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Twenty-year GAL member Jay Scott Hackleman makes his impressive American Lutherie debut in this issue. He's a graphic arts pro in his day job. sitar-tabla.com/Indian-instrument-repair.htm this info updated 2001 |
Seven-year Guild member John Hagen lives in a neighborhood surrounded by dozens of small lakes, near the western shores of one of the biggest lakes of all, Lake Michigan. this info updated 2006 |
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Six-year Guild member James Ham has recently seen his focus shift from making bass viols and cellos with traditional methods and materials to exploring the use of carbon fiber and balsa wood. this info updated 2013 |
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Paul Hamer has been a professional musician, guitar instructor, music store owner, luthier, musical instrument manufacturer and distributor. Paul, along with his partner Jol Dantzig, formed Hamer Guitars in 1974. this info updated 1987 |
Bruce Hammond and family live on the Texas coastal bend, with a few flying and earthbound creatures. His son will attend college in a few months. Bruce did fieldwork for a premier oilfield service company for twenty-five years, with a stint in Kuwait during the wild well firefighting effort, before entering the training field. Bruce has enjoyed guitars and various music types since the 1960s. A GAL member for two years, Bruce admits to an interest in fine wood, lutherie, and a compulsion to research the peculiar, bombastic luthier Joseph Bohmann. It has been said that this last interest should cement Bruce’s position as the village crackpot! this info updated 2009 |
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Eight-year member Rod Hannah has been building and repairing guitars since 1981, full time since 1992. He formerly worked as a mechanical engineer. this info updated 1997 |
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Greg Hanson is a full-time Assistant Professor of German at Kutztown University when he's not building classical guitars part-time. this info updated 2008 |
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Six-year Guild member Eron Harding owns and operates Backwoods Guitar Repair in the backwoods of Missouri, performing instrument repairs and vintage restorations. Having no formal lutherie training, his skills were acquired via various Internet sources, Stew-Mac trade secrets, real-world experience, and support from fellow GAL member Erick Coleman. this info updated 2017 |
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Jay Hargreaves has been a member of the GAL for most of the past twenty-nine years. When asked if he has photos of his guitars, Jay pulls out a little photo album titled “My Family.” this info updated 2012 |
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Tom Harper is a thirteen-year Guild member, building primarily classic guitars. His past is riddled with quixotic pursuits that include bicycle-frame building, ski mountaineering guiding, and climbing instruction. He took a couple years off to build a house, but he’s back at the bench now. this info updated 2011 |
Hiram Harris completed his violin-making apprenticeship under Paul Schuback in 1979, and worked for David Kerr from 1980 to 1985. He has been a FedEx courier for twenty-five years. Lately he’s preoccupied with motorcycles, cooking, and metal working, but mostly he wonders where the last thirty years have gone. If you know where that time may be, he’d like to hear from you. this info updated 2011 |
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Wayne Harris is a co-developer of the bi-level guitar design. this info updated 1988 |
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New author Jason Harshbarger is two decades into being a luthier, and has been a GAL member most of that time. To date, his emphasis has been on steel-string guitars, both flattop and achtop, as well as archtop mandolins. His designs, building processes, materials, and tools emanate from an organic and earthy place with a forward, modernistic, and open bent. www.harshstrings.com/index.html this info updated 2017 |
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Elaine S. Hartstein is an amateur guitarmaker who works with computers in her day job.
