Jim Washburn took on a writing assignment as a journalist for a newspaper about the electric guitar, which led to a series of books and articles that has documented a significant chapter ...
Walter “Wolfman” Washington was a staple on the New Orleans music scene since first picking up a guitar in the 1950s. After some minor corrections on technique and tuning, Wolfman hit the...
Bruce Waters grew up with his guitar ever-present. He played for small events around the Chicago area as a kid and started providing music lessons when he was 18 years old. He later toure...
Charles Watkins invented the Watkins Copicat, an echo unit introduced in 1958. Mr. Watkins was inspired by the Morino Marini Quartet who made famous the Comi Prima, which contained a spec...
Claude Watson was a precise and revered luthier who perfected the fine art of handcrafted instrument building. He was known for his clever design and complex inlay work in country-style ...
Richard Webb’s grandfather opened a pawnshop in England and his father, Sydney, developed a small music division within the shop some 20 years later. Since the age of 12, Richard thought ...
Darren Webb has played a key role at Santa Cruz Guitar Company since joining the team in the 1990s. With a focus on the service and repair of older Santa Cruz instruments, most important...
Jimmie D. Webb operated a small music shop in Antioch, California, which was also the headquarters for his amplifier business. The Webb Amps were widely used by electric blues and rock b...
Thomas Weilbier is the President of No. 1 Guitar Center GmbH, which is located in the musical hub of Hamburg, Germany. Thomas related some of the strong rock and roll history of the city...
Hagen Weise was born in Dresden. He shares his experience of his apprenticeship at Musima in a state run production in East Germany before 1989. Per day, four-hundred classical guitars we...
Jennifer Weiss listened closely to the stories her aunt and mother would tell about working in the CF Martin Guitar factory as she grew up. She followed in their footsteps first in the st...
Chris Wellons was playing percussion in grade school, and about the same time, he took an interest in wood working. He was hired as a cabinet builder while still in school and continued i...
Bill Wenzloff proudly represented Morley at the 2019 NAMM Show in Anaheim when the CEO of NAMM, Joe Lamond, presented Bill with the NAMM Milestone Award for 50 years in business. Bill was...
Stanley Werbin opened a small guitar shop he named Elderly Instruments on July 5, 1972. The original location was in East Lansing, Michigan and focused on "used instruments". Within a fe...
Paul Werkheiser often says he would never trade his memories of the years he worked for the C.F. Martin & Company. He expressed the family-like relationships he had and the pleasure i...
Lars Wern is the Vice President of Em Nordic AB in Stockholm, Sweden, working alongside the company’s founder, Benny Englund. In fact, during the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Lars and Benn...
Eleanor West and her husband Pearl established a music store in Iowa City just a year after getting married in 1940. Eleanor was the bookkeeper in the early years of West Music Company an...
Harry West was the founder of Fine Musical Instruments located in Statesville, North Carolina. The store was an early pioneer in vintage stringed instrument sales and in fact, Stanley Ja...
Jack Westheimer was among the first industry leaders interviewed for the NAMM archives back in July 2002. Four years later we had the unique opportunity to complete a second interview wit...
Larry Wexer was the first member of his family to be born in America and was always encouraged to learn music by his grandparents. After growing up during the folk movement in New York, h...
Dusty Wheeler served as a medic in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. After the war he attended college all the while playing guitar and giving lessons. In 1979 he opened Dusty’s Gu...
Lynn Wheelwright has always been fascinated with the guitar, especially the craft of building the instrument. After performing as a teenager, he developed many of his luthier skills from...
Frank Whetstine was working late in his musical instrument repair shop when he got to thinking about the unique way George Benson holds his guitar pick. Frank tried a few ways and finall...
Roland White played the mandolin as far back as he could remember. Influenced by the Bluegrass and Country Music he heard as a boy, Roland created his own unique style, which has been a m...
Curtis White was 11 years old when his father, Forrest White, resigned from Fender Guitar Company. Curtis remembers being devastated and wondering what the family would do since Fender wa...
Eleanor Whitmore is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and one-half of the duo, The Mastersons, alongside Chris Masterson. Beyond her work with The Mastersons, Eleanor is also a ...
Chris Whittington is the product engineer at Remo Inc in Valencia, California, a place he has referred to as his home. After all, Chris is a musician who is passionate about playing, who...
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 ...
Barbara Wight smiled when she recalled being crowned the accordion princess of the Western States as a child. While she later had a long career as an executive in the agricultural industr...
Gordy Wilcher believes that with the right mixture of passion and knowledge, the independent music retailer has the strength to bring music to young students, build new brands within thei...
Bob Wiley’s father opened a small music store in Kansas in the mid 1930s and specialized in steel guitars. When the sales rep, Charlie Hayes, came into the store with electric guitars fro...
Florence Wilfer was born in France and was working for a musical distribution company when she met HP Wilfer, her future husband. The two have been working together at HP's Warwick Compa...
