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“I’ve sold more guitars in New Jersey than I have in San Diego.” Ian Anderson, luthier, says this by phone from his shop in San Marcos more as an observation than a complaint. “Nobody locally really knows about me,” which he admits is his own fault.
In a good year, Anderson will handcraft 25 custom guitars and sell them to clients around the world. His axes are played in Turkey, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and England. “When you build guitars that sell for 5000 dollars, you kind of eliminate most of the local market. It’s really just the high-end guitar aficionados that, you know, buy my guitars. Thanks to the internet, my market is global.”
During the same conversation, Anderson says he just got word that one of his guitars will be included in an artsy guitar book slated for November release. It’s called Electrified: The Art of the Contemporary Electric Guitar, by Robert Shaw (Sterling Signature ISBN-10:1402747748.) He thinks the book may help showcase his work to domestic audiences. “It’s a coffee-table book. It’ll be available in all the big stores. It’s kind of cool, you know. It legitimizes what I’m doing and kind of cements it into history, at least for the life of the book.”
Anderson’s designs all have serious amounts of classic electric guitar DNA in them. They look like the sort of six-stringed offspring one might expect would be the result of a Fender Telecaster-Gibson Les Paul marriage, warped ever-so-slightly in the way of those funky Mosrites from the era of surf rock. “People seem to always want that vintage style of guitar that was perfected in those years, from the ‘40s to the early ‘60s.” Of the stuff that Anderson’s designing and building now, he says it is a match for the player that wants vintage “but can’t afford a 300,000-dollar ’59 'burst, you know?”
Anderson, who is 40, and therefore was born outside the golden era of guitars and amps has nonetheless built guitars since he was a child. Later, he apprenticed at Taylor Guitars in El Cajon for half a dozen years. “I worked for another local builder for a number of years, too, and I learned a lot of stuff from him. Scott Lentz. He’s a friend of Barney’s.”
Guitar circles being somewhat incestuous in this town, the Barney that Anderson is referring to is Barney Roach, who joined the Blitz Brothers when they re-banded earlier this year. When Roach needed a bass guitar bought off the rack set up properly and refinished he went to Anderson, whose reputation is spread locally by word of mouth only. You have to know someone, in other words. “I don’t advertise in any of the guitar magazines.”
Robert Shaw is himself a guitarist and a former museum curator. He is the author of two previous books on guitar and has published books about bird decoys and quilting. “With more highly skilled luthiers at work than ever before,” he writes in the preface to Electrified, “ours is a golden age of the electric guitar. Presenting superbly crafted electric guitars as fine art, this beautifully photographed book gives 125 master luthiers from 15 countries the spotlight — artisans who have custom-built instruments for the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, George Benson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.”
Has Anderson built axes for any big names? “Not really. But there are a couple of locals who have my guitars,” he says, “Mike Wheeler and Dave Sorlien.” As to which of his instruments will be featured in the book, we’ll have to wait until it is released in November. “I don’t know which one Shaw’ll use,” says Anderson. “I sent him five pictures of my guitars.”
“I’ve sold more guitars in New Jersey than I have in San Diego.” Ian Anderson, luthier, says this by phone from his shop in San Marcos more as an observation than a complaint. “Nobody locally really knows about me,” which he admits is his own fault.
In a good year, Anderson will handcraft 25 custom guitars and sell them to clients around the world. His axes are played in Turkey, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and England. “When you build guitars that sell for 5000 dollars, you kind of eliminate most of the local market. It’s really just the high-end guitar aficionados that, you know, buy my guitars. Thanks to the internet, my market is global.”
During the same conversation, Anderson says he just got word that one of his guitars will be included in an artsy guitar book slated for November release. It’s called Electrified: The Art of the Contemporary Electric Guitar, by Robert Shaw (Sterling Signature ISBN-10:1402747748.) He thinks the book may help showcase his work to domestic audiences. “It’s a coffee-table book. It’ll be available in all the big stores. It’s kind of cool, you know. It legitimizes what I’m doing and kind of cements it into history, at least for the life of the book.”
Anderson’s designs all have serious amounts of classic electric guitar DNA in them. They look like the sort of six-stringed offspring one might expect would be the result of a Fender Telecaster-Gibson Les Paul marriage, warped ever-so-slightly in the way of those funky Mosrites from the era of surf rock. “People seem to always want that vintage style of guitar that was perfected in those years, from the ‘40s to the early ‘60s.” Of the stuff that Anderson’s designing and building now, he says it is a match for the player that wants vintage “but can’t afford a 300,000-dollar ’59 'burst, you know?”
Anderson, who is 40, and therefore was born outside the golden era of guitars and amps has nonetheless built guitars since he was a child. Later, he apprenticed at Taylor Guitars in El Cajon for half a dozen years. “I worked for another local builder for a number of years, too, and I learned a lot of stuff from him. Scott Lentz. He’s a friend of Barney’s.”
Guitar circles being somewhat incestuous in this town, the Barney that Anderson is referring to is Barney Roach, who joined the Blitz Brothers when they re-banded earlier this year. When Roach needed a bass guitar bought off the rack set up properly and refinished he went to Anderson, whose reputation is spread locally by word of mouth only. You have to know someone, in other words. “I don’t advertise in any of the guitar magazines.”
Robert Shaw is himself a guitarist and a former museum curator. He is the author of two previous books on guitar and has published books about bird decoys and quilting. “With more highly skilled luthiers at work than ever before,” he writes in the preface to Electrified, “ours is a golden age of the electric guitar. Presenting superbly crafted electric guitars as fine art, this beautifully photographed book gives 125 master luthiers from 15 countries the spotlight — artisans who have custom-built instruments for the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, George Benson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.”
Has Anderson built axes for any big names? “Not really. But there are a couple of locals who have my guitars,” he says, “Mike Wheeler and Dave Sorlien.” As to which of his instruments will be featured in the book, we’ll have to wait until it is released in November. “I don’t know which one Shaw’ll use,” says Anderson. “I sent him five pictures of my guitars.”