Full Interview
Don Ravitch pioneered many elements of keyboard retailing as president of Sherman Clay. With an engineering and financial background Don and his partners purchased the music store chain in 1959 from the third generation of Clay’s. Moving to San Francisco in 1960 and focusing on changing the stores...
James Burton is a legendary guitarist in the world of rock music! In the early days of his career, James played influential licks on such 50’s hits as “Hello Mary Lou” with Ricky Nelson. He later toured with Elvis Presley as well as recording with the King of Rock and Roll for nearly a decade....
Ziggy Kanstul knew more about brass instruments than most people. As an important part of the manufacturing end of the FE Olds Company, Ziggy became an expert on model designs, the specifications for each and every product, and the measurements of the horns made by their competitors. He later...
Bill Lawrence was known for his pick-up design and his long career as a German based guitarist. In fact, when visiting the Framus Museum in Markneukirchen Germany, you can learn of his influential musical career when he was known as Billy Lorento. Always interested in electronics, he applied his...
Val Eddy was a legendary vibraphonist and composer who played a large part in the early acceptance of the vibraphone in classical music and popular recordings. With his trusty 1922 Leedy vibraphone, Val composed and arranged a number of important books for the instrument including the renowned “...
Flip Oakes is the designer of the Wild Thing series of trumpets and cornets. Although Flip is a master of many musical instruments including the clarinet and saxophone (for which he was widely known during most of the 1960s and 70s), the trumpet later became his main instrument. He established the...
Dick Boak has served as Director of Artist Relations for the C.F. Martin & Company during the development of the popular signature series product line, as well as for such historic projects as Martin's One Millionth Guitar. Dick has been passionate about the company's important past ever since...
Ned Steinberger is known around the world for his innovative instrument designs. His guitars and basses created without the traditional headstock gained wide popularity in the 1980s rock era and have come to be known simply as Steinbergers. When he formed NS Designs in 1990, Ned focused on electric...
Tom Oberheim is the inventor of the first polyphonic music synthesizer, who played a vital role in the establishment of MIDI standards back in the early 1980s. The Oberheim Company created a long list of innovative products, which remain sought-after as vintage instruments including the Oberheim 4...
Craig Anderton was among a very small group of engineers at the dawn of the synthesizer revolution during the 1970s that was in the position to report, educate and compose music based on this new technology as it was being created. His monthly articles for Keyboard magazine have become a historic...