The Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast

On May 24, 2016, jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and Matt Munisteri performed a short Facebook Live set at the Fretboard Journal's Seattle headquarters. After the cameras were turned off, we kept the microphones rolling while Bill and Matt had an insightful conversation that covers Johnny Smith, the '80s New York City jazz scene, guitars, Bill's work with Vernon Reid, inspiration, attempting to take...

Once again, we check in with Minnesota-based luthier T. Drew Heinonen. As we've discussed on podcasts #100 and #101, Heinonen will be building the Fretboard Journal an OM-style guitar, which we'll be unveiling at the 2016 Fretboard Summit. As you'll hear in this podcast, we sent Drew a wide variety of domestic tone woods to choose from – from highly-figured koa to sleeper Black walnut. We also sou...

Burlington, Vermont's Creston Lea first appeared in the Fretboard Journal #21 when we ran a feature on him and fellow electric guitar builder Paul Languedoc. Over the years, we've continued to follow and be amazed by this created luthier. Today's podcast was recorded live at the first Fretboard Summit in November 2015. This is Lea's presentation entitled "Flame Job!" where he talks about design, c...

Even though his guitars command top dollar and his wait list is several years long, luthier Jason Kostal isn't done learning his craft. In fact, as we hear on today's Fretboard Journal Podcast, Kostal just flew to Europe to attend an inlay master class with Grit Laskin. We talk to Kostal about the course, Laskin's approach to teaching and whether he'll use his newfound inlay skills on his own guit...

On this week's podcast we talk to Walter Carter of Carter Vintage Guitars about one of the store's latest acquisitions, a May 1958 Gibson Les Paul that could safely be called the first 'Burst. This prototype guitar came from the factory with a three-piece top and a "Special" finish, which just happened to be the same yellow to cherry red sunburst pattern that would be found on all those iconic 195...

For 105th episode, we talk to two of the many guitarmakers who built instruments for Prince over his career. Roger Sadowsky tells the entertaining story of how he built Prince's "Ejacucasters" and Andy Beech of D'Haitre Guitars describes the dozens of guitars he built for the late music star and some of the abuse they went through after years of rigorous touring. If you have your own Prince guitar...

Today we talk to Grant Gordy and Joe Walsh, two rising stars in the world of bluegrass and Americana music. Both artists are members of Darrol Anger's Mr. Sun, but during the recording of this podcast, they were touring as a guitar/mandolin duo. Gordy talks to us about the vintage Martin guitar he just purchased from Chicago Music Exchange and Walsh talks to us about how he chose his new Nugget ma...

For years, Eric Daw has been the in-house repairman at Seattle’s acclaimed Emerald City Guitars. On today’s episode, we talk to Eric about his work at the store, his love for vintage guitars and a lot more. Eric also talks about his own Pin-Up Custom Guitars creations and his latest project, the Fret Files podcast.

Ronin electric guitars are instantly recognizable thanks to their unmistakable Foilbucker and Stratofoil pickups. Dig a little bit deeper and you'll also discover that these guitars have another unique characteristic – they’re all made out of reclaimed old growth redwood. On today’s podcast, we talk with John Reed of Ronin about their creations, why they’re using redwood for their guitar bodies an...

Luthier T. Drew Heinonen will soon be building us a custom OM style guitar. On this episode, we talk to Drew about the time he spent at Jim Olson's shop, his philosophy when it comes to CNC machines, thoughts on tone woods and more. We also hear from TJ Thompson on what, in his estimation, makes for a great OM-style guitar.  This is the second episode of our OM guitar build. We'll be checking in w...

We celebrate our 100 th  podcast episode by ordering a custom acoustic guitar! On this episode, we talk to luthier T. Drew Heinonen, who got his start working for Bourgeois Guitars and acclaimed guitarmaker James Olson. Heinonen is now building guitars under his own name and will be making an OM style guitar for us over the next several months. We’ll be checking in with Heinonen every couple of we...

Before he devoted himself to making electric guitars, luthier Scott Walker spent years setting dovetail neck joints at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. With Walker’s most recent creation, the Katana, he gets to combine the two chapters of his life in a unique way. The Katana is a unique, stripped-down electric by Walker’s standards and it has a memorable party trick – it has a Japanese-style joint t...

