Tim Vear was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program in the months leading up to the 75th anniversary of the famous Shure microphone. Tim covered much of the history of this iconic ...
Giuseppe Vecchietti, known throughout his career as Beppe, primarily worked for three companies over his long career. All three were located in the same Italian Marche region by the Adria...
Joe Veillette took a luthier class, a class by Michael Gurian back in 1971 and never looked back! He became so interested in guitar building that he teamed up with Harvey Citron and form...
Manuel Velazquez was one of the greatest guitar luthiers of the last one hundred years. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1917 and handcrafted his first classical guitar when he was still a t...
Koob Veneman’s father started the first Veneman’s Music Store in Holland, an idea copied by Koob in Maryland in 1960. Koob, like his father, was a luthier who designed his own instruments...
Ted Veneman grew up in his father’s music store. As early as 1975, Ted was etching out a mail order catalog under the name “Music Emporium,” which was much earlier than most mail order ca...
Marcello Vercelli was trained as a mechanical engineer and landed his first job in the music industry at RCF. RCF is an Italian based professional loudspeaker manufacturer, and a big OEM...
Marc-Pierre Verge came to work on computer generated musical instruments by first studying acoustics. He and his colleagues at Applied Acoustics Systems used physical modeling to recreate...
Arturo Vicari is the founder of AEB Industrials which he established in 1974 in Bologna, Italy. He is also the CEO of RCF Spa which is based in Reggio Emilia (Italy). Both companies desig...
Rosa Villa is the Lead Supervisor within the drumhead shipping department at Remo Inc. headquarters in Valencia, California Like many of her co-workers, Rosa has been working for the co...
Greg Voelker is the inventor of a specialized drum rack system that has been used by top artists since the 1980s. His first rack was distributed by Premier Drums, which led to a full ser...
Jürgen Voigt comes from a long tradition of musical instrument makers in the region of Markneukirchen starting as early as 1756. His grandfather and great-grandfather were bow makers and ...
Alex Voishvillo is the mastermind behind many of the innovative products at Harman, mostly based on his passion and knowledge for all things related to transducers. Born and educated in R...
Clemens Von Arnim is the CEO of Louis Renner & Co., producer of the Renner Action and Hammerheads for pianos, the company his great-grandfather was involved with from the very beginni...
Mathias von Heydekampf enjoys the pro audio side of the music industry. He was working part time in his father’s car hifi company when he discovered his passion for the pro Audio busines...
Tedd Waggoner began his career in the music industry in 1969 and soon joined the Selmer team. Tedd worked in most of the positions for the company but found his greatest satisfaction whe...
EZ Wajcman was fascinated by the need for specialized sounding guitar pickups. Together with Bill Lawrence, EZ opened their pickup company in 1965 and produced a well-respected product t...
Robert Walker worked for the retail stores of the Baldwin Piano Company. He was located in the San Francisco store but later traveled the western states repairing and adjusting organs as...
Paula Walker began working in the music industry right out of high school for the Gemeinhart flute company in Elkhart, Indiana. In the early years she worked primarily on student instrum...
Ren Wall proudly followed his father's footsteps and worked in the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He began working for the company in 1960 and continued until 1982. A few...
Charles Walter was a pillar in the piano business for nearly 60 years. He was hired by the C.G. Conn Company to work in the piano design department back in 1964. While there he worked und...
Bill Walzak grew up in Chicago and found his way to the drums whenever he could. Trash cans and pots were often turned upside down and were Bill’s set! While playing in a band later he ...
Jay Wanamaker found his passion for music as a member of a drum and bugle corps and eventually honed his skills while attending the Crane school of music at SUNY Potsdam University in Pot...
June Wang is very proud of her company, Pearl River. She is an outstanding spokesperson for the China-based piano manufacturer. In fact, it was Ms. Wang who assisted the NAMM Oral Histo...
Guy Ward was the president of the Ward Piano Company, located in Canton, North Carolina, from the 1940s until his retirement. After his daughter and son took over the company, he continu...
Dennis Ward takes great pride in the work he does making musical instruments! He began working in the music industry with Vincent Bach in the 1970s and remained with the company in the e...
Dennis Waring has created his own line of musical products made out of cardboard. The harp and guitars are a fun way to get people playing a musical instrument, which is his main goal. ...
Steven Wasser grew up in a very musical family, played reed instruments as a child and dreamed of owning his own business. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Steven worked in ...
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...
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...
Dale Webb wanted to create a new design for the ukulele with the hope that it would inspire more people to play a musical instrument. His Fluke did exactly that! The instrument was intr...
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...