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4011 South 16th Street info@roberto-venn.com |
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S C H O O L O F L U T H I E R Y |
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Graduate LinksThis page contains links to our graduates who have opened their own shops. Some are doing repairs, some are building custom instruments, many are doing both. We at R-V wish them all success, and we hope that the training they received here has played no small part in their achievements. Click on their logo to visit their site. If you are a Roberto-Venn graduate, and would like to be included on this page, please e-mail the Webmaster for more information.
Michael Runyon was in the Spring, 1999 class. He did repairs at Mass St. Music in Lawrence, KS, for a few years, and opened his own shop in Wellsville, KS, in September, 2002. He is an authorized Martin and Fender repair shop, and does warranty work for other builders, as well.
Ron Bobbitt and Joe Wightman are Spring 2000 grads. They started Cottonwood Lutherie shortly after graduation. While working out of Ron's home, they remodeled a couple of open bays into their shop which opened in Aug, 2002.
Brent was a member of the class of Fall, 2000. After leaving R-V, he apprenticed with master builder Ervin Somogyi and Frank Ford of Gryphon Stringed Instruments. Brent is currently hard at work providing transcriptions of jazz guitar works, and continues to build and repair instruments in Portland, Oregon.
Makoto (Mac) Shimazaki is a Spring, 2002 grad. He has opened his business, Acoustic Guitar Republic (A.G.R.), in Nasu-Highland, a well-known Japanese resort. Mac is manufacturing original acoustic guitars and doing repairs. (This site is in Japanese!)
Richard Echeverria graduated from Roberto-Venn in 1980. Since then he has been designing, building, restoring and selling guitars. Echeverria Guitars is an authorized service center for C.F. Martin, Fender, Guild, Takamine, Ovation and is also a retrofit center for the Buzz Feiten tuning system. He is a 24 year member of the Guild of American Luthiers, ASIA since 1989 and NAMM since 1989.
Mark Wood was a member of the Fall, 2003 class. He builds acoustics, electrics, and archtops. He can also do custom CNC manufacturing of jigs, fixtures, and templates.
Shane
Klesh was also in the class of Fall, 2003. Since he
graduated from RV in 2003, he has apprenticed at First Act Music in Newton, MA
for 6 months, and worked with Michael Tobias and Chris Hofschneider at MTD
basses for one year. He now has a custom guitar building shop in Hazleton, PA.
His guitars are designed and engineered for musicians with extreme playing
styles, and also for collectors of fine handmade instruments.
Mark Tenorio has been building and repairing musical instruments professionally since 1987. He began his formal training in 1989 at the Roberto-Venn School of Lutherie. In January 1999, after many years of repairing guitars for five local music stores, Mark & his wife Erin began their own business, TENORIO WERX. Seeking more knowledge in the construction of the Traditional Spanish Guitar, Mark and Erin attended the Jose Romanillos Master Guitar Building Class in Siguenza, Spain in August 2002.
Joseph Bandy was a student in the Fall, 2001, class. He then set up a guitar-repair business near Amarillo, Texas. After spending a year-long apprenticeship in Oakland, California with luthier Ervin Somogyi, he was ready to start creating his own works in his own shop.
Kent Hamblin built his first guitar in 1991 while attending R-V. After graduating, he went to work for Taylor Guitars, and then returned to Arizona to join the Phoenix Guitar Company. He taught at R-V from 1995 until 1998, and went to work at CFox Guitars until 2001. Kent has since established Hamblin Guitars and is now focusing on building his own line of acoustic guitars in a one-man shop in Telluride, Colorado.
Michael Collins, a 1992 graduate, builds Selmer/Maccaferri style instruments, as well as steel-strings and classicals.
Joe Naylor graduated in 1987. He opened a vintage/used guitar store which evolved into J. F. Naylor Engineering, one of the forerunners in boutique amps and vintage style speakers. Joe sold Naylor in '96 and launched Reverend Musical Instruments, manufacturer of patented guitars and basses, tube amplifiers, effects and speakers.
Chris Michas went through the school in the Fall of 2003. Currently, he is custom building and doing repairs.
Scott attended the Spring, 2003 session. He is building in Auburn, CA.
Don is currently a full time instructor at Roberto-Venn. Check out his bio on our site.
John S. McHugh is a Roberto-Venn graduate of 1979, the deviators class. Please visit his website."I've done some very interesting things that will stimulate your students and website visitors. There are many guitars I've built that are in my website gallery."
