Kirk Sand grew up in Springfield, Illinois. As a teen, Kirk played in garage bands and worked in Ralph Sordyl's House of Music and after graduating from High School in 1971 he left  for college in California where he studied guitar. Sand's first job after leaving Springfield was at the Fender Guitar factory in California in 1972. After Fender, he went to work at The Guitar Shop in Laguna Beach. He eventually bought the shop and has never moved away from Laguna Beach. His first high profile client was Jose Feliciano, but things really took off for Kirk when he met Chet Atkins in the late 1980s in Nashville and Chet played one of Kirk's guitars. Soon players like Jerry Reed, Earl Klugh and Steve Wariner (all Chet Atkins fans) were calling Kirk and he eventually sold around 300 of those guitars. Kirk's specialty is nylon stringed acoustics, but he also makes steel string acoustics and carved top electrics. If you want one of Kirk's custom-made guitars, it's likely to cost you somewhere in the $7,000-to-$10,000 range.

Source: Sand Guitars website (23 February 2017)

Source: Vine Street produced guitar maker supreme. State Journal Register. Aug 12, 2014, Dave Bakke,