Life With Strings Attached

We talk a lot about tone – but what's the science behind the sound of our stringed instruments? To tackle this topic, I can think of few better people to talk with than Tom Nania.

As well as his work as an acoustics engineer with D'Addario, Tom is a member of the Violin Society of America’s Oberlin Acoustics Workshop. Prior to joining D’Addario, he also worked as a luthier and acoustics researcher specializing in archtop guitars as a co-proprietor of House of Luthiery. In 2021, the Violin Society of America published Tom’s work, “Archtop Guitar Dynamics", and he's currently curator of the archtopproject.org, an online resource for the acoustical analysis of historical archtop guitars.

As a lifelong musician turned maker, and having graduated from Indiana University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Astronomy, Tom’s background in acoustics began as a collaborator with the PICO group, an astrophysics particle detection experiment located at SNOLAB in association with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. That same year, Tom attended Bryan Galloup’s School of Guitar Building and Repair, and Tom and Bryan have continued to collaborate since, most recently with Project Dreadnought.

I wanted to lay out the scientific concepts key to understanding instrument acoustics – and to dive deeper into some of Tom's fascinating projects – with the hope of starting to develop an understanding of tone based in science. There's a lot here to explore, and I hope you enjoy coming on the journey with us.

Patreon members will also get access to the exclusive bonus content as part of this episode, exploring the business of guitar.

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.

Robin Stummvoll of Verso Instruments was recently explaining to me how big an influence Ulrich Teuffel was for his guitar designs. And when it became clear that the two had never met – despite coming from the same region in Germany – I felt I had to change that. 

Luckily, they agreed, and I had the pleasure of bringing the two guitar innovators together in Uli’s workshop to discuss design, entrepreneurship and how new guitars inspire new music.

It was fascinating to take on these topics with Robin and Uli, and I’d like to thank them both again for taking part.

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 Omer Deutsch of OD Guitars on this week's episode of Life With Strings Attached. Originally trained as an industrial designer, Omer worked in product design for seven years before starting his guitar making business in 2016. Since then, he’s made guitars for many artists, mostly in the world of metal, including players such as Roman Ibramkhalilov of Jinjer and Daniel Tompkins of Tesseract.

Omer is also a true hobbyist, flying remote controlled airplanes, riding freestyle BMX and building with Lego – he was even part of a Lego commercial involving his guitars. In this episode, Omer reflects on meeting his childhood hero at the NAMM Show and how he keeps his curiosity alive by building guitars for people around the world today. I very much enjoyed our conversation, and I hope that you do too.

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's episode of Life With Strings Attached was recorded on location in Northern Ontario, Canada – actually, in my backyard, by special request of today's guest, Mike Sankey. 

Mike has been creating one-of-a-kind guitars for over 25 years in his workshop in Ottawa, Canada. While better known for organic yet futuristic electric instruments, his work has always been informed by a deep knowledge and appreciation of historical precedent. Leveraging modern techniques such as 3D printing and computer aided design has been a means to the end of making instruments that are each totally unique expressions of the luthier's art. 

While enjoying a drink by the lake, we talked about the importance of curiosity, the value of stepping beyond what's comfortable, and the role of spontaneity in Mike's work. 

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's episode of Life With Strings Attached was filmed on location in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with marine biologist Richard Sears.

Sears is a Franco-American who founded the Mingan Island Cetacean Study in 1979 to study marine mammals in the Saint Lawrence, with an emphasis on baleen whales. He worked with the pioneers of whale research, from whom he learned that in order to know whales, there is no better way than to spend a lot of time at sea. 

He started the first long term study of blue whales in the Sea of Cortez, collected the first blue whale identification photographs and biopsies off western Iceland, and collected data on blue whales passing by the archipelago near the Azores.

In addition, he's worked off Georgia, Panama, Costa Rica, New Caledonia, Greenland, Baffin Island, and the Mediterranean. Sears is also a lifelong guitar player and music lover, and collaborated with Nik Huber on the limited Blue Whale series. I wanted to get a better understanding of his work, hear his perspective on whale behaviour and animal consciousness, and draw some connections between his work and the world of music. 

