High Desert Luthiery and The Unknowns

A passionate cast of entrepreneurs who supply the music world with hand-crafted, stringed instruments, saying an orchestrated hello to the public at Rio Bravo Brewing.

By: Joe Smith Stringer on Substack

New Mexico has often been left to its own devices to figure out how to survive and make a comfortable living, while the nation around it marched along to progressive consumerism, organized industry, and keeping up with the Joneses.

New Mexico hasn’t given a flying prickly pear about the Joneses since … ever, and even if they knew who the Joneses were, they simply would not care what they did in their back yard, garage, or basement as a crafts maker, weed grower, guitar builder, alchemist, or model train builder. Just ask them; they won’t have a clue what their neighbor does. They simply accept life, a model for the rest of the nation, and allow people to express themselves in whatever manner they choose. It’s a gross simplification of course, but the candid observations ring true.

A veteran pocket player-turned guitar builder saw this conundrum also within his industry and organized some sort of get-down to fill a painfully obvious void of organized community here in the sparse, notoriously thin high desert.

Simply not knowing a thing exists meets the Enchanted status quo, but seeing the bigger picture while doing the muscle work makes for a nice production of orchestrated sound, pleasing enough for the masses to get out and support.

Perry Vasquez from Unga Guitars and others were originally part of another guitar event, only to have it grenaded about a month before it was to happen at another venue. Perry dropped back, regrouped, and moved the event to Rio Bravo Brewing, a community space that kept young Stringer alive with carry-out during the dawg days of Lockdown 2020. 

Perry’s vision aimed at connecting builders and supporting companies with each other, but also to showcase their art to the public, for free, at a family-friendly venue with food and beverages. The outcome was a staggering leap into a creative realm I never knew existed here in the area, and proof that Perry’s vision paid off.

High Desert Luthiery is a cast of musically-driven woodworkers, makers, electronics gurus, and shadow workers that came together after the pandemic to meet one another and to say hello to the public. The beautiful hands-off approach of the state’s residents is also its most obvious disability: not knowing what the community is doing, or who the specialist are within the community.

Websites, social media, and internet searches don’t appear to be the chosen method of effective advertising ‘round these parts; word of mouth and solid reputation still reign supreme and as always, it helps to know a few musicians to find the person who will damn near do it for a song.

Percolating through the hoppy waft, the common weave amongst the group appeared to be customized affordability. Like many business owners in New Mexico, stringed instrument makers have analyzed the market and priced their magical craft to a customer base, with each of them having a slightly varied demographic in style or genre. Not cheap by any definition, but firmly in the neighborhood of affordable high performance, endurance, and practicality in one of the poorest states in the nation.

Passionate builders and workers keep the strings from unraveling in the music industry while being affordable enough to do the damn thing at all tiers of performance. Some have an industry commitment, and passion, to not duplicate builds, a very chingon option in the world of today’s mass-produced instruments.

As I walked around the High Desert Luthiery get-down, I witnessed the passion each builder, maker, or supporter shared with event goers. They also shared it with me, a curious writer and supporter of live music. Most are musicians themselves, if not all, and they build based on a proven method of their own experiences with keen passion to give the musician an instrument that will speak to scores of other music lovers anywhere wavelengths travel.

Please reach out to any of the vendors to support local craftsmanship and businesses, more important now than ever.

Unga Guitars - Perry (ABQ). Handmade electric guitars and basses, veteran musician, event organizer.

Sadilah Handmade Guitars - Chuck (ABQ). Cigar box instruments, electric guitars, basses, and an impressive selection of items and merch.

Otto Guitars - Doug (Rio Rancho). Bespoke electric guitars and pickups.

Percolator Guitar Repair - Jimmy (ABQ) . A legend in guitar repair, customizing, building, and playing.

Goateed Skull Guitars - Pat (ABQ). Electric guitars and possibly goatees…

Tele Yo Mama - MoJo (Santa Fe). Recycled, refurbished, and reassembled Strats, Teles, and others for the working musician.

LEF Custom Guitars - Luis (Corrales). Wicked electric guitars.

Mont Electrics - Monty (ABQ). 45 years in the industry.

Dava Picks - Angel (ABQ). Unique, multi-gauge grip design pick maker, headquartered in Duke City since 1996.

Albuquerque Exotic Woods - Ashley (ABQ). Supplies one-piece bodies, fingerboards, and neck blanks along with a massive assortment of hardwoods.

Mayne Basses - Hannah (ABQ). Globally-acclaimed double basses, violas, and violins.

Klarissa Petti - Klarissa (ABQ). Maker of fine violins, violas, and cellos. Apprenticed with David Caron in Taos.

Nasty Mammoth Guitars - Tyler and Jeff (ABQ). Specializes in the weird and nasty.

Longbow Guitars - John (ABQ). Archtop, solid bodies, flat top hollow body, electrics, and basses.

Stolen Guitar Co - Robert (Corrales). Guitar maker and artist collaborator.

Zap Amps - Abe (ABQ). Cables, cabinets, tube amps, and pedals.

MarcusMods - Marcus & Sam, sometimes Wilson (ABQ). But Wilson was nowhere to be seen… Pedals.