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It was the one that got away: Guitar No. 17, the 17th instrument that Yancey County luthier Richie Crowder ever built. He’d completed it on February 17 of 2017, and on June 17, he took it to the Wayne C. Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition, where he played it in public for the first time.

Crowder loved that guitar. He builds most of his instruments for other people, but he designed Guitar No. 17 for himself, using red spruce for the top and Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides. He spaced out the strings just the way he likes them and constructed the neck to his personal specifications. Each of his guitars is special, but for Crowder, Guitar No. 17 was extra special.

On a Friday afternoon, high in the hills above Spruce Pine, Crowder is perched on a stool in a little wood shop, surrounded by instruments he’s built. The colors of the guitars are earthy and warm, and the grains run across the surfaces like poetry. He gently caresses the midsize mahogany shade top that he built for a local singer-songwriter. Then he strums a few chords on the big Dreadnought-style guitar he made for his brother, Toby. The sound reverberates around the shop like the rich and heavenly tones of a harp.

Crowder’s always been into music and wood. His dad was a picker who loved bluegrass, and Crowder and Toby learned to play, too. Their grandfather was a whittler. “He was just an old mountain man, you know, who loved the old ways,” says Crowder, who recalls being mesmerized as he learned to whittle right alongside his grandpa.

For years, Crowder built furniture in a local factory and then worked in maintenance for the state. In 2015, he decided to build guitars as a hobby. He made his first one on the dining room table. His wife wasn’t thrilled about it. When friends caught wind of his work, they began asking him to custom-make guitars for them. Soon, he had a wait-list six months out, then 18 months out, and he’s now sold more than a hundred guitars across the country. The operation has grown so big that Crowder and his wife are currently building a new house and just recently built a new shop.

The red spruce that he uses for his guitars is harvested in Maggie Valley. Also known as Adirondack spruce, the species is prized for its clear and powerful tone and is often used for the tops of guitars. Crowder looks outside of North Carolina for other so-called “tone woods” — ones with deeper colors and warmer tones, like the Brazilian rosewood that he used for Guitar No. 17.

Shortly after completing it, he saw a vintage Martin guitar that a friend in Hickory owned. Crowder had long pined for an old Martin, so he traded Guitar No. 17 for it. But he always missed the instrument. The friend eventually sold Guitar No. 17 to someone in Alaska. And when that person sold it to someone else, the instrument got lost during shipping. Crowder thought he’d never see it again.

And then, in February — exactly eight years after he built Guitar No. 17 — Crowder said it showed up in an online market. He was ecstatic. He contacted the seller and agreed to buy his old guitar back. “In fact,” he says, slapping his hands on his thighs and smiling brightly, “it’s in transit right now.”

Two weeks later, Crowder writes to tell me that the instrument has arrived in Spruce Pine, as lovely as ever — albeit a little rougher for the wear. Guitar No. 17 — the one that got away — is now safely back home again.