Salani, whose African name is Wamkanganise Nagaadza, feels very strongly about the role musical instruments play in honoring our ancestors. The Mbira, which he builds and plays speaks to...
Andy Allen established the custom shop within the Maton Guitar Company in Melbourne, Australia. The company was created by Bill May back in 1946 along with the help of his brother Reg. Si...
R.C. Allen was a guitar luthier that used the style of his many friends of the era in the early 1950s in Southern California when guitar innovators were reshaping the instrument and groom...
Tom Anderson, founder of Tom Anderson Guitarworks, fell in love with the guitar at age eight, inspired by the electrifying sounds of 1950s rock and surf legends like Dick Dale. A natural-...
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 wif...
Lloyd Baggs began his journey in music in forth grade as a cellist. After playing in youth symphonies he landed in the UCLA symphony while still in high school. Lloyd graduated from colle...
Earnie Bailey was mesmerized as a kid, sitting in the front row of an Earth, Wind & Fire concert and seeing all the instruments up close! This experience inspired him to go to the lib...
Henry Barnes is a wonderful example of the type of luthier and repair technician you want working on your musical instruments. With a background in building guitars for Charvel, Grover Ja...
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...
Vinnie Bell was a studio musician in New York who often was asked to create new and unique sounds. As a luthier, Vinnie built several innovative guitars including one tuned like a sitar. ...
Bob 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...
Jason Berg is a guitar tech at Union Grove Music in Santa Cruz, where he was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program to discuss his involvement with the Supro Guitar line as well as...
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 bluep...
Dana Bourgeois formed Bourgeois Guitars in 1993, having already worked as a luthier on several projects including those with Paul Reed Smith and Eric Schoenberg. His passion for guitar bu...
Kim Breedlove began building banjos in the 1960s, during the Folk Music movement and the popularity of such performers as Pete Seeger. After working with his brother for a few months he m...
Larry Breedlove is the founder of Breedlove Guitars, although his brother Kim runs the company now. Larry fell in love shortly after opening the Oregon-based guitar company and moved to ...
Roger Bucknall is an instrument maker who formed Fylde Guitars, which is located in Penrith, England, not so far from the Scottish border. Roger’s long and well regarded career as a guita...
Merv Cargill was the owner of Cargill Custom Guitars. After completing an apprenticeship in violin making he learned the finer details of building wooden instruments and became a qualifie...
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...
Paul Chandler discovered a specialized market within the music industry as a result of being a rock and roll performer and loving vintage guitars. Over the years, Paul found that he had t...
Wayne Charvel is the electric guitar designer and luthier who placed colorful and innovative instruments in the hands of heavy rockers in the 1980s and 90s--ushering in a new era of music...
Keith Chen joined the Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong as a guitar salesman. The large store had a small guitar department when Keith first joined the company and he took great pride i...
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...
Dana Clark grew up singing and playing with her family in church. She was just three when she started performing and within ten years she was already providing music lessons to others. Re...
Bill Collings' passion for guitars may have started on his father’s workbench when as a boy he tinkered with woods and making things. His father’s background in engineering was also an in...
Tom Dale was the original business partner and long time friend of luthier Mervyn Davis. Mervyn began building guitars in the 1970s and as the demand for his unique instruments grew so di...
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...
John Decker had the idea of building a guitar without wood, no wood at all. In the era of limited wood supply and growing technology, John experimented with a host of materials before dec...
Manuel Delgado is proudly following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a luthier of musical instruments. His grandfather began making classical guitars in 1928 and since th...
James Deurloo walked through the old Gibson workshop, which is now the home of his company, the Heritage Guitar Company. Pointing proudly to a workstation in the middle of the old buildi...
Omer Deutsch’s career as a luthier was fueled by his passion for heavy metal rock. In college, he studied industrial design and later had a job outside of music. He dreamed of a day when ...
Sheldon Dingwall wasn’t yet a teenager when he began machining his own guitar bridges. The process of guitar building has been in his blood ever since, as has his interest in all things m...
