In this episode, I sit down with Chris Griffiths, someone I’ve known for nearly twenty-five years and whose remarkable career I’ve had the opportunity to see unfold firsthand.

Chris opened his first guitar shop at nineteen, trained as a guitar maker and went on to found Garrison Guitars, where he developed an entirely new approach to building an acoustic guitar. His path has since taken him through Parker, Dingwall and a range of influential music-industry companies, before leading to his current work at D’Addario as Chief Sales Officer and Director of Innovation.

Chris brings together the practical understanding of a maker, the instincts of an entrepreneur and the perspective of an executive responsible for one of the most complex businesses in our industry.

We talk about design, manufacturing, leadership and the patience required to turn an idea into something genuinely useful. We also explore how meaningful innovation often begins with a simple question: why does it have to be done this way?

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Chris. 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.

Welcome to Life with Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. Today's guest is Nik Huber, one of the most well-respected guitar makers in the world.

30 years is a remarkable milestone for any guitar maker. It's long enough to build thousands of instruments, earn the trust of musicians around the world and prove that quality could stand the test of time.

Nik Huber and I first met at our very first NAMM show when we both were just the beginning of our careers. Over the last 25 years, I've had the opportunity to watch him grow from a promising young builder into one of the most well-respected names in modern guitar making.

Looking back, Nik was one of those people who changed the way I thought about boutique guitars. The level of craftsmanship I saw in his work helped me form the path that eventually became the Boutique Guitar Showcase and so much of what I do today.

In this conversation, recorded as Nik celebrates 30 years of Nik Huber guitars, we look back at the people, experiences and philosophy that helped shape one of the world's most admired guitar companies.

It's a conversation about craftsmanship, curiosity and why some things are worth taking the time to do right. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Nik 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.

Welcome to Life With Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. My guest today is famed archtop guitar maker Cristian Mirabella.

This episode is the result of an impromptu conversation at the end of Cristian's biography episode. After our first recording, Cristian and I kept on talking, and it became clear that there was another thread worth following, the history of the archtop guitar, and how that story moves from Cremona to Michigan, New York, Canada and beyond.

So I asked if we could hit the record button one more time. What you're about to hear is the result of two guitar nerds who just can't stop talking about their shared obsession.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Cristian Mirabella, 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.

Every guitar James Trussart builds carries far more than steel, wood, and craftsmanship. It carries the influences of a life lived across France, Louisiana, and Los Angeles, a fascination with history, and an unwavering belief that every instrument should contribute something new to the ongoing conversation of the guitar.

We talk about freedom, creativity, memory, music, travel, craftsmanship, and the responsibility of preserving stories before they’re lost.

Along the way, James reflects on meeting legends like B.B. King, Billy Gibbons, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Depp, the Louisiana culture that shaped his work, and why he still believes the next idea is always worth chasing.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with James Trussart. I hope you will as well.

https://www.boutiqueguitarshowcase.com/trussart-guitars

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.

Welcome to Life With Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. This episode was filmed live on location at Tom Anderson Guitar Works in Southern California. My guest today is Markus Spohn, co-owner of Tom Anderson Guitar Works. Born in a mining region of West Germany, the story begins far from the guitar workshops in Southern California.

Markus first came to Anderson as a player and a customer. Then he became the person helping build the system behind the company and over time he became known to the people, trusted by the shop and deeply connected to the culture of the work.

Eventually, Tom Anderson asked Markus to help take Anderson Guitar Works into its next chapter by becoming his partner and successor. This is a biography about risk, timing, humility, and the courage to step into the unknown.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Markus Spohn, 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.

My guest today is famed archtop guitar maker Cristian Mirabella. Cristian's story begins in New York, on Long Island, in a family shaped by music, resilience and a deep sense of purpose.

At just 10 years old, Cristian started working at Ronnie's guitar shop, where he swept floors, polished instruments, learned repairs and found himself surrounded by working musicians, vintage archtops, Gibson, D'Angelico, D'Aquisto and the living culture of the New York guitar world.

In this conversation, we talk about family, loss, craft, restoration, responsibility and how Mirabella guitars grew from a young man trying to find his place into a respected voice within the New York archtop tradition. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Cristian Mirabella, 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 with legendary guitar maker, Steve Klein, was filmed live on location in Northern California.

Steve's story begins in San Francisco in 1949. It's a story shaped by Austrian immigrants who were ski instructors, scientists, artists, and the generation that came of age during one of the most creative periods in California's history.

Over the next six decades, Steve would build a career that reflected the same curiosity that shaped his childhood as he continues to explore new ideas about design, function, and the guitar itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Steve Klein, 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.

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.