Life With Strings Attached

Based in Vermont, Adam Buchwald has managed to build an enviable business that spans every part of the guitar making and selling process, from supplying woods and tools to designing and building across several brands, and even setting up a retail space. 

In his full career he’s covered even more ground, plying his trade as a professional musician with guitar, banjo and mandolin, repairing valuable instruments at Retrofret in Brooklyn, NY, teaching guitar building at Vermont Instruments, and a whole bunch more. 

Informed from so many different angles in our industry – and successful in running not just one brand but several – Adam is a truly valuable person to hear from when it comes to building a life in the world of guitars. 

We talk about his philosophy behind Iris Guitars, assessing value and why he wanted to create such an all-inclusive business. 

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

This week on the podcast, English guitar maker Rosie Heydenrych talks about how she started Turnstone Guitars, why she's drawn to using non-traditional woods, and what fuels her curiosity as she continues to grow her business.

As well as crafting beautiful and refreshing instruments, Rosie has created a family business that prioritises what's most important and motivating for her, so it's well worth hearing her perspective on building a successful brand in the guitar world.

Turnstone Guitars: https://turnstoneguitar.co.uk/

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BusinessOfGuitar

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

This week, I'm joined by Finnish master guitar maker Juha Ruokangas to talk about the future of guitars, music and his own business. 

With over three decades of experience in the game, building some of the finest quality instruments available on Earth, Juha certainly has an interesting perspective on the changing world of the guitar. 

It was fascinating to hear his thoughts on the culture and business of the guitar and where we're heading, and I hope you enjoy listening. 

Patreon members will also get exclusive access to our extended conversation about how to run a successful guitar business, where we discuss the advantages of Juha's unique workshop structure.

Ruokangas Guitars: https://ruokangas.com

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BusinessOfGuitar

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

Unsurprisingly, when you talk to someone who’s a designer, professor, writer, musician and multimedia artist, your conversation covers quite a lot of ground.

Ed Keller’s career and projects span an incredible breadth of work across many fields. Often with an interdisciplinary approach, he’s taught and run centers at prestigious institutions around the world, founded architecture firms, consulted with leading AI technologists, and had his work published in renowned journals and magazines.

Originally training as a composer and guitarist, Ed has always maintained a connection with the guitar in his work, from performing and recording his own compositions to running projects and shows exploring the limits of guitar design.

Talking with Ed is always inspiring and energising, and this week’s episode of Life With Strings Attached was certainly no different.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

Having served for more than a decade in the Army, received an MBA and worked as an executive in a Fortune 500 company, Jason Kostal was already highly accomplished when he came to guitar building – and it’s now yet another area in his life where he’s achieved excellence.

Bringing such a varied experience into his work gives Jason a uniquely informed perspective on running a business, being the best you can be and ensuring your vision becomes a reality. We talk about all this and more in this week’s episode of Life With Strings Attached, as well as Jason’s time studying under Kent Everett, the Roberto-Venn school of luthiery and Ervin Somogyi. 

And of course, we also talk about how Jason builds some of the finest guitars out there today.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

Guitar builder Randy Parsons joins me to share some incredible stories on this week’s episode, including working with Jack White, using a cattle skull for the bracing of a guitar he made for Jimmy Page, how he came up with the 50,000-piece Red Queen in a single moment of spontaneity, how he moved his workshop from a former Hell Angels hideout to a century-old church in rural Kansas – and lots more.

Whether you’re interested in guitar making or not, this is well worth a listen to hear from someone who has led a fascinating life and – through sometimes bizarre and scarcely believable moments – built an amazing career as a guitar maker. Speaking with Randy provides so many insights on the nature of risk, the value of self-belief, the magic of hard work, and the strange force of serendipity.

I’m always thankful to get a chance to catch up with Randy, and I hope you’ll all enjoy listening.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

I’m pleased to announce that my guest this week on Life With Strings Attached is guitar maker Michael Greenfield.

Michael is passionate about tone. Great tone. FAT tone. Squeezing every last molecule of tone out of his instruments. Prior to making the commitment to build full-time, he spent 20 years repairing and restoring vintage instruments. He has also been a player for 60 years; so perfect feel, buttery-smooth playability and road-worthy stability are what his instruments are all about.

