Carlos Francisco "Charles" Vega (born around 1942) was a trained machinist whose day job was making precise equipment for a Johns Hopkins chemical lab.  He started playing guitar in his 20s, and moved to Baltimore in the 1970s to study classical guitar at the Peabody Institute. Vega began working on instruments and eventually making them himself. In 1991 he was working in the basement of his Mount Washington home in his spare time, producing around 8 guitars each year.

Source: Taking measures in science and music; Artisan:... The Baltimore Sun. October 27, 1991.