Luthier On Luthier With Michael Bashkin

Marc Beneteau has successfully navigated a career in building custom guitars since 1974. For our twenty fifth episode, Marc takes us back to his early years, talks to us about forging his own path and describes how he has remained focused and passionate about guitar building over all these years.    Links: http://www.beneteauguitars.com/ http://www.foxsearchlight.com/youngatheart/    

Evan Gluck runs New York Guitar Repair and is often asked to lecture on aspects of running a small business. This is a bit ironic considering that Evan claims "my profession is not to work." In fact, there are many counter-intuitive things that Evan says and it is all part of his unique perspective on guitar repair and life. Also, according to google, Evan is the best guitar repair person in the world.       https://www.newyorkguitarrepair.com/  

John Kinnard has always been a part-time guitar builder while being a full-time high school science teacher. On this episode of Luthier on Luthier, John shares his perspectives on 40 years of building instruments. It's a fascinating talk with someone who makes guitars for a love of the craft. 

When you walk into Joe Glaser's Nashville shop, you get the sense that they can do any guitar job, or even make any guitar part, and do it at the highest caliber. Simply put, Glaser has one of the most respected repair shops in the world. For episode 22 of the podcast, Joe takes time out of his busy schedule to share his valuable insights into how he does it, from his problem solving to his people skills and how he runs his business. Glaser is a legend among Nashville's elite musicians and for good reason.   Links: http://www.plek.com/en_US/home/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534655/the-feather-thief-by-kirk-wallace-johnson/9781101981610/ http://www.galloupguitars.com/northwoods-seminar.htm https://www.theblackbirdacademy.com/ https://nashville.mi.edu/

For episode 21, I sit down with Jay Lichty and Corrie Woods, the creators of Lichty guitars. Jay was a  carpenter and general contractor  for 30 years when he took a guitar building course with Wayne Henderson. He has not looked back since. While Jay does the building, his wife Corrie handles the website and marketing for their growing enterprise. During our talk, the duo share their story, motivations and their unique approach to business.   Links http://lichtyguitars.com/ http://www.waynehenderson.org/wayne-henderson/ https://www.luthiersforacause.org/  http://www.theleaf.org/downtown/ https://theukc.org/

Harry Fleishman has been designing, building, teaching and repairing  guitars for over 45 years. His guitars always push the design envelope, from his numerous one-of-a-kind handmade guitars to the anti-gravity bass he designed for Jackson. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics including tone, his favorite amp and pickups and the source of his creative inspiration. As Harry puts it, "I want to build something I have never seen, felt, heard or played before."   Links  http://www.fleishmaninstruments.com/ https://www.gofundme.com/brad-nickerson-fire-relief    

Jason Kostal has led a full life: He graduated from West Point, served in the Army, earned an MBA and spent time as an executive in the corporate world. When he was ready for a new challenge he took up guitarmaking and now his instruments are considered to be among the best being made today. On this month's show, Jason talks candidly about branding, customer relations and his path into lutherie.   Thanks to GLUBOOST for sponsoring this episode.     Links Kostalguitars.com https://gluboost.com  

Edward Victor Dick started his lutherie career over 40 years ago. Since then, he has owned music retail stores, burned out, flown a small plane around Canada, worked on a farm, returned to lutherie, studied traditional lute building, and taught guitar building and repair. Today, he runs Victor Guitars in Denver, Colorado, where he does a bit of all of the above. Edward is someone I greatly admire and I am honored to have him share his story on this month’s Luthier on Luthier podcast.

On episode 17 of the Luthier on Luthier Podcast, we talk to the collective of legendary builders who make up the Luthiers Beyond Limits group. These mini interviews were conducted at the 2018 NAMM show where the LBL showcased their forward-thinking guitars. During this podcast, we hear from Mario Beuregard, Jean-Yves Alquier, Steve Klein, Claudio and Claudia Pagelli, Michi Matsuda and John and Serge of Tao Guitars. We hear the story of how and why these six artisans formed Luthiers Beyond Limits and about the unique instruments that were on display.

Issac Jang spent almost ten years apprenticing and repairing guitars before he started making instruments under his own name. This slow and steady approach has worked well for Issac, who is now one of the most sought after young builders in the market today. On this week's podcast, we talk about his guitars, his apprenticeship with Kathy Wingert and much more.  Links: https://www.isaacjangguitars.com/ http://www.wingertguitars.com/

For Episode 15, we sit down with Geoff Luttrell, owner of SF Guitarworks and Sonoma County Guitarworks. Geoff started out as a welder in oil refineries and went through several other careers before owning and operating one of the top guitar repair shops in the United States. Geoff takes us through all the offerings of San Francisco Guitarworks including repairs and classes and we go in-depth into operation of his PLEK services. He also offers some sound entrepreneurial advice and some valuable life lessons.   Links: http://sfguitarworks.com/ http://www.mjtagedfinishes.com/ http://www.plek.com/en_US/home/

Today, Robbie O'Brien is well-known for his growing catalog of online guitar making courses as well as his popular one-on-one guitar making classes. On Episode 14, he and his wife Adrianna tell us about his start building guitars in São Paulo, Brazil, his teaching philosophy and how the act of building a guitar can be transformative for many of his students. Robbie says, "I never planned a career like this."    This episode is sponsored by Luthier Suppliers.     Links: https://obrienguitars.com/ https://tessarin.com.br/antonio lmii.com

For episode 13, we talk with acclaimed guitarmaker Rick Turner. Rick has made, designed and worked on instruments for some of the biggest names in music including the Lindsey Buckingham, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, David Crosby, David Lindley and Ry Cooder, just name a few. In addition to his own line of guitars,  Rick also was a founding partner of Highlander pickups, Alembic guitars, Duncan Turner Acoustic research and he holds the patent for the CF guitar neck. Over the course of our conversation, Rick takes us through some his current and past projects, while giving us insights into his thought process and how he takes design inspiration from outside of the guitar world. 

