JOE WALLACE: I'm Joe Wallace for Gearwire.Com, and I'm standing here with John Carruthers who is a very famous luthier. He's worked on guitars for Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, just a whole cavalcade of very well known names. How are you?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, very good. Thank you.

JOE WALLACE: Tell me a little bit about your experiences. How did you get to the place where you were working on guitars for Hendrix and Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac and Zappa, whoever you've worked with?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, you know I started out as a player, and when I was younger I moved down here from Canada. I got more interested in working on them than playing when I found that I wasn't quite as good a player as a lot of the other ones around so I found a little niche and that was working on them. So I was kind of a pioneer at that time; there weren't a lot of people that did that, and so I started writing a column for Guitar Player Magazine called Guitar Workshop, and then some of the manufacturers and stuff approached me and asked me if I would help them with some of the design work so I got involved with companies like Fender, Yahama, Ibanez, Martin, and people like that, and the rest was history. And so, now I do freelance consulting for a lot of different companies and I help design a lot of products.

JOE WALLACE: Now, who is the big name that you worked for and how did that feel to get your hands on an axe that was going to be used by Hendrix or Frank Zappa or, you know, whoever your first one was?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, you know it's prestigious to be able to do work for these type of players but I feel the same way when I work for the average guy that comes in off the street so that part isn't as significant to me as the quality of the work and the job itself, and I've always sort of maintained that standard. I think a lot of professionals sort of like it when they don' get barraged by people or sort of treated differently. They sort of have a different respect. I have respect for them, and they have a respect for me.

JOE WALLACE: We're you ever approached by people who wanted a certain technical specification for a guitar? Like Zappa was very particular about certain aspects of his recording process, so he probably wanted something particular. What is it that they're looking for?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, a lot of times it's feel things, how well, say, the fret work is done, how well the guitar stays in tune. Sometimes it has to do with sound choices like different electronics or pickups, preamps and things like that so you sort of develop a wide knowledge of all the different things that are available and then you can make suggestions to players and let them try them and see what works for them.

JOE WALLACE: Now, Hendrix is getting a big resurgence right now. There's a lot of reissue pedala, people are recreating the old Hendrix pedals and what was it like working on his guitars?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, I mean it's a pretty significant thing. It's kind of interesting because some of the guitars he played were some of the worst made ones that were around at that time, but it was the player that made the guitar. I mean you could have given him a ukulele and he would have made it sound good, so I think that has more to do with it than anything else. A lot of the pedals and things obviously contributed to a unique sound at the time, and so I think the player brings more to it than anything else.

JOE WALLACE: Now what about from your end? What did you do specifically to make a quality instrument for people like Hendrix and Zappa?

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, the important thing is playability and staying in tune so if you make the guitar so it plays well, sounds good, and stays in tune, those are the main things. And then after that the cosmetics come next, so it's off form follows function.

JOE WALLACE: So how do you do it? To make something that plays well and to stay in tune without giving away trade secrets obviously, but what do you do in your bag of tricks that creates a playable guitar that stays in tune according to your standards.

JOHN CARRUTHERS: Well, I like guitars to be very lightweight for one thing. Most guitars are to heavy, and it's very uncomfortable for the players, and it doesn't really contribute to the sound character, it makes the guitars sound thin. If you have guitars that are lighter in weight, they have a more resonant quality and they sustain and have a warmer and fuller sound. Other things are balanced factors, how well it bounces when you're sitting down, how well it bounces when you're standing up. There's some other considerations like access to the higher frets, the frets themselves, how well they're done, if the guitar is properly intonated, and the selection of the woods and the materials and then the workmanship that goes into it is what really what makes it all come together.

JOE WALLACE: All right. Well thank you very much. I've been talking with John Carruthers. I'm Joe Wallace on the floor of NAMM 2006 for Gearwire.Com.