Oriskany
Stringed Instruments is a small two person shop located in the rolling hills of
central Pennsylvania. In 1998, Curtis left life as a professional geologist and
eventually found his way to the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery where he
learned to build guitars. Shortly after completing his studies in early
2000, Curtis worked for Bruce Allsopp of Canyon
Music Woodworks as an apprentice / repairperson before finding his way home
to Huntingdon, PA to establish his own shop.
Mike Rosen went through the program in Fall, 1998. He stayed on staff as an instructor and general "do it all" guy until December 2004. Now living in Seattle, he has reopened his old cabinet shop business, Special Millwork. He doesn't have any luthiery plans at the moment, but there are those couple of unfinished ukes in the closet...
Rob Bishline
graduated from the Roberto-Venn summer class of '83 or '84. “I can't quite
remember now...however, I graduated with John Reuter......I have been doing
customer and warranty repairs since I graduated”. He is an authorized
repairman for Martin, Taylor, Takamine, Ovation, Alvarez and many others. He has
also built and sold many acoustic guitars and banjos. He has just started
to sell his banjos on a national scale after returning from his first N.A.M.M.
show where he debuted his banjos.
Nikola Adamovic graduated from the Roberto-Venn Spring 2003 class. After returning home to The Netherlands, Nikola began designing and building his own line of custom basses and guitars. To view his work click on the logo above to visit his website.
Jim Fleeting graduated from the Roberto-Venn class of Fall 2005. Jim says it best.......... "My name is Jim Fleeting and I spend my days repairing and servicing guitars, violins and other stringed instruments. If your instrument would benefit from a killer set-up, structural work or just a couple of tweaks, bring it to my workshop in Ripon city centre. I'll provide you with an assessment and quotation, free of charge, while you wait. My workshop is at Ripon City Music, but I take in instruments from all over the UK. A discount deal with UPS means that I can do this very cheaply." Visit Jim's website at www.guitarrepairman.co.uk
Jeff Bruckwicki also graduated from the prestigious Fall 2005 class. After a five month stint apprenticing with John Reuter, Jeff has honed his skills as an innovative and motivated young builder. Check out Jeff's website for affordable, yet finely hand crafted instruments.
After finishing Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in 1993, Milan Ciz hase assembled his shop in Prievidza, Slovakia. Each year he builds around eight to ten guitars and basses and repairs approximately two hundred instruments.
Dyson Custom Guitar Company Handcrafted Excellence
"Welcome to Dyson Custom Guitars. The building of a custom guitar is the beginning of a relationship between the builder and the client that will eventually be a relationship between the guitar and the client." Blake Dyson graduated from the Spring 2002 class and gone on to build his own custom guitars.
"Custom Built Stringed Instruments & Repair, Specializing in One-Of-A-Kind Electric Guitars". Marcus graduated from the Fall 2004 class and is currently living in Eastern Washington where he runs his own custom guitar/repair shop. http://www.myspace.com/mdguitars
Highland
Strings - Uniquely
Blending the Contemporary and Traditional to Pursue the Dream of Perfect Tone "All Highland Strings guitars and mandolins are designed, built, and finished solely by the hands of luthier Jason Harshbarger. Highland instruments are created to be unique pieces of art as well as exquisitely functioning musical tools."
Swan Song Guitars Nelson Joyce graduated from the Spring 2004 class. "Swan Song Guitars is committed to limiting its toll on the environment. By searching out certain equipment and materials supplied by like minded companies SSG can make environmentally conscience decisions as to whom they purchase from." Nelson is primarily building basses.
After graduating Roberto-Venn in 1994 Steve Sylvester did repairs at the Arizona Guitar Shack and Music Brokers, both in Phoenix, AZ. Steve then did repair on the side while earning a graduate degree in engineering from ASU. He has now relocated to Tucson Arizona and is building custom electric guitars with unique features such as a deep set tenon neck, direct coupled pickups and chambered bodies. His company is called Old Ghost Guitars.
Peter Taylor attended R-V in the Fall of 2000. He then went on to open Chellee Guitars named after his wife. "Chellee Guitars is a one man shop. When you bring me your guitar you bring it to me. I do not have any employees and, possibly until my children are older, no apprentices. I perform all work on all instrument with the exception of some finish work. I enjoy this personal touch and currently perform as much work by hand as possible. I’ve found that this gives me the flexibility to produce any results desired without the crutch of programming a machine, and I have no desire to grow beyond this arrangement." - Peter Taylor
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