this info updated 1993 |
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Bruce Harvie grew up surfing and listening to Dick Dale in Southern California in the 1950s and ’60s, then escaped north to Berkeley, ostensibly to study law. He wound up studying the Jefferson Airplane. He started building mandolins in the ’70s, and after moving to Orcas Island, Washington, in 1979, realized that he lived in the middle of a forest of tonewoods. After hanging out with luthiers who really knew what they were doing, Bruce soon realized that he’d better stick to cutting wood, and has done so for the past twenty-eight years. www.bruceharvie.com/ this info updated 2010 |
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Hermann Hauser III represents the current generation of the famous German guitar-making dynasty. His grandfather made the 1937 guitar that Segovia called "the greatest guitar of our epoch." www.hauserguitars.de/index.htm this info updated 1997 |
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David Hawley decided to become an amateur luthier while fulfilling a debt to society. Keep up the good work, Dave! this info updated 2003 |
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Eight-year GAL member and California native David Haxton built his first guitar in 1971, but didn’t build his second until 1995. Since then, he has built twenty. When not engaged in luthier-related activities, he enjoys walking in the Seattle sunshine and listening to live music whenever possible. this info updated 2002 |
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Richard Heeres started guitar making at David Freeman's school in 1992. Like many luthiers, he can't remember what some of the jigs in his shop are for. When he’s not building archtops or classical guitars he can be found sailing, playing with his band, or thinking of that one jig that will make all the others superfluous. this info updated 2008 |
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Herringbone trim is too bold for many of us. Eleven-year GAL member Duane Heilman scoffs at such timidity, opting for hand-painted graphics, far-out inlays, and sculpted tuner knobs. this info updated 2002 |
Melanie Heizer grew up watching her father (GAL member Stephen Heizer) build acoustic instruments. One day she decided that she wanted to play the electric bass. Her parents wouldn’t buy her one, so to be contrary, she decided to build it. With the help of her father, she made a beautiful bass of purpleheart which she played at school. She is working on a second bass with help from Veronica Merryfield. Melanie just graduated from high school and hopes one day to involve her love for music and building in her future career. this info updated 2012 |
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Twelve-year member Skip Helms builds mostly classical guitars and plays mostly steel strings in Asheville, NC. His day job is running a wealth management practice at a national financial firm. Skip's wife Nancy runs a cats-only kennel. this info updated 2008 |
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Arnold Hennig has been building and repairing guitars and other instruments since 1972, focusing primarily on Latin American instruments. He has been a repair technician at Elderly Instruments for the past fourteen years. www.elderly.com/repair/arnold_hennig.html/ this info updated 2013 |
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New GAL member Joseph Herrick got his love of woodworking at an early age from his father. He has been building guitars for a few years now and finds that it appeals to his engineering background Happily, his building skills have far outstripped his playing ability. He was highly pleased when his son recently completed building a beautiful first instrument, a ukulele, under his guidance. this info updated 2008 |
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Chris Herrod was born in Healdsburg, California, and lives there still. He has been Sales Manager at Luthiers Mercantile Int’l for twenty-one years. Chris and LMI have been with the Good Ol’ Guild for a long, long time. He performs as a singer/songwriter in local venues. this info updated 2018 |
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As a kid, nineteen-year GAL member Lee Herron made a guitar which, within a year, came apart in the back seat of his dad’s car one hot summer afternoon. In college he made an electric guitar, which he still has. Much later, in 1995, his daughter introduced him to long-time GAL member Peter Yelda, who became his lutherie mentor. Lee has made over fifty instruments including guitars, ukuleles, Weissenborns, and resophonics. this info updated 2018 |
Robert Hickey is an amateur instrument maker whose interest in kit violins (also known as dancing masters' fiddles) was sparked the first time he saw one in Williamsburg, Virginia. this info updated 2007 |
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For the last 10 years, John Higgins has run a private shop, focusing primarily on vintage guitar restoration. In the past 35 years, he has also worked in retail and wholesale repair, and served as the service manager for a large Martin, Gibson, and Fender warranty repair facility. this info update 2008 |
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Keith Hill offers this insight: "I am an aesthetic scientist. Aesthetic science is the 'scienta' in the motto Ars nihil sine scienta est. My work is a reflection of my aesthetic science, in other words, it reflects the attention I pay to how I hear, what I hear, how I see, what I see, how I sense, what I sense, and how and what intuitions arise from such attention. I use harpsichord, fortepiano, violin, and guitar making as well as my music, painting, and decoration to express the principles of aesthetics as I understand them from my experience paying attention. Even the fifty chickens, twenty geese, thirty-six ducks, and eight cats I keep are subjects for my aesthetic study." this info updated 2001 |
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Guitar maker Kenny Hill first joined the GAL in the '70s. Now thirty-seven years into his lutherie career, he designs and builds classical guitars, manages Hill Guitar Co. in the USA and New World Guitar Co. in China, writes for several publications, and occasionally teaches guitar making. He keeps up his classical guitar chops and is a pretty fair pipe organist, too. this info update 2009 |
