Instrument Repair Technician
Sam Hart’s father was a preacher who sang with his siblings as the Hart Brothers. Sam grew up surrounded by music and was encouraged to join the school band in the sixth grade. In 1975, after studying music education, Sam was hired as a repairman for Wright Music in Jackson, Mississippi. Sam later...
Fred Oster was encouraged by his cousin to play the guitar as a youngster, which quickly expanded to include playing the mandolin and the five string banjo. By the time Fred was playing banjo, during the height of the folk music movement of the early 1970s, he was hooked! He soon had the idea of...
Bruce Chapman has always believed in the importance of music education and the positive role music can play in a young person’s life. All-throughout his music retail career, Bruce looked for opportunities to provide lessons, instruction, and guidance to young musicians. He worked for Musicstop, a...
Alessandro Onerati and his brother, Christiano, run the music store with their family name in Florence, Italy. The Onerati workshop was established in Florence in 1980, specializing in wind and percussion instrument repair, and soon becoming a central location for professional musicians and...
Cristiano Onerati remembers working closely with his father to learn the finer points of repairing musical instruments. He enjoyed the experience and wanted to make sure repairs remained a part of his daily routine in the family music store even after he and his brother took over upon their father...
Ervin Somogyi began his career as a instrument repairman, which is how he learned the important elements of a guitar. He studied what went wrong with guitars, their weaknesses, and what he could do in designing and building his own guitars that would make them unique and stronger. He developed his...
Lindsay Stodden's career in the music and audio industry has had to do far more with helping his customers find the right product for their needs rather than pushing a given make and model. He worked for Allen's Music in Melbourne, Australia as the audio manger where he soon realized he enjoyed...
Mike Henry was born in Los Angeles, CA and studied drums with Mel Zelnick at Mel's store, The Music Stop. When he was older, Mike toured all over the US, Canada, and Japan, eventually settling in Houston where he performed with some of the cities' best musicians. After working for Keith Kanekey's...
Emilio Lyons would often have his well-known customers such as Stan Getz and Benny Carter meet him at his home whenever they needed work done on their saxophone. Emilio was the manager for a music store in Boston while also repairing instruments whenever he could. Over the years he built a...
Jeff Shrieve was playing drums in a rock band during the 1960s when he was offered a job at Muncie Music Center. Jeff was hired in 1968 and became one of the store's three road reps calling on local school band directors. Jeff was taught band instrument repair in the early part of his career and...