Inside the Industry with Luthier Linda Manzer: Crafting Strings and Breaking Barriers

As seen in
Guitar Girl Magazine Issue 24 – Winter 2023

In the world of luthiery, where the crafting of stringed instruments is both an art and a science, few names resonate as profoundly as Linda Manzer. With a career spanning over four decades, Manzer has mastered the art of guitar making and shattered the glass ceiling in what was once a predominantly male-dominated field.

Guitar Girl Magazine caught up with Linda Manzer to learn more about her journey, challenges, and the unique perspectives she brings to the world of luthiery.

Manzer’s journey into guitar-making is a story of passion, perseverance, and innovation. Her work is a testament to the power of creativity and the importance of pushing boundaries. From her early days of being inspired by Joni Mitchell to becoming one of the most respected luthiers in the world, Manzer’s story is not just about making guitars; it’s about crafting a legacy.

Her journey is a powerful reminder of the beauty and resilience of pursuing one’s passion. Her dedication to her craft and her ability to overcome barriers in a challenging industry is inspiring and a beacon for future generations of luthiers, especially women, who dare to dream and achieve in less traveled fields.

What initially sparked your interest in becoming a luthier, and how did you start?

When I was a teenager, I went to see Joni Mitchell performing at a folk festival in Toronto called Mariposa Folk Festival on Toronto Island. She was playing a dulcimer, which is a lap instrument, and I was quite fascinated by it. I went to the Toronto Folklore Centre to buy one, but it was too expensive ($150), and the fellow running the store suggested I buy a kit ($75) and assemble it myself. And I was convinced I couldn’t do it, and he talked me into it. I took it home and assembled it with almost no tools, and when I finally put the strings on it, it was like magic. I had brought these pieces of wood to life, and music came out of them immediately. The hook was in the fish.

I immediately wanted to do it again and started making dulcimers, and that led to guitars.

I realized that I just had to fight a little harder to play with the boys, and rules could be fluid, so that followed me into my professional life.

As one of the few prominent female luthiers in the world, could you share some insights into your experiences and challenges in a predominantly male-dominated field? How have you seen the landscape change for women in the luthier profession over the years?

When I started building guitars in 1974, there were no women in the field that I knew of. I was the only female in the shop for years, but I was incredibly lucky to be with a group of wonderful men who were who welcomed me and encouraged me. And these men are still some of my closest friends to this day.

However, leaving the shop and going out into the world of lumberyards and tool shops was another story. I would often be completely ignored or dismissed. And almost always underestimated.

There was no assumption I had any knowledge about tools or wood, and each time I had to prove myself over and over again without looking too uppity. It was a balancing act. This is where being tenacious and sometimes a little scrappy helped me. Everyone was evolving bit by bit, and over time, it became easier and easier being the only woman in the field.

When it came time to start selling my own guitars, I was told that a few of the male players would not buy my guitars because it was made by a “girl.” It’s hard to believe that now, but it really did happen. In the 1970s, it was a different era. But on the other hand, there were a couple of supportive women players who sought me out to purchase guitars specifically from me because I was a female, so it kind of balances itself out. For me, the trick was riding the roller coaster because everyone was evolving around women’s issues at that time.

For instance, I tried to get a credit card, and they refused unless I had a husband to cosign. I have no husband, so I asked a friend to pose as my husband, and he signed, and I got a credit card.

Sounds absolutely ridiculous now, but that was how it was then.

Also, I grew up with two older brothers, and they prepared me for being the only female in a world of men. My brothers had a tree fort in the forest behind our house, and they had a “no girls allowed” policy. I would follow them through the woods 30 feet behind, hiding from tree to tree til we got to the tree fort. I remember trying to get up the ladder and my brother trying to kick me off the ladder, saying, “no girls,” and I just forced my way up the ladder. And magically, once I got into the tree fort, I was welcomed because I was somebody else to play with. Everything was cool. In fact, they were actually incredibly supportive of me; they just gave me the kick in the pants I needed.

I realized that I just had to fight a little harder to play with the boys, and rules could be fluid, so that followed me into my professional life. Thank you, Bryan and Alan.

What do you find most rewarding about crafting musical instruments, and what drives your passion for luthiery?

I absolutely love spending long periods of time alone in my shop, diving in and deeply connecting with the wood and the journey these pieces of wood are taking. How the hand planes go through the woods, the sounds they make, the smells — it’s all pretty intoxicating.

It’s incredibly rewarding and restorative to do this kind of work. Bringing a beautiful pile of wood to life is so incredibly rewarding and magical. And the best part is once my journey with the guitar is over, it has a whole new life ahead of it in the hands of a musician who will now create music with it.

How do you balance creativity with functionality when designing and building a musical instrument?