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Eighteen-year GAL member Paul Hill is a luthier and cabinetmaker in Moscow. Idaho, where he moved to escape the bugs. He plays Doggone Sophisticated bluegrass with his band Steptoe, enjoys the small-town life with his wife and daughter, and goes trout fishing whenever he can. this info updated 2007 |
We welcome first time author James Hillier, a eleven-year Guild member. this info updated 1990 |
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Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, is a former recording guitarist, singer, and songwriter who owns (among other instruments) two custom guitars — a "theorbo" ten-string and a six-string classical, both by Jeffrey R. Elliott. this info updated 2001 |
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Jerry Hoffman began building instruments in 2005 while he was still publishing Blacksmith’s Journal. By 2007 he was building instruments full-time. Before the Journal, he owned a blacksmith’s shop that produced hand forged architectural ironwork. His education is in graphic arts and he worked designing special fonts for photo typesetting machines until 1976 when he opted for self-employment first as a farrier, then blacksmith, then publisher, and finally as a luthier designing and building custom ukuleles. this info updated 2015 |
In his professional life, Rob Hoffman is an archeologist and an antiques features writer, working part time in vintage guitar sales and restoration. He also plays guitar with the Southernaire Blues Band, and is into competitive springboard diving. this info updated 2007 |
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Randy Holmes, a Silvertone aficionado for over thirty years, runs silvertoneworld.net, a resource for Silvertone-branded guitars and amplifiers. His goal is to put every Silvertone instrument ever online by 2016, the 100th anniversary of the Silvertone brand. Randy built his first guitar in 1980, and has worked as a music writer, audio technician, rock ’n’ roll road manager, radio DJ and production manager, and computer builder. this info updated 2015 |
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Six-year Guild member Jim Hoover built his first guitar in 2003 and hopes to build many more. To keep food on the table he works full time for a pipe organ company. this info updated 2004 |
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Richard Hoover has been a member twelve of the last eighteen years. He is the founder and kingpin of Santa Cruz Guitar Co. this info updated 1996 |
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From 1985 to 1999 Bart Hopkin edited the quarterly journal Experimental Musical Instruments. He has written several books on instrument construction, produced several CDs featuring the work of innovative instrument makers worldwide, taught, and lectured widely. Bart makes no claim to fine craftsmanship; his primary interest has been in exploring diverse acoustic systems. this info updated 2006 |
Gary Hopkins is an aerospace engineer by profession. He builds steel string guitars and does some repair work from a small shop at his house. He taught himself lutherie by reading books and articles, watching YouTube, talking to other luthiers, and listening to the opinions of semiprofessional guitar player friends. this info updated 2012 |
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Twenty-four-year Guild member Michael Hornick came from a strong woodworking background to become a luthier with a little help from Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitar Co. this info updated 1997 |
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Jay Hostetler has been the friendly face of Stew-Mac for most of the company's impressive thirty-four years of continuous GAL membership. this info updated 2007 |
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Nineteen-year Guild member and card-carrying guitar nut Paul Hostetter has been both a musician and a luthier since 1963, playing, studying, restoring, building, and writing about fretted and bowed instruments. He lives and works in the hills near Santa Cruz, California this info update 2008 |
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Tip House builds guitars, cases, and skis, plays bluegrass, and develops software. He did his first face-plant in 1967, wrote his first computer program in 1968, learned his first fiddle tune in 1969, built his first guitar in 1973, and still hasn’t learned any better. this info updated 2015 |
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Brian Howard is a lifelong player who has dabbled in repair for almost as long. After a thirty-year career as a cabinetmaker he decided to begin building guitars instead. Howard Guitars officially opened in 2011 and is in the process of introducing its first original-designed steel string acoustic. this info updated 2012 |
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Elon Howe is a building contractor, a violin and mandolin builder, a sawyer, a frequent Guild convention exhibitor, and a founding member of the Michigan Violinmakers Association. this info updated 1994 |
In 1970, Bill Hunter cofounded Satellite City with his brother Bob. Satellite City makes both Hot Stuff and Hot Stuff UFO (User Friendly Odorless), cyanoacrylates well known in the world of musical instrument making. this info update 2005 |
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Twenty-three-year member David "Kawika" Hurd is a full-time ukulele maker and a former oceanographer. His informative website at www.ukuleles.com will be of interest to luthiers of all persuasions, especially those who wish to learn more about the application of scientific and engineering design principles to lutherie. this info updated 2007 |
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Guitarist and composer Paul Hurley is a first-time author and a new member of the Guild. this info updated 1993 |