I very much enjoyed my conversation with Richard, and I hope that you do too.

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.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Ulrich Teuffel goes deeper into the discipline, repetition, and mindset behind building guitars over decades.

From the intense development of the Birdfish to the quiet satisfaction of refining small details over time, this episode explores mastery, doubt, and the realities of working as an independent luthier.

▶ Explore Ulrich Teuffel:
https://www.boutiqueguitarshowcase.com/teuffel

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.

Today's episode of Life with Strings Attached was filmed on location in southern Germany, in the workshop of Ulrich Teuffel.

Since 1988, Ulrich (Uli to his friends) has been crafting electric guitars unlike any other luthier. In bringing together a unique blend of his training as an automotive mechanic and his studies in industrial design from the 1990s, he's created innovative models—Birdfish, Tesla, Niwa, and Antonio—that are radically independent, yet always follow a distinctive leitmotif.

These masterpieces are found in prestigious museums and collections, as well as in the hands of legendary musicians like David Torn, Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, Henry Kaiser, Ludwig Göransson, and Hans Zimmer.

For Ulrich Teuffel, Leo Fender stands as the most influential guitar maker of the 20th century. In the eyes of many contemporary guitar makers, Teuffel's work exists on its own plane, elevated to a level that few can aspire to.

Personally, for me, Uli has been an inspiring colleague and friend. Together, we explore concepts and ideas that stretch and challenge each other, feeding both our minds and souls. I find conversations with Uli exceptionally invigorating. I hope you will too.

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.

Aerospace engineer Giulio Di Donato met with me just outside of Bologna for this week's episode, where we explore the fundamentals of aerospace engineering and aerodynamics, and see what learnings we can take to other topics and disciplines. 

Giulio works in research and development for a prestigious super sports car company, taking responsibility for the thermal management of the vehicles from the early concept stage through the design and final testing.

As well as gaining a better understanding of his work and the scientific fundamentals that underpin it, I wanted to get Giulio's thoughts on STEM education, and to discuss whether there might be better ways to teach science and maths than our current approaches.

I'd like to thank Giulio for such a fascinating discussion, which taught me a lot and gave me plenty to think about in my own work.

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 visited Giulio Negrini of GNG in his workshop in Switzerland to talk about his guitars, and inevitably we ended up talking about far more: the role of fantasy in our culture, the allure of thematically dark or morbid art, and the magical elements that go into instrument making.

An Italian master luthier, trained in the Cremonese style of Stradivarius, Guarneri and Amati, Giulio pursues perfection and precision with every one of his instruments. Though focused around the needs of players, his guitars are also designed to be aesthetically striking, with many featuring amazing custom inlay work and bold finishes, drawing influence from fantasy literature.

Giulio has been part of every Boutique Guitar Showcase I've curated at The NAMM Show since its inception, and every year his guitars have got better – even when I didn't think that was possible. As always, it was fascinating to hear his thoughts on his craft and the things that inspire him, as well as to go into topics beyond the guitar.

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've known Nik Huber for many years – since almost the very beginning of my work in the guitar industry. While we were catching up in a restaurant during the Montreux International Guitar Show, I wanted to dive back into some of the stories that have defined his hugely successful career as a guitar maker. So, a bit less of a podcast, this episode is more like sitting in on dinner between two old friends.

Nik is one of the most widely known and respected guitar makers working today. Coming from a line of woodworkers going back four generations, he got his first steps towards instrument building early in life, tinkering in his father’s woodworking shop in the basement of their family home. The obsession with his craft grew from there, and in the three decades since building his first guitar, he has gained a worldwide reputation as a builder of the highest quality instruments.

Today, still based in Nik’s small hometown of Rodgau, Germany, the highly skilled team at Nik Huber Guitars produces around 350 instruments a year and boasts an artist roster featuring some of the biggest names in music. Their guitars and basses are taken into studios and onto stages around the world by the likes of Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Tenacious D, Snarky Puppy, Kvelertak and Silverstein, and played by musicians working with Justin Bieber, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones. 

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.