Abraham Wechter

Abraham Wechter is an American master luthier, who has been making custom guitars since the 1970s. He is best-known for building 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars, but also builds acoustic bass guitars.[1] He was a student of Richard Schneider,[2] and worked for Gibson for ten years. After leaving Gibson, he started his own company, Wechter Guitars, now based in Paw Paw, Michigan.

Wechter builds custom guitars, many of them with his "Pathmaker" design (an acoustic guitar with double cutaway). Some of his custom-built guitars have such features as drone strings[3] and scalloped fingerboards. His most noted collaboration is with guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin, a collaboration which began in 1976 when Wechter build the "Shakti guitar," used in the recordings with Shakti.[4] The Shakti guitar is a customized Gibson J-200[5] with drone strings transversely across the soundhole.[6] He also made him a guitar with scalloped fingerboards.[7]

Notable players

References

  1. ^ a b Roberts, Jim (2003). American basses: an illustrated history & player's guide. Hal Leonard. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-87930-721-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=ABNyua8HRaIC&pg=PA185. 
  2. ^ Erlewine, Dan (2007). Guitar Player Repair Guide. Hal Leonard. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-87930-921-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=zF24JMkjSpQC&pg=PA37. 
  3. ^ Alexander, Charles (2002). Masters of Jazz Guitar: The Story of the Players and Their Music. Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0-87930-728-8. 
  4. ^ Milkowski, Bill (1998). Rockers, jazzbos & visionaries. Billboard Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-8230-7833-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=HeAXAQAAIAAJ&q=abraham+wechter&dq=abraham+wechter&lr=&client=firefox-a. 
  5. ^ Stump, Paul (2000). Go ahead John: the music of John McLaughlin. SAF Publishing. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-946719-24-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=TDFqHbV5K7cC&pg=PA97. 
  6. ^ Wheeler, Tom (August 1978). "McLaughlin's Revolutionary Drone-String Guitar". Guitar Player. http://www.7171.org/electrons/frap/article3.html. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  7. ^ Stokes, W. Royal (2005). Growing up with jazz: twenty-four musicians talk about their lives and careers. Oxford UP. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-19-515927-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=bHiVGixG6cEC&pg=PA156. 
  8. ^ (1991) Album notes for Que Alegria by John McLaughlin [CD booklet]. Verve.
  9. ^ Stump, Paul (2000). Go ahead John: the music of John McLaughlin. SAF Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-946719-24-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=TDFqHbV5K7cC&pg=PA115. 

External links