"From The Luthier Bench" Podcast 004

"From The Luthier Bench" Podcast 004 - Michihiro Matsuda

October 30, 2024

Chayton Alo (founder of The Luthier Bench) conducts a two-part podcast interview with Michihiro Matsuda, perhaps the most revolutionary guitar builder on the planet. The Matsuda workshop is synonymous with radical designs executed with precise construction. Michihiro (known as Michi) was born & raised on the island of Japan. A love for guitar playing and the desire to build inspired Michi to immigrate to America at the age of 29 and in 1997, with almost no English, he enrolled in Roberto-Venn School of Lutherie in Phoenix. Shortly after graduation, Michi had the great fortune of becoming an apprentice of the legendary Luthier Ervin Somogyi for over 3 years. And, he was also able to work with historic guitar repairman Frank Ford at Gryphon Strings. Eventually, Michihiro opened up his own workshop and today he is located in Redwood City, California fabricating about 6 to 7 guitars annually mostly using hand tools. But Michi is more than just a guitar builder, he is a creative artist with a sense for the life-force in wood and an intuition for building that is historic. He is a deeply private and soft-spoken man but today we are going to look deeper into the creative genius of Matsuda Guitars.