Christy Coobatis

Christy Coobatis is a college music professor whose amazing musical journey includes playing professionally before he was a teenager, beta testing guitars for Leo Fender, and helping to create a guitar synthesizer for Allan Holdsworth! Christy’s latest and longest tenure as a teacher has been at MiraCosta College in Oceanside California, where he started in 2000. He grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, taking lessons at one music store in town and teaching at another. In elementary school, he played at the local fair and at 12 he was wearing a tuxedo and playing in a wedding band! Over the years he has played in several bands, including those he formed such as the Whiskers, which led him to move to California. There he met Leo Fender and helped the pioneering inventor create a new guitar for his new company, G&L Guitars. That relationship led to Christy’s beta testing amplifiers for Gary Sunda at Randall Amplification. With many capers in between Christy also became good friends with guitar legend Allan Holdsworth and helped with the design of his guitar synthesizer, the SynthAxe. Imagine the lessons Christy’s students get to learn directly from someone who experienced them!