Jordan McConnell is both an accomplished guitar builder and professional musician who spent 10 years touring with The Duhks. On today's podcast, he tells us how he manages to successfully navigate both careers at the same time and about his current musical projects and guitars. Jordan has had quite the journey from "an aimless high school graduate who mostly cared about punk rock and skateboarding" to being a professional, top-tier luthier.   Links: http://www.mcconnellguitars.com/ http://duhks.com/ http://www.timelessinstruments.com/ http://www.perryguitars.com/ https://51oakland.org/ http://bastienburlot.com/pge/guitars/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uilleann_pipes http://romanillos.org/?page_id=212  

On episode 11, we sit down with Jeremy Jenkins, who builds Lame Horse Guitars alongside his father Chris. Jeremy tells us how he fell into guitarmaking through his father and how it ended up becoming a full-time career. He talks about his life in the music city of Austin and how the role of music has changed for him over time. We also learn about what makes a bad movie good, and about his many other interests outside of guitars.   Want to support Luthier on Luthier? We're auctioning off a Lame Horse Cowboy Ukulele to help support the show. Bid here.    Links:  http://www.lamehorse.net/ http://www.badbadnotgood.com/ https://www.facebook.com/WilkinsonsSwing/   PS: Don't forget to listen to episode 10 of Luthier on Luthier, where we interviewed Chris Jenkins.     

On episode 10, we head to Texas to sit down with Chris Jenkins of Lame Horse Guitars. Along with his son Jeremy, Chris builds uniquely ornamented guitars, gitjoes and ukuleles. On this podcast, he walks us through his first career in accounting (which lasted just sixty days) and then his second career as a veterinarian (which lasted forty years). Along the way, Chris decided to fix the broken neck on Jeremy's bass; he hasn't stopped building since. Chris takes us through the development of his models and his fully adjustable neck joint. Finally we hear the original, not to be believed, story of the cowboy ukulele.   Website links: http://www.lamehorse.net/ http://www.cjenkinsluthier.com/ http://lint.org   Don't forget to listen to episode 11, where we talk to Jeremy Jenkins!    PS: Want to support Luthier on Luthier? We're auctioning off a Lame Horse Cowboy Ukulele to help support the show. Details here. 

For our ninth episode, I sit down with Dream Guitars founder and owner, Paul Heumiller. If you build or play custom guitars you probably already know Paul's name and that Dream Guitars is one of the top boutique guitar dealers in the world. Paul discusses his philosophy for life and business and how for him they are one in the same. Paul also talks about how Dream Guitars got started and the successful partnerships he has forged with some of today's most collectible builders. Lastly, Paul gives some great advice to new and established builders about competing with your own guitars on the secondary market, and how to avoid burning out.   Links: www.dreamguitars.com

For our eighth episode, I talk to luthier John Slobod. John shares his thoughts on why vintage guitars sound the way they do, and how he honors them in his own Martin-inspired instruments. We also go through John's journey from working with Dana Bourgeois and later with Julius Borges before starting his own Circa guitars. In this interview, John also offers some valuable advice to new luthiers.   Links: http://www.circaguitars.com https://bourgeoisguitars.net http://www.timelessinstruments.com http://www.borgesguitars.com  

Our seventh episode of the Luthier on Luthier podcast is a little different from the rest. Rather than interview one builder, I have shorter interviews with several luthiers. Each of these interviews took place at the 2017 GAL (Guild of American Luthiers) Convention in Tacoma, Washington.  During this podcast, you will hear from Dan Erlewine, Erick Coleman, Chelsea Clark, Jeffery Elliott, Chris Herrod, Steve Marchione, Don Macrostie, Evan Gluck and many others. You’ll also hear an adventurous tale of buffing from Harry Fleishman.   If your into lutherie and have the chance to attend a guild meeting, I highly recommend it. There were a lot more people I would have liked to talk to but I just ran out of time. I know a lot of guitar builders listen to this podcast and it was great to meet so many of you in person, too. Links: http://www.danerlewine.com/ http://www.stewmac.com/ http://marchione.com/ http://www.elliottguitars.com/ http://www.lmii.com/ http://newyorkguitarrepair.com/ https://obrienguitars.co

On Episode 6, I sit down with world-renown guitar maker Michi Matsuda. Originally from Japan and now living in the US, Michi is known for his inventive designs and craftsmanship. We stay mostly in the head-space of guitar making and talk about what is the identity of a guitar and how it affects music. And, I was surprised to learn how free-spirited Michi's approach to guitar making is.