Waddy Wachtel is the noted studio musician and songwriter who can be heard on hit records with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, among others. ...
Donnie Wade "borrowed" his parent’s car when he was 14 years old to drive to a bar so he could hear Freddie King play the guitar! That experience and an earlier encounter with Merle Travi...
Lester Wagner began in the woodworking and sanding department of the C.F. Martin & Company before World War II. He moved from the North Street Plant in 1964 to the bigger manufacturin...
EZ Wajcman was fascinated by the need for specialized sounding guitar pickups. Together with Bill Lawrence, EZ opened their pickup company in 1965 and produced a well-respected product t...
Fred Walecki grew up in a musical family. His father was an expert on the violin who established a rare instrument dealership in Southern California back in 1946. Fred worked with his fat...
Ren Wall proudly followed his father's footsteps and worked in the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He began working for the company in 1960 and continued until 1982. A few...
Sam Wangler ran a music store in Bismarck, North Dakoda for 35 years before his retirement. He taught himself guitar after hearing "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures as a kid. He later pl...
Dennis Waring has created his own line of musical products made out of cardboard. The harp and guitars are a fun way to get people playing a musical instrument, which is his main goal. ...
Ellen Warmoth and her husband, William, created a true “Mom and Pop” music store when they opened Artisan Guitars in Franklin, Tennessee, not far from Nashville. The store has a wonderfu...
William Warmoth and his wife Ellen opened a small guitar shop in Franklin, Tennessee, with the dream of providing acoustic guitars to music makers of all ages. Their small shop has grown...
WT Warmoth is currently an Industrial Design major at Savannah College of Art & Design and has dreams of becoming a guitar luthier. As the son of William and Ellen Warmoth, the found...
Jim Washburn took on a writing assignment as a journalist for a newspaper about the electric guitar, which led to a series of books and articles that has documented a significant chapter ...
Walter “Wolfman” Washington was a staple on the New Orleans music scene since first picking up a guitar in the 1950s. After some minor corrections on technique and tuning, Wolfman hit the...
Bruce Waters grew up with his guitar ever-present. He played for small events around the Chicago area as a kid and started providing music lessons when he was 18 years old. He later toure...
Charles Watkins invented the Watkins Copicat, an echo unit introduced in 1958. Mr. Watkins was inspired by the Morino Marini Quartet who made famous the Comi Prima, which contained a spec...
Claude Watson was a precise and revered luthier who perfected the fine art of handcrafted instrument building. He was known for his clever design and complex inlay work in country-style ...
Richard Webb’s grandfather opened a pawnshop in England and his father, Sydney, developed a small music division within the shop some 20 years later. Since the age of 12, Richard thought ...
Darren Webb has played a key role at Santa Cruz Guitar Company since joining the team in the 1990s. With a focus on the service and repair of older Santa Cruz instruments, most important...
Jimmie D. Webb operated a small music shop in Antioch, California, which was also the headquarters for his amplifier business. The Webb Amps were widely used by electric blues and rock b...
Thomas Weilbier is the President of No. 1 Guitar Center GmbH, which is located in the musical hub of Hamburg, Germany. Thomas related some of the strong rock and roll history of the city...
Hagen Weise was born in Dresden. He shares his experience of his apprenticeship at Musima in a state run production in East Germany before 1989. Per day, four-hundred classical guitars we...
Jennifer Weiss listened closely to the stories her aunt and mother would tell about working in the CF Martin Guitar factory as she grew up. She followed in their footsteps first in the st...
Chris Wellons was playing percussion in grade school, and about the same time, he took an interest in wood working. He was hired as a cabinet builder while still in school and continued i...
Bill Wenzloff proudly represented Morley at the 2019 NAMM Show in Anaheim when the CEO of NAMM, Joe Lamond, presented Bill with the NAMM Milestone Award for 50 years in business. Bill was...
Stanley Werbin opened a small guitar shop he named Elderly Instruments on July 5, 1972. The original location was in East Lansing, Michigan and focused on "used instruments". Within a fe...
Paul Werkheiser often says he would never trade his memories of the years he worked for the C.F. Martin & Company. He expressed the family-like relationships he had and the pleasure i...
Lars Wern is the Vice President of Em Nordic AB in Stockholm, Sweden, working alongside the company’s founder, Benny Englund. In fact, during the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Lars and Benn...
Eleanor West and her husband Pearl established a music store in Iowa City just a year after getting married in 1940. Eleanor was the bookkeeper in the early years of West Music Company an...
Harry West was the founder of Fine Musical Instruments located in Statesville, North Carolina. The store was an early pioneer in vintage stringed instrument sales and in fact, Stanley Ja...
Jack Westheimer was among the first industry leaders interviewed for the NAMM archives back in July 2002. Four years later we had the unique opportunity to complete a second interview wit...
Larry Wexer was the first member of his family to be born in America and was always encouraged to learn music by his grandparents. After growing up during the folk movement in New York, h...
Dusty Wheeler served as a medic in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. After the war he attended college all the while playing guitar and giving lessons. In 1979 he opened Dusty’s Gu...
