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...
Sam Radding is the founder the famed American Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company, which was the training ground for several future iconic luthiers including Bob Taylor, Kurt Listug and Greg Deering! Sam’s brother opened a small retail store in San Diego in the mid 1960s and soon Sam had the...
Andy Powers began working with wood as a kid and soon realized he had a strong interest in building. With the guidance of his father and the use of his tools, Andy built a guitar and loved it! He studied the art of guitar building and soon designed his own style of guitar. With each completed...