Interview – Guitar Luthier Mitchel Weissman

Audio only of interview with Mitchel Weissman

[audio:http://theparadiddler.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MW-Interview.mp3|titles=Interview with Mitchel Weissman]

Right-click here to download the interview to your mp3 player

Sometimes, you never know who you’re going to meet.

I was down in southern Florida at the end of May, and I wanted to take the opportunity to document my brother’s guitar collection, which is extensive.  Instead of just taking pictures, I decided to get his thoughts as well on his collection, his approach to guitars (both collecting and playing) and so on, in an interview format.  Fortunately he agreed.  If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to the interview.

My brother mentioned to me that he had a luthier work on his guitars, Mitchel Weissman.  I was in the area anyway, and I thought it would be a good chance to add yet more ‘dimension’ to TheParadiddler.com by including even more content from other sources of music.  So Mitchel was kind enough to grant me an interview discussing his side of the guitar equation.  What I got was an education.

Mitchel is very knowledgeable in his craft.  He’s so good, in fact, that he’s had the privilege of working on some of the world’s most famous guitars, including the late Bo Diddley’s rectangular guitar.  You’ll hear all about that and much more in the interview, including:

• the dynamics of drumming vs. playing guitar, and their surprising similarity
• why ‘feel’ can be more important than timing
• what separates good musicians from great ones
• the nuances of guitar construction
• how removing ‘snob appeal’ will get you a world-class sounding guitar, for a lot less money
• famous guitars you’ve seen that he’s worked on
• …and so much more!

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to have that guitar of yours sound like the pros do, you need to hear Mitchel’s story.  And if you have any questions for him at all, you can go to his Facebook page and he’ll be happy to answer them.

This is the second installment in the “Not Just About Drums” series.  We’ll see how far this goes!  In the meantime, enjoy the interview, and please, let us know via your comments what you think!