Guitars
Jim Marshall was in a full body cast as a 12-year-old boy due to polio. He managed to overcome the incredible odds to not only walk again, but also to become a trained tap dancer. He founded a charity to help crippled children and tap danced at charity events to raise money for the cause. Of course...
Junior Brown is a performer/inventor who dreamed of a sound to offset his rockabilly and blues styles. He designed a slide guitar and an electric guitar into one unit that did not require putting one down to play the other. The Git-Steel Guitar is now in production. It is his lead instrument in his...
Don Mitchell is a veteran road rep! Having been in the music business most of his working life, Don has called on more dealers than just about any other salesman in the industry. His knowledge of the products and keen relationships have made him a valued and successful promoter of his products as...
Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson Guitar Corporation’s former CEO, attended the Rainforest Alliance’s annual gala concert in 1994, where he first heard about the SmartWood program. He realized by teaming with environmentally friendly operations, Gibson could sustain its wood supply for a longer period of...
Seymour Duncan may very well be the most innovative rock and roll guitarist around. As a teen he formed a rock band but noticed the pick-ups in his guitar were not creating the sounds he thought the instrument could produce, so he sought to make hand-wound pick-ups. In fact as founder of Seymour...
Harold Bradley was one of the most recorded guitarists in the history of Nashville. Harold and his brother, the legendary producer, Owen Bradley, created a new feel in country music, a style known today as the “Nashville Sound.” Harold can be heard on classic recordings such as “Crazy” by Patsy...
Mike Battle invented the Echoplex, the pioneering electric effects device, which played a vital role in the early development of the rock and roll sound. The Echoplex was famously used by Sun Records founder Sam Phillips who used the echo effect on several of Elvis Presley’s first recordings (“Blue...
Scotty Moore set a date and time on July 4, 1954, to get together with a young singer who wanted to record with Sam Philips at Sun Records in Memphis. Sam asked Scotty, who had recorded with several bands on Sun, to call this kid and work out a few songs. This was his first meeting with Elvis...
Mundell Lowe is deservedly listed in just about every jazz encyclopedia. With a powerful, yet relaxed, approach to his playing, Mundell helped revolutionize the jazz guitar sound in bebop and modern jazz. Pioneering the concept of playing solo on the instrument rather then using the guitar merely...
Larry Thomas is the current CEO of Fender Musical Instrument Company. He also served as CEO of Guitar Center during the company’s early growth period. He worked closely with music educational programs throughout his career and in fact created the Guitar Center Foundation and the Fender Music...