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Lisa Hurlong claims the credit of being the first American female classic guitarist to concertize worldwide. She lives in a little Spanish village on the Portuguese border called Monroy, which was the home town of many of the Conquistadors. She commutes to China where she works with a Chinese Olympic equestrian judge to establish a Spanish cultural center in Beijing. this info updated 2008 |
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When he lived in Hawaii, twelve-year GAL member Peter Hurney made ukuleles when the surf was down. Now in Berkeley, California where the surf is always down, he has more time for building. He also is a radio producer and DJs a ukulele music show on KALX. this info updated 2008 |
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Although twenty-eight-year GAL member Carleen Hutchins did not take up a string instrument until age forty, she has now been in the forefront of research into the physics of violins for over fifty years. She is a founder of the Catgut Acoustical Society, the first editor of its journal, and a developer of the New Violin Family octet. this info updated 2006 Carleen passed away in 2009 |
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H.E. Huttig was a faithful Guild member from the very start, a frequent author in our early days, one of our first advertisers, and a good friend to many in the craft. He passed away a few months after the interview in this issue was recorded. he is survived by his wife Rose. this info updated 1992 Hart passed away in 1992, read his memoriam. |
Welcome new GAL author John Jackson! this info updated 2013 |
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Classic guitar maker Paul Jacobson has been a Guild member for nineteen of the last twenty-one years. He used to be workin' on the railroad. Now he's strummin' on the old banjo. Well, not exactly but you see what I mean. And who is Dinah, anyway? this info updated 1998 |
Fernando A. Jaén quit his engineering job and now makes guitars full time in Spain. That wouldn’t be strange if he built Spanish guitars, but he makes jazz archtops. this info updated in 2010 |
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Samad Jahandideh is studying for his PhD in biophysics at Tarbiat Modares University. Ahanali Jahandideh is an instrument maker. They are located in Tehran, Iran. this info updated 2009 |
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Twelve-year GAL member Chris Jenkins builds guitars in his attic each evening between the hours of 7:00PM and midnight. During the day he works as a veterinarian to support his lutherie habit. this info updated 2007 |
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Nupi Jenner began luthing in the early ’80s after being a folk musician and an unsuccessful student of medicine. He joined workshops by Lundberg, Romanillos, and others to fill the lack of professional education opportunities in Austria. Since 1990, he has taught lutherie in the only Austrian lutherie school, in Hallstatt. For the last sixteen years, Nupi has given summer workshops at the medieval Rapottenstein Castle, north of Vienna. He has made hundreds of instruments including guitars, violins, viols, lutes, mandolins, hurdy-gurdies, nickelharpas, and other more exotic examples. But the greatest highlights are four wonderful children, all dedicated to music. this info updated 2015 |
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In addition to running a full-time finishing supply company, Jeff Jewitt finds time to refinish, write, and teach. He has written extensively for Fine Woodworking magazine for over twelve years and is the author of four books, two videos, and numerous articles in other magazines. He has developed finishing products which are sold all over the world under the “Homestead” name. this info updated 2015 |
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Bryan Johanson is an active concert guitarist, composer, and author who taught at Portland State University from 1978. A Professor of Music and past Director of the School of Music, Johanson retired in January of 2016 to pursue composing, performing and writing. His articles and reviews on the guitar have appeared in the top journals and magazines in the field, including Soundboard, Guitar Review, Acoustic Guitar and American Lutherie. His compositions have been published by Columbia Music Company, Edizioni Musicali Berben, Frederick Harris Music Publishers, Guitar Solo Publications, Thomas House Publications, Earthsongs Music Publishers, Mel Bay Publications, Doberman-Yppan and Les Productions d’OZ. The recipient of many commissions, his music has been performed and recorded by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, the Oregon Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, David Starobin, The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, David Tanenbaum, the Portland Symphonic Choir, the Turin Philharmonic, the Bologna Orchestra and Third Angle New Music Ensemble. He has won numerous composition prizes, including awards from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival, the Esztergom International Guitar Festival (Hungary), The Festival of August (Venezuela), the Roger Wagner Center for Choral Studies, as well as multiple awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Johanson’s music is recorded extensively and appears on record labels such as Albany, Bridge, EMI, GSP, Gagliano Recording, Naxos and Cube Squared Records. In 1999, his critically acclaimed composition Open Up Your Ears for guitar was recorded on David Starobin’s Grammy Award nominated New Dance, and in 2004 his Pluck, Strum and Hammer and Let’s Be Frank were recorded by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on their Grammy Award winning Guitar Heroes. Johanson is currently a member of the Oregon Guitar Quartet, which has released seven highly successful recordings. He has also recently been elected to the Board of Trustees for the Guitar Foundation of America. this info updated 2016 |
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Elliot John-Conry has worked in Dan Erlewine's repair shop since he was fourteen. When not working for Dan, he is EJC Guitars. Other interests include cars, rock 'n' roll, and Irish music. this info updated 2009 |
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If you want to know more about twenty-six-year Guild member Frank "Andy" Johnson, just turn to page 40. this info updated 1989 |
