Guitars
Joseph Blumenthal had his sights on being a schoolteacher during his college days when he began to focus on working in retail. He worked at Sears and later at the Good Will Store in New England before he was given a chance to work for a small music store. Basel TV and Music Shop was the first...
Lyndon Laney built his first amplifier in his father’s garden shed with little thought of turning his craft into a business. That was the case until his friends began requesting his amps. His creative side fueled his passion for manufacturing and the Laney Amplification Company was born. Since...
Bruce Zinky loves playing guitar, but even at a young age he realized he enjoyed modifying instruments for himself and his friends. The Fender custom shop hired him in the early 1990s to work on guitar amplifiers. With a few design ideas of his own, Bruce set out to create his own company, which...
Crazy Pete Newport began working at Breedlove Guitars in 1999 with the goal to help promote and market the product line. Over the years he spent many hours working with and learning from Kim Breedlove, the founder. Kim’s unique luthier approach to guitar design helped usher in a new era of handmade...
Bob Sperzel’s grandfather and father were both mechanical engineers working in their own shops creating machine parts for several industries. As Bob learned from them he discovered on his own a real need for machined parts to be improved for turning keys for guitars. Bob witnessed first hand how...
Alberto Kreimerman opened Hermes Music Stores in the United States with branches in Mexico beginning in 1982. His goal was always to serve music makers with quality products and service and in the background he set aside some of his profit to serve underprivileged children in both the US and Mexico...
Hisatake Shibuya takes great pride in developing music education opportunities for students wishing to bring music into their lives. By forming music schools in Japan and later opening the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA, Hisatake-san has created a model for extended musical education programs...
Mitch Gallagher grew up in a musical family. His mother and her sisters sang three-part harmony for dance bands, encouraging all of the children in the family to get involved with music. Mitch followed his love of music throughout college and into a salesman job for the Sweetwater Sound retail...
Michael Harris began working in the music industry officially in 1967, however, since his father and uncle both worked in music retail in Chicago you can say Mike grew up in the business. After law school and serving in the National Guard, Mike returned home to partner with his brother purchasing...
Maxine Eastman-Jackson met her future husband, Bud, in school when they were 14 years old. The year they married, 1953, they moved to Provo, UT, where Bud worked at Modern Music by day and gave guitar lessons that Maxine would schedule, each night. In 1966 they moved to San Jose to operate the...