pat loughery

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to hang out with world-class artists and craftspeople. Musicians, photographers, visual artists, woodworkers – I love to spend time with people who are passionate about their crafts and who are off the beaten path a bit.

Today I dropped a guitar (a Fender Classic Player 60s Stratocaster in Sonic Blue) by Mike Lull’s shop in Bellevue on the east side of Seattle. I met up with my friend Tom and the plan was to show Mike’s staff what needed to be done and then go have lunch together.

Tom’s a fantastic guitar player with an ever-revolving collection of guitars. He’s master of finding good deals on sub-$1000 guitars and sometimes flips them for the next project. Although he’s now in the software industry (I’ve worked with him a few years now at three jobs running), he also spent time years ago working for Floyd Rose setting up guitars and doing other tasks for the now-famous maker of alternative tremolo systems.

I bought this particular guitar last summer. It was my first, and for reasons that will be immediately clear, last guitar purchase over Ebay. I’ve been buying and selling things on Ebay for a decade now, and never had a problem until this purchase. The seller was uncommunicative after a week of email contact, took several more weeks to ship the guitar, and it arrived in a smoky case, missing a part and with a bit more cosmetic damage than I expected. It was a kick in the guts.

Worse, when I brought the guitar to Tom to check out, he pointed out a big problem that I hadn’t seen – high up on the neck, the middle of the frets was way too tall, so bending notes meant buzzing notes. The guitar had some problems that a minor setup wasn’t going to fix.

So, after waiting for a while and licking my wounds a bit, we planned to meet at Mike’s shop today. Mike Lull is one of those guys who’s known far and wide in his community. He is a small luthier whose instruments are played by Who’s Who list of bands including members of Pearl Jam, Heart, LeAnn Rimes and Randy Jackson.

He’s also the guy in town to take your guitar to for setups. For $50-$75, he’ll take your machine and make it sing. I’ve had two acoustics and now two electrics worked on by Mike’s crew, and every time the difference was fantastic. As a hamfisted musician, even I can tell the difference in playability and sound.

This guitar was a challenge though – and we brought it to Mike because he has a new toy in the shop: A Plek machine. Pleks are massive CAD/CAM systems for perfectly machining your guitar’s frets exactly like you want them, or how they should have been in the first place. My guitar needed frets to be fixed badly, so here we were.

We chatted for a while with one of Mike’s employees who confirmed the fouled frets diagnosis and quoted me a reasonable (not cheap, but reasonable) price for a new setup and a Plek job. As we were getting ready to leave, Mike came out from the back part of his little shop and started chatting, recognizing Tom from his days with Floyd Rose. Mike’s face lit up and he asked if we wanted to see the new machine.

Of course we did – both of us like machines and wanted to see what all the buzz was about (no pun intended). Mike walked us through the process of measurement of a guitar’s fretboard and then dialing in the changes needed and showing us the wide range of customizations that he can do with the machine.

Conversation turned from there to his showing us a ’61 Fender Jazz bass that is getting new frets and some more restoration work, then Mike showing us sanding blocks for working on a neck, and then turned into storytelling about various folks in the guitar industry that either Tom or Mike knew. It was a blast, hanging out in the workshop hearing stories and seeing how much Mike loves his craft. He’s been at this for 35 years, and he’s awesome at it.

There’s something thrilling about being in the presence of somebody who’s excellent at their craft and who love to share stories. It’s life-giving and a pure joy. Bonus points for those who are this way and still not full of attitude, and Mike’s great this way also.

Oh – our hour set aside to quickly drop off the guitar at Mike’s shop and then go eat? All consumed swapping stories in Mike’s shop. Lunch skipped. Tom will come with me on Monday when I pick up the guitar; I’m excited to see the difference, and Tom will give the guitar a much more skilled workout than I’ll be able to.

A few more stories on Plek: Here, Here, Here

A Youtube video of Mike’s plek machine:

Oh, and here’s my favorite YouTube video of this particular guitar, played by a guy with great blues chops. Let’s be very clear here; this is not me by any means, but I’d love to play like he does.