Vintage guitar enthusiasts are quick to point out the differences between various makers, tone woods and construction techniques. But can you identify with just your ears what you’re actually hearing? That was the premise behind Matt Munisteri’s Blindfold Guitar Challenge at the 2015 Fretboard Summit. We assembled a variety of vintage instruments for Munisteri to play behind a thin curtain while t...

Luthier TJ Thompson returns to our podcast to tell us a bit about his new website,  proluthiertools.com . On the site, TJ is selling some of the exacting tools and guitar parts he’s developed over the last few decades repairing vintage Martin guitars, including bar fret stock, belly and pyramid bridges and more. TJ also tells us about a few of the projects that have crossed his workbench recently,...

For our 96th podcast, we talk to Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square records. In its first decade, Tompkins Square has released dozens of essential albums for guitar lovers, including the Imaginational Anthem series, records by E.C. Ball, Max Ochs, Roscoe Holcomb and others. On this podcast, we chat with Rosenthal about how this label started, his love for acoustic guitar music and why he decided to...

Bridge plates, neck resets, refinishes… these are the issues that cause sleepless nights for many vintage guitar enthusiasts. On November 7, 2015 at the first Fretboard Summit, Mass Street Music’s Jim Baggett addressed some of these issues and many more during a panel discussion with Mark Stutman (Folkway Music), Jay Hostetler (Stewart-MacDonald), Richard Johnston (Gryphon Stringed Instruments) an...

There is only one musician in the world who can sing the praises of bluegrass legend Don Stover, describe the merits of vintage Sunn amps and tell you that he’s working on a suite of 12-tone music for tuba and banjo all in one 20 minute conversation. That man is banjo legend and experimenter Danny Barnes. read more

For our 93rd podcast, we talk to Seattle musician Eli West, who is just about to wrap up a Kickstarter campaign to fund his first solo record. West is a prolific musician, perhaps best known for his work in Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. His forthcoming solo album features a host of guest performers, including Bill Frisell and Dori Freeman. We talk shop with West about the album, his background and...

The first-ever Fretboard Summit was filled with magical music performances and informative lectures but one clear highlight was this session featuring Joe Henry and David Crosby discussing the art of record production. This candid, hour-long conversation started with Henry asking Crosby about If I Could Only Remember My Name One , but it quickly stretched far beyond that topic and hit upon inspira...

The term “living legend” gets tossed around a lot these days, but Seattle’s Michael Gurian certainly fits the bill. Gurian is currently in his 55 th year of building instruments and instrument parts. Long before today’s boutique guitar movement, he was hand-crafting guitars for players such as Bob Dylan, David Lindley and Paul Simon.  Today, Gurian helms a factory on a floating barge in Seattle wh...

Every time we check in with musician Julian Lage, he seems to have a cool new project brewing. For our 90 th podcast, we talk to the ridiculously talented guitarist about his forthcoming electric guitar trio, his recent purchase of a Blackguard Tele, the recording of his stellar solo acoustic album World’s Fair and his plans for November’s Fretboard Summit. The Fretboard Summit takes place Novembe...

Most modern electric guitar builders focus on classic Fender and Gibson designs but Anthony Paine of Harvester Guitars is inspired by the unusual: Wandre guitars of the ‘50s and ‘60s and Travis Bean instruments of the ‘70s. On our 89 th podcast, we talk to Paine from his Melbourne, Australia workshop to hear about his background in design, how he painstakingly makes aluminum-necked instruments and...

Sam Jones is easily one of the most in-demand photographers working today: he’s well-known for his trademark shots of George Clooney, President Obama and numerous other A-List celebrities. Jones is also the director behind the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart  and Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued and the host of Off Camera , an interview series currently airing on DirecTV....

For our 87 th podcast, we talk Dobro and steel guitars with famed musician Cindy Cashdollar. Cashdollar walks us through some of her favorite instruments, including the Lap King guitar she brought to our session, explains how certain guitars seem to favor certain tunings and tells us about the huge impact that John Fahey's Of Rivers and Religion had on her guitar playing. We also talk to her about...

In the late 1970s, Preston Thompson moved from Texas to Vermont to learn the art of lutherie at Charles Fox’s School of the Guitar Research & Design Center. He’d eventually spend time at Randy Wood’s legendary Pickin’ Parlor before returning to Fox’s school, setting up his own shop and working for numerous flatpicking legends, including Charles Sawtelle and Peter Rowan. Thompson now resides in Ben...