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.