Meet Our January 2025 Luthier
Meet Tom Evanchuck from Northeast Ohio.
1. How did you first get into guitar repair?
We had just had our second child, and I was a stay-at-home dad. My guitar started making a weird noise, so I needed to get it fixed. I took it to the local luthier—though “local” meant over an hour away. This guy came highly recommended, and I give him a lot of credit for sparking my interest. The way he talked about the repair was almost like a step-by-step explanation of how to do it, and I was so intrigued.
I bought Dan Erlewine’s book on repairs, but it was actually my wife who found the Southeast Guitar Repair Academy. I quickly signed up, and thanks to my second son not sleeping through the night, I worked through the training fast. He also spent a lot of time at the bench with me—so I call him an honorary luthier!
From there, I opened my doors. Being a local musician for over a decade, I had a good network, so word of mouth spread quickly. I also teamed up with a local music shop whose gu...
Meet our December 2024 Luthier
Meet Chris "Shorty" Cherryholmes Of Bakersfield California
- How did you first get into guitar repair? I will be 72 years old at the end of this month. One of my lifelong dreams has been to build and repair guitars but that really wasn't in the cards for most of my life. I got married and started a family straight out of high school in1971 which meant I couldn't drop everything to try to get hired as a luthier apprentice and there really weren't any programs like we have today. I retired a little over a year ago and decided there is no time like the present so here I am. There is much more to the story but that's it in a nutshell.
- What was the most challenging repair job you've ever worked on? Probably the most challenging to date has been a neck break at the head stock. I have to say though that the advice I got from Barrett made it much easier ...
