Luthiers
Leo Scala was born in Belgrade Serbia and moved to Moscow to attend college. He studied chemical engineering, but soon realized this was not his true passion. Having played guitar since he was a teenager, Leo discovered what he really wanted to study was the craft of making guitars. After several...
Lynn Wheelwright has always been fascinated with the guitar, especially the craft of building the instrument. After performing as a teenager, he developed many of his luthier skills from repairing guitars in his own shop. After befriending Alvino Rey in the 1980s and repairing several of Mr. Rey’...
Stephen Stern was born a wood craftsman. In fact, growing up his two passions became building furniture and playing the guitar. When he had an opportunity to put both together in the early 1980s, he jumped at the chance and went to work for Charvel Guitars. After returning to cabinet making he saw...
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...
Peter Paul Prier began playing the violin when he was 8 years old, growing up in Germany. He studied violin making while he was a teenager and in 1959 set out to America to open his own violin shop. Within five years he formed what is now the Peter Paul Prier Violin Shop in Salt Lake City. In 1972...
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...
Willy Vassilopoulos joined the Ovation Guitar Company in New Hartford Connecticut to follow his love of woodworking. He soon took part in the production of the instrument, which was originally introduced by Charles Kaman in the 1960s. The Ovation Guitar was unique for its round back made out of a...
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...
Robert Godin grew up in love with woods and handcraftsmanship. He worked along side a luthier long enough to understand he had found his passion. Robert designed and perfected a style of building that produced a unique sounding guitar, special in many ways. He took extra care in selecting the woods...
TK Keckler moved to Memphis at an early age and began playing with local bands, which is when he met Mike Ladd. Mike was a musician who opened a small guitar shop in town and would later become a strong force in the electric guitar movement of the 1970s, including the reissue of the Gibson Le Paul...