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Twenty-three-year member Joe Johnson is a past author as well as the on-site coordinator of our 1988 and 1992 conventions. He works as Museum Educator at the Shrine to Music Museum. this info updated 1991 Joe passed away in May 2012, read his memoriam. |
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Sue Johnson made her first guitar out of my Grandpa’s cigar box and a piece of string before finding the true path to divine lutherie enlightenment with the brilliant guidance of Adrian Lucas and then Newark College in England about ten years ago. She has been busy juggling babies (Luis age six and Elizabeth age four), making and repairing guitars, and working part time in the wood shop of the local girls high school. There she subverts the academic curriculum by introducing the pupils to the delights of sharp planes of all sizes and styles, for which she has a well-renowned and possibly inappropriate love. Her degree in Geography helps her know that guitars generally come from somewhere other than England. Sue reports that the dahlias in her garden were particularly good this year. thsi info updated 2011 |
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Thomas Johnson made his first guitar in 1967. He continued to make instruments during a career in Social work, from which he retired in 1997. He now makes lutes, guitars, and more unusual experimental instruments as a therapeutic aid to maintaining health. He met Tuvan musicians at a recording studio near his workshop and travelled to Tuva in September 2001. His current workshop is a cabin purpose-built in Poland and shipped in sections to his Garden in the UK. this info updated 2011 |
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Twenty-year GAL member Jack E. Johnston got into guitar making when he needed a lighter instrument than his 16 lb. banjo. A good guitar was too expensive, so he built one. He has studied with Charles Fox and Alan Carruth, has degrees in mechanical engineering and photography, worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for thirty years, and plays in The Bluegrass Gospel Boys Band. jackjohnstonguitarmaker.sharepoint.com/Pages/default.aspx this info updated 2014 |
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Richard Johnston co-founded Gryphon Stringed Instruments in 1969 with long-suffering partner Frank Ford. After nearly twenty years of repairing guitars, he jumped the good ship of lutherie to swim the shark-infested waters of retail. Around the same time, he began writing about American acoustic guitars, and related music history, for Acoustic Guitar Magazine. He has authored books on the Martin Guitar Company, and writes for the Fretboard Journal and other publications as well. He has largely given up playing guitar, preferring to ride bicycles in his spare time as that requires far less manual dexterity. this info updated 2007 |
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Bob Jones has been on the New York scene for many years. He does stringed instrument restoration and repair out of his home in Brooklyn. Don’t worry, it’s all legit. this info updated 2005 |
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Twenty-nine-year Guild member John Jordan is a frequent author, a faithful convention attendee, holder of a patent on an electric violin design, and honcho of a full-range lutherie shop. this info updated 2008 |
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Richard Jordan is a guitar maker with an experimental bent. American Lutherie readers know his brother John. this info updated 2008 |
We don't have a mailing address for J. and O. Jovicic, but the Acustica magazine says Facultée deElectrotechnique de l'Université de Belgrade. this info updated 1988 |
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Dan Kabanuck was born and lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife of twenty-one years and his three boys ages seventeen, fourteen, and four. He took up the guitar at age twenty-nine, and in short order he was playing in a popular metal band. A real estate broker by trade, changing times landed him at LMI in 2007; he soon had several guitar projects in the works, and he’s helped build eleven ukuleles. Though he has no desire to be a full-time luthier, he wants to build instruments others would want to own. this info updated 2010 |
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Casey Kamaka is part of the third generation of the Kamaka family business making ukuleles out in Hawaii. this info updated 2011 |
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Twenty-two-year member Hideo Kamimoto lectured to Guild conventions in 1980 and 1990. He is widely known for hi sbook on guitar repair techniques. this info updated 1991 |
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Colin Kaminski dropped out of high school at fifteen to program for Bally Systems. He retired from computer programming at the age of twenty and now spends his retirement repairing violins for Jordan Music. When he is not looking for stars in the sky he is trying to become one on stage. this info updated 1997 |
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Tony Karol was a hobby builder through his teens and after university, where he studied electrical engineering. He became a full-time luthier in 2001 after the telecom meltdown. He started teaching lutherie in 2003 and continues to do so at his shop in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He currently builds eight to ten instruments per year, including electrics, acoustics, and baritones. this info updated 2011 |
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A Guild member for twenty-five out of the last twenty-eight years, Steve Kauffman lives with his wife and daughter in a home he rebuilt, and works in an adjacent shop that he designed and built. this info updated 2005 |
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Carl Kaufmann, luthier for more than ten years; backyard boat builder for lot longer a half-century. Makes both classical and steel-string guitars (but not many of either) and an occasional mandolin or Irish bouzouki , which is what he calls a mandolin on steroids. When he worked for pay, it was as a writer and editor. Dividing time now between Block Island off the RI coast, and Mystic CT, where winters are more tolerable. this info updated 2008 |
