Reid was born in Toronto, Canada in 1952. As a teenager he studied the Reid Hudsondouble bass with Tom Monahan, planning to continue at the University of Toronto. His career path changed when he showed Monahan a bass he had repaired. Tom was impressed, and introduced him to Joseph Kun, a Czech violin and bowmaker who had immigrated to Ottawa with the Czech exodus in 1968. In Ottawa Reid followed an old style European apprenticeship with Kun, focusing primarily on bowmaking.