Luthiers
Paul McGill is a luthier’s luthier. He wanted to create a tool that would allow others to express themselves and to create music that could be enjoyed by many people he may never meet or even know about. He was trained by Charles Fox in the late 1970s and found that he was able to put his passion...
Harry Fleishman is the founder of Fleishman Instruments located in Northern California and has become among the most noted luthiers of his time. His passion for music developed in part by hanging out at his local music store, Fife & Nichols, beginning at the age of 12. As a result of being...
Ellis Seal was working for an aerospace company, working long hours and never having the time to spend with his family or his hobby of guitar building. In 1998 he opened his own company and said goodbye to his aerospace career to focus on his dream. Ellis took an interest in composite structures...
Hideo Kamimoto wrote the book on guitar repair! He built his first guitar in the late 1950s and soon discovered he had a true passion as a luthier. Within a decade he opened H. Kamimoto Instrument Repairs in Oakland, California. By this time Hideo was also repairing other string instruments...
David Gage is a string-bass luthier who is known within the industry as the man who listens not only to music but to the musicians, to produce the instrument that bests works for each player. His devotion to his customers pushed him into wanting to do the best he could in design and in craftwork...
Dean Zelinsky wanted to bring cool guitars to the market place and when he set out to do just that he was still in high school! The year after graduating, he opened Dean Guitars and attended his first NAMM Show the year after that, which was 1977. Dean pioneered several aspects of the industry...
Art Wiggs has always admired the Gretsch brand of guitars. He grew up in a musical family, as his parents played in church and on the radio together. As a kid he played the guitar with a classmate and the duo even had a running gig at Disneyland. He gave up playing to focus on his young family...
WT Warmoth is currently an Industrial Design major at Savannah College of Art & Design and has dreams of becoming a guitar luthier. As the son of William and Ellen Warmoth, the founders of Artisan Guitars outside of Nashville, WT has learned the art and craftsmanship of guitar builders from...
Larry Breedlove is the founder of Breedlove Guitars, although his brother Kim runs the company now. Larry fell in love shortly after opening the Oregon-based guitar company and moved to his native San Diego to be close to his sweetheart. It was in San Diego that Larry reconnected with his dear...
Tim Luranc grew up in San Diego with his father, an educator, playing music in the house all of the time. His dad wanted to play a guitar with some of the popular music of the day, such as folk music. His dad didn't play the guitar as much as he had hoped but young Tim took a liking to the...