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Michael Keller studied with Jeffrey Elliott and has now been a steel string guitar maker for 13 years. www.kellerguitars.com/keller_content.html this info updated 1991 |
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His friends may call him an armchair luthier, but Armin Kelly spends his real time as founder of Guitars International on the telephone, match-making guitars to players, while encouraging guitar makers to produce their very best work for him. He considers his efforts successful when all parties concerned are happy. He moonlights as the artistic director of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival which he founded fifteen years ago. He has been a GAL member for fourteen of the last twenty-two years. this info updated 2014 |
Seventeen-year member Wayne Kelly works as an institutional researcher fo rthe University of Calgary, Canada, and is a hobbyist luthier. this info updated 1993 |
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David Kempf is a lifelong woodworker. He picked up a Silvertone at age thirteen, but made his first guitar at age forty-four. He has now been a guitar maker for two years and says his "only desire is to build a world-class guitar, not for profit or gain, but for the purity it provides." this info updated 2000 |
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Six-year Guild member Steve Kennel is a sculptor and print maker who previously worked in a newspaper pressroom and an auto body shop. He’s been a cabinetmaker, a dishwasher, a shelver of books in a library, a furniture maker, a caregiver, a foundry worker, and a welder. And he’s a new American Lutherie author. this info updated 2018 |
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For fifteen years geologist/violin maker Dick Kern has worked as a resource conservationist. He has taken a sabbatical to study lutherie under Paul Schuback, but he still collects rocks and does flint knapping in his spare time. this info updated 2001 |
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Violin maker/restorer David Kerr opened Kerr Violin Shop in 1976. He was a cofounder of the Portland Baroque Orchestra in 1984, playing with them as well as Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco until 1999. Instead of following in Jess Wells’ footsteps to an obsession with building fly rods, he discovered glass. Currently he is making fused glass in his spare time. www.kerrviolins.com this info updated 2011 |
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Twelve-year GAL member David King grew up in a musical family where rock was taboo. Now he makes and plays electric basses. this info updated 2009 |
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Twenty-year member Stephen Kinnaird pastors a small church in East Texas. In his spare time he builds and repairs steel string guitars. this info updated 2008 |
In previous careers, Larry Kirmser was a vet, and a vet: a radar technician in Viet Nam, and a veterinarian. Now he teaches musical instrument repair. this info updated 1991 |
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John Kitakis bade adieu to mainland USA in the '70s to settle in Hawaii (tough choice!), where he eventually met his wife, raised a family, then incorporated them into his stringed instrument business, Ko'olau Guitars and Ukuleles. He has been a Guild member nineteen of the last twenty-four years. this info update 2008 |
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Twenty-five-year Guild member Steve Klein might have been running a ski shop today, if not for a meeting with Dr. Michael Kasha arranged by Steve's famous scientist grandfather, Joel Hildebrand. Maybe you have heard this famous quote from Dr. Hildebrand: "Very few people do anything creative after the age of thirty-five. The reason is that very few people do anything creative before the age of thirty-five." this info updated 2003 |
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Cabinetmaker and occasional repairperson Kalia Kliban is a veteran of the Ervin Somogyi Finishing School for Aspiring Luthiers' Assistants and a charter member of the Northern California Association of Luthiers (NCAL). She currently holds the American record for ongoing construction time for an Appalachian dulcimer. this info updated 2008 |
R.J. Klimpert collects, restores, and writes about vintage instruments while he plies his trade as a designer in the toy and game industry. A fairly clever guy with over a dozen patents to his name, he lives in Rhode Island with his three kids, thousand ukuleles, and one very patient wife. this info updated 2010 |
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Thomas Knatt has been a GAL member off and on since the ’70s. He builds guitars and violins as well as Violin Octet instruments as designed by Carleen Hutchins, and teaches guitar making in Massachusetts and France. this info updated 2012 |
Nine-year member K. Kobie has studied engineering and design, and specializes in designing and building electric guitars and basses. this info updated 1991 |
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Masaru Kohno became interested in building guitars in 1948 and traveled to Spain in 1960 to learn the craft. He apprenticed with Arcángel Fernández. he passed away in 1998 |
Seven-year GAL member Neil Kok lives in eastern Finland. He has worked for years as a professional cellist and as a pastor. He started building violins and guitars in 1999, greatly aided by the advice of his luthier father-in-law, Johan Tromp, and the vital information so generously shared by the Guild members. He combines his workshop with a business accounting firm. this info updated 2010 |
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An accomplished solo entertainer and recording artist who has performed on both sides of the Atlantic, Bill “Doctor Zither” Kolb is one of the founding members of the North America Zither Orchestra. this info updated 2014 |
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By day, long time guild member, GAL lecturer, American Luthiere contributor, Saul Koll designs and builds stringed instruments in Portland, Oregon. By night plays punk rock guitar in unsafe stinky places. this info updated 2008 |
