My dad has been a luthier for 40-odd years, and my older brother has been a luthier for the majority of his life too, he’s the tech guy for some famous Scottish bands.
I manage the shop as well as repairing guitars. I studied music in Edinburgh. My dad has always been part of this world, he always worked in guitar shops and then opened his own almost four years ago now. I was finishing studying around about the time he was opening the shop. I’ve always done guitar repairs too because I was just always around it growing up, it’s the family business. I’ve learned the trade as I got older, obviously I’m not at the level of someone of my dad’s skill and experience, and I’m still learning from him all the time.
Running the business together has its ups and downs, but it’s generally great and it’s good to see my dad and brother every day at work, and we have a good time.
The shop is busy, we do have a lot of people coming to see us to buy guitars and we do a lot of repairs. Glasgow is a really musical city, there’s a lot of grassroots stuff happening and there always has been in Glasgow, my dad talks about all the great bands that came from here when he was younger.
It’s a good job. Music has always been the path I’ve travelled down, I studied signing, but I also play bass, guitar and piano, so it’s quite natural to be a part of all of this, because I’ve been around it my whole life, because of my dad.
I love guitars but you can get sick of them sometimes. I love seeing new and interesting guitars, but it’s also nice to see unusual and vintage instruments, and because of the repair side we deal with a lot rare things. You never know what you’re going to get when customers bring their own guitars in, and that’s a nice part of the job. We get a lot of interesting customers in and we’re quite well known in the UK.
I only picked up the bass when I was 18, but I’ve been singing and playing the piano my whole life, but it’s playing the bass and singing and that I love to do most nowadays.
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