Guitars
Hal Harrower designed his first double neck instrument in 1987, a 6-string guitar and a 4-string bass. Using the Steinberger system, that first instrument built by Hal not only looked different, it sounded different and gained a reputation for its clean sound. Hal developed a line of guitars, both...
Wayne Burdick’s pedal steel guitar made by Paul Bigsby graced the cover of the luthier’s first catalog. Wayne befriended Mr. Bigsby in the 1950s while Wayne was a member of the Tex Williams Western Swing Orchestra. Wayne’s pedal steel can be heard on hundreds of recordings and in fact the very...
Jimmy Mays performed rock and country music for over 30 years. Along the way he kept his day job, working at Bill Higgins Music from nearly the beginning. Some 40 years later Jimmy stands next to the owners, Nancy and Bill Higgins, to serve their customers, each and every day. As Jimmy put it “This...
Gene Brown joined the Ovation Guitar Company within the first year of the company’s establishment in 1966. After serving in the United States Army during Vietnam, Gene was immediately offered a job in the shipping department. The Ovation Guitar Company is located in New Hartford, Connecticut, and...
Frank Untermyer studied woodworking and instrument building in Germany before returning to the United States to help form Hamer Guitars with college friends, Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig. The company produced a series of innovative products and when it was sold to Kaman, both Frank and Jol moved to...
Joe Cardinale played jazz bass in clubs and theaters all around New England. He created his own trio and studied at what would be Berklee College of Music. He joined the wholesaler Harris-Fandel in the pre-Beatles era and witnessed first hand the impact the British Invasion had on the industry....
Jol Dantzig met Paul Hamer in college and played together in various bands before the two formed their own retail and teaching studio. They soon found themselves designing and building their own style of electric guitars and basses. With the help of two other friends, the Hamer Guitar Company was...
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 wife moved to Connecticut where Tim found a job at Ovations Guitar. He worked his way through many departments...
Arturo Valdez is known around the world as the “guitar repairman to the stars.” With his shop located on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California, Arturo has worked on thousands of guitars, many legendary in the history of rock and roll. He opened his shop in the early 1960s and soon had customers...
Sammy Ash was named after his grandfather, the founder of the Sam Ash Music Company in New York City. Like his grandfather, Sammy has a deep passion and understanding of the music business and although both men faced different challenges in different eras, they both felt customer service was the...