Official Luthiers Forum!

Interesting this year the kind of artists on The Voice. Laith is one who is kind of a throw back to when guitars were front and center, and essential. This is the kind of thing that music needs. A return to instrument talent. Bet some of you could get behind that!

He's a local guy in our area and very well known having performed many places around here for years now. He's also an extraordinary talent. I too thought Laith to be a rather odd choice for this network... show but Laith continues to do very well.

I didn't think that this venue was going to be right for Laith and it turns out that he was a finalist but won 4th place.

If you get a chance to listen to and watch his videos he's an enormous talent with a great voice and a mastery of the fret board that few will ever approach.

I actually think that Laith is best served not winning and having to have the sort of contract that the Voice provides. Instead he's an artist and needs to be treated as one with the utmost consideration for doing no harm to him or his talent going forward. Check out his version of Born under a bad sign - fantastic!

I don't watch the Voice but felt compelled to pass on another great artist as I agree that there is a lack of talented musicians being broadcasted these days.

Shakey Graves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD72LbIk02M

Hesh - when Laith started talking about Ann Arbor music my first thought was -"I wonder if Hesh set up any of his Teles?" Or maybe offered to build him one? for the show? dude - ultimate marketing opportunity and you have the marketing background!

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Mitch

Might present a decent marketing opportunity if we were in the business of building guitars, and of course if he had won...

Really though, we do know Laith, and he's been regular and well known performer in the bars around the area for a long time. Of course as we all know, local music cultures and the individuals within them can get complicated, and sometimes there can be good reasons to be selective in your clientele. He's a phenomenal player, but is not amoung our clients.

We don't do endorsements anyway though, as it really just wouldn't make any sense for our business model. We do work for a number of much more notable players, but this role is more akin that of the sound engineer - regardless of how well they may set the mix and levels, the audience still just sees JBL on the speakers. Like with us though, although the bulk of the audience are not prospective clientele, word gets around in the communities of interest on where to turn when services are needed.

On topic of "The Voice" though, here's an original from another participant on the show who we have done work for. Not only is he an incredibly skilled singer-songwriter and guitarist, but just an excellent person overall. He doesn't flash his chops at all in this video, but man, can he play!



As to endorsements, this brings up another irony. One guitar he played on the show which I had refretted years back, he had to put electrical tape over the logo during performance. Between all the contracts of manufacturers, endorsements, and network broadcasts, sometimes even a headstock logo doesn't do much good for marketing!

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.