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Joe Konkoly is head repair tech and manager of the repair department at Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan. In eighteen years at Elderly he has had the opportunity to repair and restore hundreds of the world’s finest new and vintage guitars, banjos, and mandolins. He also builds Konkoly Guitars — traditional steel string flattops — in his home shop, and does his best to keep the konkolyguitars.com website up to date. Joe lectured at last summer’s GAL Convention and has been a member for a total of twenty-eight years. this info updated 2012 |
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Francis Kosheleff joined GAL in 1979 and has maintained his membership continuously ever since. He joined the human race (some doubt it) when he was born in France in 1929 to French and Russian parents. A compulsive inventor and part-time luthier, he builds mostly instruments that no other luthier would build: balalaikas, domras, packaxes, and others with folding, adjustable, or detachable necks. this info updated 2008 |
John Koster is the curator at America's Shrine to Music Museum. this info updated 1994 |
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Luthier and all around craftsman Max Krimmel is a thirty-two-year Guild member, past Board member, and past author. He currently divides his time between artistic turning work in alabaster, building dulcimers for Bonnie Carol and playing/building marimbas. this info updated 2008 |
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Jeanne Kukich joined the business of her husband Nick Kukich in the late ’80s, bringing with her an affinity for communicating with clients and a willingness to learn the business and take on most any task. www.franklinguitarcompany.com/ this info updated 2015 |
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Nick Kukich has been an intermittent GAL member over the last thirty-five years. He built his first guitar while on a summer break from college in 1971 under the tutelage of Bob Marsh, a recent graduate of what would soon be the Roberto-Venn School. www.franklinguitarcompany.com/ this info updated 2015 |
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M.A. Kupfer is a Russian luthier who has made in depth investigations into the acoustic properties of well regarded older balalaikas. this info updated 1989 |
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Peter Kyvelos has been making and repairing stringed instruments for over thirty years. His shop in Belmont, Massachusetts is considered to be the epicenter of instrument making by Greek, Armenian, and Middle Eastern musicians around the United States. this info updated 2008 |
Andrew LaBonte studied music at the University of Vermont and SUNY Albany and became interested in early instruments. He moved to the Boston area in 1990 and worked at Hubbard Harpsichords for several years before starting his own workshop. He continued building while also doing restoration on and making reproductions of antique gilt and veneered picture frames with historical finishes. For the past ten years he has been building and repairing stringed instruments, and teaching private music lessons. this info updated 2014 |
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Johannes Labusch divides his time between illustrating children's books, working as a freelance graphic designer, and playing guitar in his band, Glory Pugs. The article in this issue is his first work of journalistic writing. this info updated 2005 |
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Kevin La Due's day job is teaching high school kids to make guitars and other things. When not at Vestal High, he can be found creating his next guitar, building furniture, teaching guitar, and playing at church. He still finds time to design more guitars, jigs, and fixtures and recently has begun writing music. Oh yeah; he also plows the driveway in winter and mows the lawn in summer. this info updated 2005 |
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Like many of us, thirteen-year GAL member Del Langejans built his first guitar with a little help from Irving Sloane's Classic Guitar Construction. But not many of us have a Merchant Marine captain's license. Del does. this info updated 2005 |
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Globetrotter, teacher, and industrialist Jean Larrivée spoke to our 1986 and 1990 and 1995 conventions and attended our 1980 convention. this info updated 1996 |
Luthier and wood merchant John Larsen is a three-year Guild member. this info updated 1990 |
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Twenty-six-year GAL member Ric Larson runs Vikwood, a lutherie wood supplier in Sheboygan, WI which has been helping luthiers with their wood needs since 1973. this info updated 2010 |
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Kent LaRue has a BA and MFA in music and an MA in public school administration. Before retiring, he was Director of Curriculum for Denville Township and president of the Morris Area Curriculum Network. He is now a ``balladeer'' performing authentic 18th-century music for visitors to Colonial Williamsburg. this info updated 2009 |
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A builder of steel string, classical, and flamenco guitars since 1971, William “Grit” Laskin is the first musical instrument maker to receive (in 1997) Canada’s prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award For Excellence In Craft. He apparently couldn’t decide whether to be a guitar maker or an artist. Thankfully, the two directions were not mutually exclusive. this info updated 2015 |
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Thirty-year GAL member Lennis Laviolette is a retired land surveyor. He has designed and built liturgical furnishings for several Catholic church renovations, and makes classical, nylon-string jazz, and baritone guitars. He is working on guitar #92 and reports that everyone who has bought one of his instruments has become a friend. www.lavioletteguitars.com/lavioletteguitars/Index.html this info updated 2014 |
