Manuel Rodriguez Sr. was very proud of his ancestry as a classical guitar luthier in the deep tradition of his native Spain. With honor, pride and passion, the art and craftsmanship has b...
Ed Roman opened a guitar store in Las Vegas after a successful career in the motorcycle industry. What he learned about that business and the customer base he found, he could easily apply...
Pepe Romero Jr literally grew up surrounded by guitars. As part of the Romero family, Pepe was exposed to classic guitars and music from the time he was born. While he learned to play at ...
Adam Rose is a luthier and guitar designer for Santa Cruz Guitar Company and has worked with the company's founder, Richard Hoover since the 1980s. Adam's passion for the woods has been ...
Ernst Roth is a guitar luthier who over the last 40 years of his career has dedicated himself to training younger craftsman in the art of violin and guitar making. He was born in the musi...
Roger Sadowsky is a highly respected instrument maker, who has helped redefine the word luthier to include the subtext of brilliant handcrafted design. His instruments have been played b...
Leo Scala was born in Belgrade Serbia and moved to Moscow to attend college. He studied chemical engineering, but soon realized this was not his true passion. Having played guitar since h...
Van Schipper is a guitar luthier who has enjoyed embracing the roots of his craft. As a student of guitar building, he sought the advice of others with a mind to paying tribute to his gre...
Frank Schlegel was born in 1967 to a family of musical instrument makers in Markneukirchen. Like so many families in this region, he and his father, Klaus Schlegel, carry on the tradition...
Wolfgang Schnabl is a luthier in Bubenreuth, Germany and has been particularly successful in creating cellos. After learning the craft at the state vocational school for instrument making...
Joachim Schneider proudly continues in the family tradition of hand crafted instrument making. His great grandfather was a violin builder as was his grandfather. His grandfather and fathe...
Dr. Susanne Schnitzer shares her memories growing up in the Kirschnek family. Grandfather Franz Krischnek, founder of Kirschnek String Instruments, was a businessman with worldwide connec...
Eric Schoenberg opened his own guitar shop in Tiburon, California after working music retail on the east coast for decades. Over the years he watched the vintage guitar market grow and de...
Jack Schwarz is the founder of Desert Sons Musical Instruments based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company specializes in custom guitars from a small group of luthiers, all of whom Jack, himse...
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 a...
Ekhard Seidl’s steady hand and concentration, so evident when watching him, can be traced back to his grandfather and the tradition of violin making in the town of Markneukirchen Germany....
Lothar Seifert came from a family of musical instrument makers in the Kirchberg area of Germany. His father, Oskar, began making bows in 1924 and by 1932 had set up a workshop in Graslitz...
Tim Shaw is the Chief Engineer-Guitars for Fender Musical Instruments, helping the company create guitars, pickups and other products. Tim’s career began when Charlie Wicks hired him to r...
Evan Skopp is the president of Inside Track International, which is a boutique sales & marketing firm that works with luthiers and guitar manufacturers. He started out in music at an ...
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...
Kevin Smith opened the Violin Shop in San Diego after extensive training as a violin luthier and appraiser. His knowledge of the craftsmanship of violin making was on display during his N...
Ewald Sommer’s grandfather, Ignatz Sommer, started building machine heads for stringed instruments in 1911. Early on, he supplied Höfner with his products for basses, guitars, mandolins, ...
Ervin Somogyi began his career as a instrument repairman, which is how he learned the important elements of a guitar. He studied what went wrong with guitars, their weaknesses, and what h...
Stuart Spector’s creation of the Spector Bass is recognized around the world. As Stuart explained, little has changed in the design of the Spector guitar since it was first created in 19...
Ned Steinberger is known around the world for his innovative instrument designs. His guitars and basses created without the traditional headstock gained wide popularity in the 1980s rock ...
Stephen Stern was born a wood craftsman. In fact, growing up his two passions became building furniture and playing the guitar. When he had an opportunity to put both together in the earl...
Ola Strandberg is the luthier, founder and Chief Creative Officer for Strandberg Guitars located in Uppsala, Sweden. Ola actually played drums as a kid, but when the family moved and the ...
John Suhr began formulating ideas of designing and modifying the electric guitar while working as a repairman at Rudy's Guitar Shop in New York City. After sharpening his skills as a mas...
Bob Taylor enrolled in wood shop while a student in high school and made a guitar for his final grade. The idea of making his own guitars came easy to Bob and he set out to create his own...
Horst Teller was the son of Oskar Teller, who formed a small workshop in 1929 in Schonbach to make musical instruments. After World War II, the company was rebuilt in Bubenreuth in 1949 a...
Wolfgang Teller joined the family musical instrument making business in 1980. His grandfather, Oskar, formed a small shop in 1928 and his father, Horst, joined him in 1949. When Wolfgang ...
Rick Thacker is one of five kids in his family, all of which became multi instrumentalists. Rick pursued violin and viola beginning with the Suzuki Method when he was just three years old...
