Today's special biography episode with legendary guitar maker, Ervin Somogyi, was filmed live at a location in Northern California. Ervin's tour begins in Budapest during the Second World War. The son of parents whose lives had been shaped by conflict and displacement, his early years carried him across Europe, through Cuba and Mexico, and eventually to the United States.

Along the way, he developed a fascination with making things, models, drawings, woodwork, anything that could be built with your hands. At the time, there was no plan to become a guitar maker. In fact, that path revealed itself much later through a series of unexpected terms that include college, the Peace Corps, graduate studies, and a growing love for the guitar. What followed was a lifetime of craftsmanship, experimentation, teaching, and discovery.

His instruments helped shape the modern steel string guitar, while his influence as a mentor has transferred that curious and experimental spirit to many of today's most respected builders. This conversation traces that journey from a young refugee searching for direction to one of the most influential voices in contemporary luthiery. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ervin Somogyi, and I hope that you do as much as I did.

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 episode is filmed live on location at Anderson Guitarworks in Southern California, where I sat down with the company's co-owners Tom Anderson and Markus Spohn.

Now, in their fifth decade, Tom Anderson Guitarworks has earned one of the best reputations in the guitar world. Tom speaks with the clarity of someone who has spent decades refining an idea, not simply chasing perfection, but showing up daily to work and asking what we could do better. Markus brings the perspective of a player, long time customer, and now the planned successor of a brand with a wonderful legacy.

Together, this conversation opens up a larger question of stewardship. How do you honor 40 years of work, protect the culture of a shop, support the people who build the guitars, and still leave room for innovation?

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Tom Anderson and Markus Spohn. I hope that you do as much as I did.

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 episode was filmed live on location in Tuscany, where we sat down with David Sutkin, founder of Bass UpFront. A global community of more than 36.000 bass players, builders, collectors, people who care deeply about the instrument.

David is known for his remarkable collection, the Bass UpFront studio and the conversation he's held built around bass culture. He brings a player's ear, a collector's eye, and a deep respect for the people who dedicate their lives to making the instruments.

We've discussed many things. The guitar's potential as functional art, the pull between utility and beauty, the value of imperfection in music, the relationships that form between players and builders, and even market demand and valuations.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with David Sutkin, and I hope that you do as much as I did.​

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 episode was filmed live on location in Tuscany, where I sat down with revolutionary guitar maker Sheldon Dingwall to document his biography.

He'll be the first to tell you that he didn't invent the multiscale concept, but he recognized what it could solve for the bass, replied it with purpose, and in 1993 brought the first production multiscale bass to the market. From there, Dingwall guitars has continued to innovate through hardware, pickups, strings, electronics, and notable collaborations.

Beyond all the innovations that the world sees, Sheldon is also one of the nicest guys you can meet. Thoughtful, empathetic, and kind, I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Sheldon Dingwall, and I hope that you do as much as I did.

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 was filmed on location in Northern California at the headquarters of EMG. Our guest is Rob Turner, founder of EMG pickups, a company that helped change the sound, function, and possibility to the electric guitar, becoming synonymous with some of the most famous musicians in the world.

Rob grew up in Long Beach, California, in a family where engineering, music, electronics, and making things were part of everyday life. He describes his mother as an artist in nearly every sense of the word. His father, a pilot and engineer, worked in aerospace for McDonnell Douglas, then built his own company, building radios for monitoring airport traffic. This introduced Rob to the world of coils, signals, and sound from an unusually young age.

What I found of EMG was not a corporate machine, but Rob in his lab, still testing, still building, still asking better questions. We talk about the birth of the act of pickup, this iconic black box, Metallica, Les Paul, Tonewood, Clarity, and why a pickup is properly understood as a transducer that facilitates the player and their instruments.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Rob Turner, and I hope that you do as much as I did.

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 special biography episode was filmed on location at Tom Anderson Guitarworks in Southern California, with a man whose life's work is so interwoven into the modern history of guitar that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees. That man, of course, is Tom Anderson.

Tom's story starts in Southern California. Surf music, the British invasion, a transformative Dick Dale concert at eight years old, then a Jimi Hendrix experience at 15, all of which fueled the passion for guitar that still burns today.

What follows is a story about ethics, loyalty, hard work, great people, and the long pursuit of making the guitars he wished he had had when he was 20. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Tom Anderson and hope that you will as much as I did.

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.

My guest today is Eli Lester, owner and CEO of Two-Rock Amplifiers and Divided by Thirteen. Eli is someone deeply obsessed with sound, craftsmanship, history, and the idea that the smallest details still matter.

From vintage gear and vacuum tubes to photography, hot rods, and building amplifiers component by component, his world is driven by curiosity and an unwillingness to settle for “good enough.”

What stood out to me most is that Eli still approaches this work like a fan. Even after years of building some of the most respected amplifiers in the world, he’s still chasing tone, still learning, and still trying to build something that inspires people to play.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I think 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.

In this episode, I'm sitting down with legendary guitar maker James Trussart in his workshop located in Echo Park, California. From growing up on a French horse farm near the border of Luxembourg to discovering American music through nearby airbases, to hitchhiking with aspirations of becoming a vagabond.

James' story moves from farm life and American military influence to building his first instruments, later finding Cajun music in Louisiana, then eventually moving his workshop from Paris to Los Angeles. Along the way, his guitars have found their way into the hands of a diverse range of artists from Dylan to Metallica.

What unfolds here is a conversation about curiosity, about following instinct without a roadmap, and about a life shaped as much by chance encounters as by intention.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with James Trussart, and I hope that you will as much as I did.

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.