Jack Facca moved to Martensville with his family approximately three years ago, and with them, they brought a part of Canada’s music legacy that many Saskatchewan people are likely unaware of.
Fury Guitars was created by Glenn McDougall in 1962 and ran out of his home in Saskatoon until his passing in 2017. McDougall was the first electric guitar manufacturer in Canada.
Music has always been a big part of Jack Facca’s life. It wasn’t something that he found as he got older, instead it was something that he was born into. Growing up in Wiseton, Saskatchewan as the sixth of seven children, Facca watched his older brothers making music and playing gigs from a very young age. By the time he was 16; Facca had his first band and within a couple years, moved to Saskatoon where he was playing with bands as lead guitarist. Facca noted that his biggest gig was opening for Harlequin and Prism at Centennial Auditorium.
One of the bands that Facca was playing had him playing alongside Kirt McDougall, who was Glenn McDougall’s son and as he and Kirt became friends, Facca also got to know Glenn. “A number of years before Kirt introduced me to Glenn, I had actually met him as I was looking for a new career change. When I went to see him, I found out that Canada’s first electric guitar manufacturer was a one-man show,” Facca said. That first visit with Glenn ended up being 6.5 hours long and after Jack began playing in a band with Kirt, the friendship between him and Glenn continued to grow over the years. “We really hit it off. We were spending a lot of time in the shop, we would go for coffee and suppers and just talk. I just wish that I had gotten to know him more when I first met him all those years ago.”
In the fall of 2016, Glenn was diagnosed with cancer and sadly passed away in February of 2017 – only days short of his 80th birthday.
Over the years, Glenn built thousands of guitars with the Fury name. “Glenn was a genius and you don’t meet too many of those in your lifetime. He did it all, he designed them, he built them, and he painted and did all of the buffing and polishing. The thing about him is that he should have been a multi-millionaire, but he decided to be more of an artist than a business man. He did what he loved and he produced a quality instrument every single time,” Facca explained. In addition to creating thousands of guitars over the years, Glenn also made the machines that he used to make the parts for the guitars. “I called him Da Vinci. He was an inventor and a master craftsman.”
In late 2016, Glenn asked Facca to be in a partnership with him; however due to a career change taking place at that time, Facca felt that he wasn’t ready for something like that at the moment. “I thought about it and being very passionate about guitars myself, once Glenn ended up going into the hospital, there was a burning in me that told me if I didn’t tell him that I wanted to build guitars, and if he didn’t hear that from me, I would have regretted it. When I did tell him that that’s what I wanted to do, he lit up like a lightbulb,” Facca stated.
Since Glenn’s passing, Facca has been slowly getting things ready as he prepares to re-open Fury Guitars. The plan is to open the doors to the business on July 1st, 2022, which marks the 60th anniversary for Fury Guitars. Once open, the business will be based out of Martensville.
“I am pretty excited about everything, although those are some really big shoes to fill. I know that I have a lot to learn, but I am confident that I am going to make this work. There are thousands of guitars out there and the owners have nowhere to get replacement parts because they were all built by one guy. It isn’t something you can just walk into your local store and pick up.”
Once open, Facca plans to start designing his own instruments, as well as finish some of Glenn’s creations that were not quite complete. These guitars will have a special serial number with a GM on them, and anything built by Facca afterwards will include a PGM serial number (Post Glenn McDougall). “This way people will know that they were final assembled after his passing. Anything that I design will look different than what Glenn built. In the future, history will know that Glenn’s work was his and mine will be mine.”
When he isn’t playing music, Facca is a Journeyman Machinist by trade, and nowadays spends his days working as a Quality Inspector. Although his time outside of his full-time job is often spent preparing for the re-opening of Fury Guitars, Facca still finds the time to create music and released an album with his duo partner David Sanders, from their band Slick Gizmo on July 1st of this year. Their album can be found on Spotify, YouTube, etc. “I still want to keep playing music. I won’t be doing the gigs that I used to do because of the business now, but I still want to write and record.”
At this point, the plan is to keep the business small, as Facca said he isn’t trying to take the world by storm, and instead just wants to humbly build guitars and keep the quality and the Fury name alive.
For those that wish to learn more about Glenn McDougall, there is currently a documentary about his legacy being filmed by Lisa Unrau. “I am looking forward to the documentary. Glenn deserves to be on the map. He was a pioneer for his time. There was no internet back then to learn from, he did it all on his own and that first guitar that he made is just as good as any of the guitars you would pick up today.”
“It really is an honour that I had the opportunity to get to know Glenn and become friends with him and that he asked me to do this. I am so thankful to the McDougall family for this opportunity. There is no failure here. It is all about providing a quality instrument for people and hopefully it brings out the best in them, whether it be writing a song, or just having fun. If it makes them want to pick up an instrument and Fury is their choice, that would great!”
