Michael Bashkin
Michael Bashkin brings a unique vision and sensibility to the art of guitar-building – a philosophy that crystallized during his years teaching tropical forestry in Belize, Central America. Michael’s approach is holistic, merging his experience as a visual artist, a musician, and a lifelong student of wood.
Michael understands wood on a level that few of us do. He sees grain the way a photographer sees the nuances of texture in reflected light. He hears the resonance. He feels the personality captured in a sheet of Italian spruce. He hears the voice, bright and full of life, waiting to be expressed.
Michael is also a scientist whose graduate studies at Colorado State University and post-graduate research at Duke University taught him about the mechanics of wood. He knows where wood has come from and how it’s evolving. He has studied the way trees are responding to climate change – and how the wood harvested from them can be sculpted and assembled to respond to energy in certain, very special ways. Having studied with such gifted luthiers as Ervin Somogyi and Harry Fleishman, he shares their abiding respect for both aesthetics and function.
Website: https://www.bashkinguitars.com/
Located: Fort Collins, CO United States
Professionally Selling: Since 1994
Professional Organizations: Guild of American Luthiers
Dealers: The North American Guitar Company , Eddies Guitars , Dolphin Guitars
Studied With: Ervin Somogy , Harry Fleishman , Trevor Gore
Shows: Woodstock Invitational , NAMM , Healdsburg Guitar Festival , Montreal Guitar Show
Instrument Types: Steel String Acoustic
