stint as a cruise ship musician, Paul finally landed in New York City and soon began working at Matt Umanov Guitars in the West Village where he worked with renowned luthier Tom Crandall, a relationship that endures to this day.