Nine-year Guild member Amina Anne Le Maitre lives and luths in the Channel Islands. That's not a part of the United Kingdom, nor of the European Union. It all has to do with William the Conqueror. this info updated 1997 |
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Past author Phil Lea is a two-year Guild member and an assistant bank manager in real life. this info updated 1991 |
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Harvey Leach has been a luthier for more than thirty years. He is famously known for his beautiful, intricate and detailed inlay work on his own guitars and those of many other high-end luthiers. Recently Harvey has seen his longtime efforts to develop a true full-size travel guitar reach fruition in the Voyage Air guitar project. this info updated 2009 |
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Six-year Guild member Chuck Lee and his wife Tammy have seven children, four still at home. Once a self-employed master plumber, Chuck now builds about eighty-five banjos a year. He also enjoys gardening, reading, and dreaming up his next business. this info updated 2008 |
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Burton LeGeyt runs a design school fabrication lab during the day and spends the rest of his time in his own shop building guitars and restoring antique precision bench machinery. this info updated 2014 |
New GAL member William Leirer is a hobby builder who teaches five-to-eight-year-olds to read, write, and do math in his day job. He says building guitars is not good for his guitar playing technique. The more he builds the less he practices. And the more he reads and writes about guitars and participates in guitar forums the less time he has to spend on either. this info updated 2008 |
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Twelve-year Guild member Jack Levine works with his friend Ed Hoffman to design and build 'cellos and tools. this info updated 1989 |
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Seven-year GAL member Jay Lichty builds custom guitars and ukuleles. He also offers guitar- and ukulele-building workshops. this info updated 2015 |
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Honest Ron Lira is a twenty-seven year Guild member. this info updated 1994 |
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In the middle of teaching Astronomy and Physics at a local university, four-year member Sam Littlepage builds classical and steel string guitars. (He has been caught building a few banjos, a dulcimer, and even a 12-string tenor). He is experimenting with new ways of doing guitar necks, bridges, soundboards, and so on. this info updated 1998 |
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Jeff Liverman, Executive Director for the Danville Science Center, has worked in the science museum environment for over twenty years. Having a masters degree in Physics and a background in music, Jeff is interested in the intersection between music and science. Before moving to Danville VA, in 2003, he spent ten years repairing and building steel string instruments. Jeff also spent much of his semiprofessional life writing, playing, and recording music with the band Dirtball. this info updated 2008 |
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Long-time GAL member Jason Lollar literally wrote the book on making electric guitar pickups. His business outgrew his island homestead, so he moved it to the big city — Tacoma. He is slated to present at the upcoming GAL Convention. this info updated 2017 |
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Abel Garcia López is descended from a long line of luthiers in Paracho, a town which has been the center of Mexican guitar making since the 16th century. this info updated 2014 |
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Augie LoPrinzi is famous as the founder of both the LoPrinzi and the Augustino guitar brands, but did you know he was also a barber? this info updated 1997 |
Leo Lospennato is a luthier, editor in chief of Sustain magazine, and the author of Electric Guitar & Bass Design. Somehow, he still finds time in between to build some crazy electric guitars. He lives in Berlin, Germany, with his wife Andrea and their miniature schnauzer, Tango. this info updated 2014 |
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Wade Lowe was one of the early members of the Guild and has been involved on and off over the decades. He got serious about building musical instruments in 1963. In 1969 he was the primary repair person for the renowned Sutherland’s House of Guitars. Then in 1974 he opened Diapason Guitar Shop which was a wonderful shop that was influential to many Atlanta-area guitar builders. Today he continues to build beautiful instruments, is a purveyor, creator, and supporter of fine art, and resides in the center of the universe, which happens to be located in Decatur, Georgia. this info updated 2014 |
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Adrian Lucas began making guitars around 1990 under the tutelage of Roy Courtnall. During this time he illustrated Roy's books Making Master Guitars and The Art of Violin Making. He builds flat top acoustics and classical guitars to his own designs, which are influenced by his former life in architecture. He lives in Lincoln, England and plays in a couple of bands. this info updated 2008 |
While studying for a music degree, Anne Ludwig took up the classical guitar and has been hooked ever since. She is a professional guitarist, an enthusiastic member of the Guild of South African Luthiers, and the founder of Guitar Talk magazine. this info updated 2003 |
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Lute maker and scholar Robert Lundberg is a frequent Guild author and convention lecturer. this info updated 1996 Bob passed away in 2001, read his memoriam |
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Retired bass maker Fred Lyman has had articles published by the Guild in the '70s, '80s, '90s, and now the '00s. He's a thirty-three-year GAL member and a Convention presenter. And he's the champion of all Guild Benefit Auction donors, having donated hundreds of items beginning with our first auction in 1984. this info updated 2009 Fred passed away in 2012, read his memoriam |
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