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/hacklemancontact.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

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

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

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

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."

www.jthbass.com

this info updated 2007

Tom Harper is an eleven-year Guild member, building primarily classic guitars. Attendance at several ASL classes has allowed him to combine the formidable techniques of some great builders with his own mistakes and misunderstandings to create a building style. His past is riddled with quixotic pursuits that include bicycle frame building, ski mountaineering guiding, and climbing instruction.

www.harperguitars.com/

this info updated 2009

Wayne Harris is a co-developer of the bi-level guitar design.

this info updated 1988

Elaine S. Hartstein is an amateur guitarmaker who works with computers in her day job.

this info updated 1993

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-five years.

www.bruceharvie.com/; www.rockisland.com/~tonewoods/Home.html

this info updated 2007

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

David Hawley decided to become an amateur luthier while fulfilling a debt to society. Keep up the good work, Dave!

this info updated 2003

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.

www.davidhaxtonguitars.com/

this info updated 2002

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.

www.heeresguitars.nl/

this info updated 2008

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

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.

ziaguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

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

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

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.

www.myspace.com/johnbartleyhiggins

this info update 2008

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

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.

www.hillguitar.com/

this info update 2009

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

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.

www.benjaminhoffauthor.com/

this info updated 2001

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

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

Richard Hoover has been a member twelve of the last eighteen years. He is the founder and kingpin of Santa Cruz Guitar Co.

www.santacruzguitar.com/

this info updated 1996

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.

www.windworld.com

this info updated 2006

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.

www.oliver-waitze.de/the_fine_art_of_lutherie.htm

this info updated 1997

Jay Hostetler has been the friendly face of Stew-Mac for most of the company's impressive thirty-four years of continuous GAL membership.

www.stewmac.com

this info updated 2007

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

www.lutherie.net/

this info update 2008

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

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

Guitarist and composer Paul Hurley is a first-time author and a new member of the Guild.

this info updated 1993

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.

www.lisadegranada.com/

this info updated 2008

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.

www.pohakuukulele.com/

this info updated 2008

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.

www.newviolinfamily.org/

this info updated 2006

Hart 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.

Hart passed away in 1992, read his memoriam.

this info updated 1992

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

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.

www.cjenkinsluthier.com/

this info updated 2007

In addition to running a full-time finishing supply company, Homestead Finishing Products, Jeff Jewitt finds time to re-finish, write, and teach.  He has written extensively for Fine Woodworking magazine for over twelve years and has written articles on finishing for other magazines.  He has developed finishing products which are sold all over the world under the “Homestead” name and is the author of four books: Hand Applied Finishes, Great Wood Finishes, The Complete Guide To Finishing (Taunton Press) and Furniture Repair and Refinishing (Handyman Club of America) as well as two videos: Coloring Wood and Applying Topcoats (Taunton Press).
 
 www.homesteadfinishing.com

this info updated 2007

Twenty-year GAL member Bryan Johanson is chair of the Department of Music at Portland State University where he has taught since 1978, and directs both the classical guitar and composition programs. In addition to teaching, performing, recording, composing, and writing, he directs the Portland Guitar Festival. Current extracurricular activities include running marathons, distance cycling, and learning to play the pipa.

this info updated 2006

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

If you want to know more about twenty-six-year Guild member Frank "Andy" Johnson, just turn to page 40.

www.nswoods.net/

this info updated 1989

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.

www.georgiamusic.org/

this info updated 1991

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.

www.tjohnsonguitars.com/

this info updated 2009

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.

www.gryphonstrings.com/about_gryphon/contact.html

this info updated 2007

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

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.

www.jordanmusic.com/

this info updated 2008

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

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

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

www.designerinlight.com/

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

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

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

His friends may call him an armchair luthier, but Armin Kelly spends his real time at Guitars International (www.guitarsint.com) on the telephone match making guitars to players while at the same time encouraging guitar makers to produce their very best work for him. He considers his efforts successful when all parties concerned are happy.

www.guitarsint.com/

this info updated 2004

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

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

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

Nine-year GAL member David King grew up in a musical family where rock was taboo. Now he makes and plays electric basses.

www.kingbass.com/

this info updated 2006

Twenty-year member Stephen Kinnaird pastors a small church in East Texas. In his spare time he builds and repairs steel string guitars.

www.kinnairdguitars.com/stephen_kinnaird.htm

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

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.

www.koolauukulele.com/

this info update 2008

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

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

Thomas Knatt as 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.

www.ziplink.net/~tknatt/

this info updated 2008

Nine-year member K. Kobie has studied engineering and design, and specializes in designing and building electric guitars and basses.

this info updated 1991

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.

www.kollguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

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

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.

www.maxkrimmel.com/

this info updated 2008

He's the founding and long-time sole proprietor of Franklin Guitars. She's a former video producer who came to feel the lure of the sawdust. They're Nick Kukich and Jeanne Munro!

this info updated 1994

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

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

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

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

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

Globetrotter, teacher, and industrialist Jean Larrivée spoke to our 1986 and 1990 and 1995 conventions and attended our 1980 convention.

www.larrivee.com/

this info updated 1996

Luthier and wood merchant John Larsen is a three-year Guild member.

this info updated 1990

A builder of steel-string, classical and flamenco concert instruments 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 is the originator of built in Armrest and Ribrest body bevels and co-originator of the sideport soundhole.  He is also known for the groundbreaking inlay art he does on many of his instruments.  Additionally, Grit is an active folk music performer and recording artist, and part owner of Canada's first national folk label, Borealis Records, in Toronto.

www.williamlaskin.com/

this info updated 2008

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

Past author Phil Lea is a two-year Guild member and an assistant bank manager in real life.

this info updated 1991

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.

www.leachguitars.com/

this info updated 2009

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.

www.chuckleebanjos.com/index2.html

this info updated 2008

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

Twelve-year Guild member Jack Levine works with his friend Ed Hoffman to design and build 'cellos and tools.

this info updated 1989

Honest Ron Lira is a twenty-seven year Guild member.

www.honestronsguitars.com/

this info updated 1994

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

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

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?

www.augustinoloprinzi.com/

this info updated 1997

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.

www.lucasguitars.co.uk/

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

Lute maker and scholar Robert Lundberg is a frequent Guild author and convention lecturer.

Bob passed away in 2001, read his memoriam

this info updated 1996

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