Joel Whitehead

Where it all Began

My journey started at about age 9 in Buffalo New York, when I picked up my dads’ old guitar and started self-teaching myself how to play by ear. Thereafter I bought my own acoustic guitar at age 10 and there was no stopping after that.

The Next Step

Being passionate about music at an early age, I would play at school events and perform at local venues in Buffalo New York. Being extremely fascinated by how guitars were put together, I began to take apart old Kay and Kalamazoo guitars so I could learn more about them. With that knowledge in hand, I was now excited about how guitars ticked and there was no turning back. I began searching out flea markets and garage sales for product etc., something you could do that back then, but today that is pretty difficult.

New Horizons

After several years and as my skill in restoring guitars began to grow, I decided that it was time to move to a place where there were more opportunities for a young entrepreneur and accordingly, left for Los Angeles. Being moderately familiar with L.A., as I had made several trips out there as a child growing up. My Dad was from L.A. and we as a family took many vacations there to visit the rest of the family. I rented a room and so began my hunt for guitars that needed refurbishing and repair. 

Good Fortune

In one of those trips, I stumbled into “Normans Rare Guitars”and sold him one of my restored guitars. This is where my California journey began. After this restoration a position became available at the store and Norm asked me to come in and help out, becoming his “repair man” for the store.  Along with doing all of Norm’s repair work I also traveled to trade shows with him to buy product for the store. Accordingly. it wasn't long before I moved to my own place and began building my own guitars. I worked with Norm for about 10 years until I branched out on my own to refurbish, repair and build beautiful instruments. To this day I still visit trade-shows and hunt for great restoration projects across the country looking to save and bring them back to life. 

The Future

Along with selling my own custom built acoustic guitars, my name has become synonymous with quality and beautiful sounding instruments throughout the United States and all around the world. The saying is very true, you won’t work a day in your life if you enjoy what you are doing. That’s saying is 100% in my opinion.