Guitars
Dee Hoyt played professionally since he was a teenager including in local clubs and played for the National Guard as well as for dances. His band, the Tornados, recorded and performed rock and roll in the early 1960s. While playing at night, Dee got a job at Hayes Music as a salesman by day. He...
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 founders of Artisan Guitars outside of Nashville, WT has learned the art and craftsmanship of guitar builders from...
Jim Gurley had more stories than just about any one else in the NAMM Oral History collection! He taught guitar in Los Angles area music stores while picking up guitars at Rickenbacker Guitars and in Leo Fender’s first workshop in the late 1940s and early 50s. Jim later became one of the first...
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 wonderful family feeling in both the layout and their attention to details, which may explain why so many Nashville...
Gary Hanser grew up in the music industry. His grandfather formed a small music store and distribution business in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1924. Since that time the company has expanded, and with the guidance of Gary and his brothers, Hanser Music now includes such lines as Kustom, B. C....
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 over the years in size and reputation; in fact it is a hang out for country and rock artists alike. William...
Dolores Crooks remembered her husband working in the garage at all hours of the night on a new sound he was after. He tooled his own guitar amplifier and took it down to country dances to show it off to the musicians. Before long performers such as Chet Atkins and Speedy West were not only buying...
Richard Keldsen is the president of Saga Music in San Francisco, California. His first musical inspiration was hearing Earl Scruggs playing Bluegrass banjo for the first time. After two years in the Peace Corps, Richard had the opportunity to open a music store called the Fifth String in San...
Tom Bedell began giving guitar lessons in his home town of Spirit Lake, Iowa. Just a few months later, when Tom was 14 years old, he imported guitars with his name on the headstock from Japan. The year was 1963. Tom continued to make guitars and played in local bands, growing his wholesale...
Richie Pidanick was the Vice President of Culture and Values at Guitar Center. It was Richie’s job to train the company’s employees on the philosophy of what is most important to the corporate culture, namely customer service. Richie knew the culture and Guitar Center’s values as he lived them...