Each of Greenfield’s guitars is designed with AI – Acoustic Intent. Having crafted several hundred guitars in his 30 years as a career guitar maker, his most important revelations about the instrument cannot be seen. He constantly researches the history, mechanics, dynamics, and physics of the guitar to cultivate a deeper understanding of what makes it work, and how he can continue to advance and control each instrument’s voice.

Michael carefully handcrafts a limited number of exquisite acoustic guitars each year in his Montréal shop. His guitars address the needs of traditional and contemporary players of all musical styles. His goal is that you be thrilled, not merely satisfied with your new guitar!

Michael enjoys an international reputation of crafting some of the finest guitars available. Some clients of profile include Andy McKee, Pipo Romero, Paul Stanley, Colin Hay, Tony McManus, Charlie Hunter, Pat Martino, Keith Richards, Pierre Bensusan, Steffen Schackinger, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Philippe Mariotti and many more.

We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, and I hope you enjoy listening.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

This week on Life With Strings Attached, we’re exploring the intersection of neuroscience, music and advanced AI. Our guide through these topics is Dr. Gabriel Axel Montes, a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, author, musician, and researcher and practitioner of consciousness development. 

With a focus on AI, Gabriel works both hands-on and at the thought-leadership level in guiding the beneficial development of technologies and organisations. He’s worked with leading organisations at the pioneering edge of AI, helping to advance their technology, strategy, and communications. 

A musician since the age of 12, Gabriel is also active in synthesising human and AI creativity, touring around the world with Desdemona's Dream Band, one of the first bands with an AI lead singer and songwriter. 

And on top of all this, Gabriel is an avid international traveller, nature enthusiast, and a passionate father and husband.

Exploring these topics is something I consider extremely important – as well as fascinating – and I’m thankful to have someone as knowledgeable, insightful and widely experienced as Gabriel as a guide. I’m certain there’s so much we can all take from this episode, and I hope you enjoy listening.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

I’m very pleased to have Legendary instrument designer Ned Steinberger as our special guest on this week’s episode of Life With Strings Attached.

With a remarkable 40-year legacy, Ned Steinberger has been at the forefront of innovation, with instruments that have revolutionized the industry and set new standards for performance and ergonomic comfort.

Those instruments have been adopted by an impressive list of artists, including Sting, Laurie Anderson, Les Claypool, David Darling, Tony Levin, Rob Wasserman, Eddie Van Halen and many others. 

Arguably Ned’s most famous and lasting contribution to guitar history has been the pioneering of headless graphite instruments to worldwide acclaim; the Steinberger Bass received numerous accolades, including the coveted Design of the Decade award from the Industrial Designer Society of America.

His TransTrem™ – a unique transposing vibrato unit that allows strings to remain in tune with each other rather than detune randomly – has been adopted by other notable guitar makers, such as Steve Klein and Ulrich Teuffel.

As if this wasn’t enough, Ned’s other designs include electronic tuners, tuning hardware, structural systems and accessories for companies such as D’Addario, David Gage and The Martin Guitar Company.

And finally, Ned’s NS Design company is one of the few companies to have gained success in the ultra-conservative bowed instrument market, with patents on double basses and violins.

There are few people who can boast of such wide spread influence across musical instruments and genres as Ned Steinberger can, and as always, it was a pleasure to get to speak with him. I hope you enjoy listening along, and I’m certain there’ll be something valuable to take away from Ned’s insights.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

I’m pleased to have Murray Kuun as our special guest on this week’s episode of Life With Strings Attached. 

Murray says that a transformative trip to Italy in the 1990s, punctuated by a visit to Michelangelo’s David and a serendipitous encounter with a Luthier, ignited his desire to craft musical instruments. With only a poorly written book as guidance, he painstakingly fashioned his first violin, marking the beginning of a prolific journey into instrument making. 

Over the years, he’s honed his craft, making countless traditional violins before transitioning to original designs that more reflect his love for music and innovation. Today, Murray’s portfolio boasts hundreds of one-of-a-kind guitars, violins, mandolins, ukuleles, a lute, and even a cello.

It was a pleasure to hear about Murray’s past and perspective, and I hope you enjoy listening along. 

Patreon members will also get access to the bonus Business of Guitar segment, in which Murray gives his perspective on decades running a successful instrument making business.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.