luthier

R. C. Allen is a guitar luthier that uses the style of his many friends of the era in the early 1950s in Southern California when guitar innovators were reshaping the instrument and grooming it for a new birth. RC was building his own unique instruments when Leo Fender and Lowell Kiesel of Carvin were also just starting out. RC was influenced greatly by his dear friend Paul Bigsby who worked for Merle Travis on one of the most historic electric guitars of the era.

Tim Angell grew up interested in the craft of woodworking. As a teenager he became interested in stringed instruments. With little woodworking opportunities in New Jersey, Tom and his wife moved to Connecticut where Tim found a job at Ovations Guitar. He worked his way through many departments learning all of the stages of guitar building and participating in design and general modifications. Fascinated with computers and databases he kept track of serial numbers and statistics of the assembly and output of the shop.

Scott Baxendale is a noted guitar luthier who has crafted a unique career based on his own style of guitar building that echoes several of his favorite luthiers. While working for Mossman guitars, he created several specialized instruments, including the noted custom Warner Brother’s guitar, which showcased his skilled techniques of inlay, design, and use of creative bracings. Scott bought the company for a time. To this day, he continues to design guitars.
 

Robert Benedetto is a guitar luthier’s luthier! Respected around the world, Bob has achieved what few have in guitar craftsmanship: a unique style and sound, creative and classic design, and tooling that is second to none. His knowledge of guitar building was evident in our interview with Bob along with his genuine respect for his contemporaries. With his lovely wife, Cindy, at his side, Bob was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program on January 18, 2004. 

George Borun began his luthier endeavors as a hobby and soon found himself enthralled with the angles, the woods and the tools of the trade. He embarked on a mission to assemble the blueprints and patterns of the world’s finest string instruments and sought to solve the mystery of their uniqueness. Along the way he created an impressive collection of instruments he made by hand and topped off his belief in giving music back to music makers by then donating his instruments to students of all levels.  

John Carruthers has established himself as a leading expert on guitars and amplifiers as a designer, builder and repairman. Working along side Leo Fender at Music Man, John helped improve the quality of the product line and years later helped establish a series of instruments for Yamaha including their electric bass and acoustic guitar line. John’s reputation grew in part due to a decade long column he wrote for Guitar Player Magazine and his dedication to teaching.

Harvey Citron is one of the industry’s best-known and respected guitar luithers. Since a young age he has played the guitar and always seemed to have the ideas of changing the instrument to create unique sounds. He has designed some of the most innovative guitars of his time, such as those including novel materials such as plastics and fiberglass. In recent years Harvey has also been writing about guitar repair and in fact Homespun Video released “Easy Guitar Maintenance and Repair Taught by Harvey Citron.”

Mervyn Davis began working full time as a guitar luthier in 1978. Located in South Africa, Mervyn had unique access to materials he used in making his instruments and because he was in an area with few guitar builders he was able to create a strong and loyal customer base. Over the years he has expanded the style of guitars he creates as well as the materials and designs used in his inlay work. However, the true beauty of his handiwork is the sound of his instruments, perhaps a reflection of the violin luthier skills of his father and grandfather years ago. 

Michael Dresdner loves woodworking, so when the opportunity came up to build guitars he jumped at it. He designed and built several styles of acoustic guitars before being hired by the C.F. Martin Guitar Company. He later worked for Young Chang, the piano company, as they wanted to expand their instrument product line. Michael was asked to design the building for what would be the Tacoma Guitars Company in the 1990s. Michael is also a prolific writer and has covered many topics related to guitar making as well as woodwork and design. 

Wilbur Fuller took to woodwork at a young age.  When he was 16, from the instructions in a magazine, he made a desk, which still stands in the corner of his small farmhouse in western Michigan.  In 1954, his cousin Walter, who engineered the Gibson amplifier in nearby Kalamazoo, told Wilbur of an opening in the company’s wood shop.