Life With Strings Attached

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 whal...

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.boutiqueguitarshow...

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—Bi...

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 fr...

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 perfectio...

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...

For this week’s episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sheldon Dingwall outside of the ancient Osaka Castle in Japan.   Sheldon is the founder and CEO of Dingwall Guitars. The modern champion of the multiscale bass, Dingwall boasts an artist roster including Lee Sklar, Adam “Nolly” Getgood of Periphery, Jacob Umanksy of Intervals, Jean-Michel Labadie of Gojira, Ali Dean of Architects, an...

Zackery Belanger is an expert in the form and material of acoustic architecture. For most of his career, he has questioned the dominant approaches in acoustics, convinced that intuitive, creative approaches are possible. He is the author of the essay Acoustic Ornament, which argues for consideration of non-acoustic surfaces and objects. In 2017 he founded the Detroit-based studio Arcgeometer. Bela...

For this week's episode of Life With Strings Attached, I joined Michael Spalt at his home and workshop in Portugal, where he recently relocated from Vienna. For decades, Michael's work has developed at the intersection of art, design and instrument making, pushing boundaries and experimenting with surprising materials. Whether in series like his Totem guitars featuring resin tops, or in...

For this week's episode of Life With Strings Attached, I had the pleasure of joining my good friend Bruno Bacci in Tuscany, where he has forged an enviable career as a guitar maker. With a background in design, Bruno talks about how his whole life has actually led him to guitar making, how he's managed to establish a successful guitar business, and how his passion for working with musici...

For this week's episode, I sat down with Adriano Sérgio of Ergon Guitars in Portugal.   It's always fascinating to speak with skilled craftspeople about their work, but it would be remiss to only talk about guitar making in an episode with Adriano. Fleeing his homeland as a child; serving as the equivalent of a Navy SEAL in Portugal; gaining a degree in jazz performance; touring in music...

From producing Fight Club and screenwriting for the BBC to partnering with UNICEF and creating films about some of the world's most important environmental projects, Ross's work has many threads. But they're all connected by a single mission. As a writer, producer and director, Ross has harnessed the power of storytelling to make an impact, and as an educator, narrative consultant a...

Bryan Galloup's impact on the guitar industry has been enormous and multi-faceted. For over four decades, he's been dedicated to the preservation of vintage and contemporary musical instruments; he's the President and CEO of Galloup Guitars; and through the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair, he and his team have trained more than 2500 luthiers, some of whom are now themse...

Julio Martins and João Petiz are the founders of Everythink, a design company based in Portugal with an incredibly diverse portfolio of projects. From airplanes and medical equipment to guitars and robots, they design products, services and experiences that impact people's lives in a positive, easy and happy way.  I sat down with them on location in Porto to talk about the connections across...

Daniel Rowland is a music producer, engineer, tech executive and educator. He's worked with artists from Nine Inch Nails and Philip Glass to Gucci Mane and Jason Derulo. In the world of film, his credits include movies from Pixar as well as the Star Wars, Marvel and Fast and Furious franchises.  As Head of Strategy and Partnerships at AI music production platform LANDR and co-founder of brows...

In this wide-ranging conversation between myself and renowned Canadian luthier William "Grit" Laskin, we discuss the role of the artisan in the digital age, what the physics and physiology of sound perception teach us about instrument making, and why the mysteries of the guitar may remain mysteries for centuries to come. Watch the video version on YouTube: 🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With...