Connecticut Guitar and Strings
Barry Lipman started using tools while still a toddler and immediately started disassembling everything he could get his hands on. After years spent taking things apart, he eventually started putting them back together again, soon learning to repair and modify them to his liking. When, at the age of 11, he discovered the guitar, he finally found something that really engaged his tinkering spirit, and so began a lifetime of working with guitars. At first he experimented with his own guitars and those of his friends and bandmates; slowly word spread. Unable to convince anyone to take him on as an apprentice, he bought and devoured every book available on the subject of guitar construction and repair; this was back in the days before the internet and Google. Eventually, at about the age of 21, his guitar professor suggested he call himself a luthier and print business cards to that effect – truly a “straw man” (think Wizard of Oz) moment. After working solo for about a decade, then running his shop in a large music store for another 25 years or so, he currently works out of his home in Brookfield, Connecticut, where he lives with his wife and their two dogs.