OH Taxonomy
George Fullerton befriended Leo Fender back in the days before Leo quit the radio repair business and started in the guitar making business. George worked for the Fender Guitar Company from the beginning and up to the day it was sold to CBS Musical Instruments. After the sale of the company, Leo...
John Page is the founder of a guitar company in Sunny Valley, Oregon, which produces hand made instruments. John Page Guitars, formed in 2006 by John and his wife Dana, is just one of the many fascinating capers in his long and successful career as a luthier. His association with Fender Musical...
Susan M. Davis has fond memories of Les Paul and Mary Ford coming over to her house for dinner when she was a little girl. Her father was Gibson Guitar president Ted McCarty who signed Les Paul to a company contract and who introduced a line of electric guitars with Les Paul’s name on it. Susan...
Paul Reed Smith began playing guitar as a teenager. He soon designed his own style of guitar, which he built. At first he did not think about selling the instruments he was designing, but he did hope that one day he could give one of his guitars to Carlos Santana. Mr. Santana not only loved the...
Phyllis Fender was married to Leo Fender, the great pioneer of the solid body electric guitar. After reading several publications on his life’s work, it was a refreshing treat to hear about the man behind the workbench when Mrs. Fender sat down for her NAMM Oral History interview in 2003. She...
Daniel Mari followed in the footsteps of his father in running the Mari String Company in New York City. While serving as president of the company, Daniel worked hard to expand the product line as well as open the company up to serving the growing global market. In addition to exhibiting at NAMM...
Bernie Kalban was one of the great veterans of the music publishing industry. Having worked in the era right after Tin Pan Alley, in the Brill Building and with many of the top firms, Bernie witnessed many of the most important changes to the music industry during the 20th century. He began working...
Irwin Rabinowitz was personally hired by Irving Berlin to create the lead plates for the famed songwriter's sheet music. Irwin's craft was hand chiseling each note, each slur, and coda into metal plates that would then allow copies to be published. Although Mr. Rabinowitz's career would extend into...
John C. Hall’s father purchased a guitar company from Adolph Rickenbacker, who was a cousin of the famed fighter pilot, Eddie Rickenbacker. The Rickenbacker Guitar Company made and sold Hawaiian guitars in the early 1930s including an electric model now known as the Frying Pan and historically the...
Monica Burdex grew up enjoying music of many styles and having a real interest in research and library science. She combined her passions becoming the music librarian for California State University at Northridge. During her long career she also worked tirelessly to help re-establish the Southern...