Function always comes first. The guitar has to be structurally sound and made to the player’s specifications; always remember it’s their guitar, not yours. And you have to build it strong enough to withstand the tensions of the strings but sensitive enough for the wood to blossom and sing.

Once function is established, sound is really the most important factor. Then, I focus on how it feels, and last but not least, I focus on how it looks.

That’s the order I prioritize everything.

Even with my most visual elaborate guitars, I always consider sound first so that if you close your eyes and ignore how they look, they will sound as good as I can make them sound and feel as good as I can make them feel.

Throughout your career, you’ve built guitars for various legendary musicians. Is there a particular collaboration or project that stands out as especially memorable or challenging? Could you share some details about that experience?

The answer to that would be the Pikasso guitar that I made and designed with Pat Metheny. This is a 42 string for string section 3 necked to sound holes to access doors guitar that we designed in 1984. This guitar pushed me way beyond any boundaries I’ve ever dreamed of. I started working with Pat Metheny in 1982, and over the course of my career, I have made over 25 instruments for him. We’ve collaborated on so many new guitar designs, but the turning point in our collaboration of designing together was in 1984 when he asked me to make a guitar with “as many strings as possible.”

We floated different ideas back and forth, exchanging drawings and designs for about five months, and then I began building the Pikasso guitar. This was also when I introduced the invention of my “wedge” feature in one of my guitars. This was entirely designed around making this guitar so Pat could visually see the 42 strings better, so he was looking down on them a little bit instead of looking across them because the top leaned back a little bit because the side under his arm was skinnier than the side on his knee.

Turns out it was also very ergonomic and helpful for people who were having problems with the right arm, and it caught on and is now an industry standard and used by lots of builders.

Your guitars are known for their exceptional quality and durability. What specific elements or design aspects do you prioritize to achieve such high standards, and how do you ensure the unique characteristics of each instrument?

One of the things I learned early in my career was you never know the journey a guitar is going to take and in whose hands it’s going to end up. So I ever so slightly “overbuild” my guitars, presuming people will take them out on the road and really, really use them and put them to the test. I want them to be roadworthy, and I want them to be played, so if someone scratches them, I don’t really care because my goal is for the instrument to be a tool for the musicians so they can create their music on it. The benefit of this approach is that, while it may take a little longer for my guitars to “open up,” but when they do open up, there’s more headroom and more ceiling for the guitar to stretch into.

I constantly get emails from clients saying they can’t believe how much the guitar has blossomed again and again over the years.

You have mentioned concerns about the dwindling supply of high-quality wood due to ecological issues like clear-cutting and deforestation. How do you see the future of guitar-making, and what innovative approaches are emerging to address the shortage of traditional tonewoods?

I’m extremely lucky I have enough food supply for the rest of my life because I was constantly buying woods and just storing them. But I am sure future builders will not have access to this kind of wood, so they’re going to have to get creative, and it seems to be a trend of people using more local woods or recycled woods. There might be some experimentation with synthetic materials, but I haven’t seen anything that floats my boat at this point. But it’s possible.

I think traditionally there was no wiggle room on what was acceptable for a world-class instrument. If you deviated from traditional woods, that guitar was considered inferior. And at some point, we started breaking those rules collectively as a community and opened up the possibility of using different species of wood and perhaps slightly different techniques of building to bring out the best of those woods. With skill, you can make just about anything sing! It’s a matter of really hearing, feeling, and sensing a piece of wood and bringing it to life.

A huge amount of intuition and feel goes into how to make a guitar, and the more you build, the more you can feel what the wood is capable of.

It boils down to that my biggest competitor is myself. I try to make each guitar a little bit better than the last. One day, I hope to get it right!

In what ways do you believe your perspective and skills as a female luthier contribute to the instruments you create?

It’s hard for me to know how my experience as a woman is different from a man’s experience cause I only have my own lens to see things through. But I’m going to guess that as most of my clients are men, they might feel safer opening up to me a little more emotionally to me. And honestly, I invite that.

Guitars are really, really personal objects because you wrap your arms around them, and you pour your soul into them. My job is to provide the tool or portal so that can happen as effortlessly as possible.

And I think making a guitar or musical instrument for someone, male or female, is a very intimate connection and a very special one, and I try to allow them to make it as personal as possible. People get very emotional when they get their guitars; it’s like adding a new member to their family, and I take that responsibility really seriously.

What advice would you give to other women aspiring to become luthiers or pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated fields?

Look forward, don’t get bogged down by the negative. Move forward. Get a support system in place of people who love you and encourage you to be the best you can be.

Learn from setbacks. They are lessons.

And find the most positive people to move forward with you. You WILL find those who want to help you on your journey. But also, put yourself in a position where you get real criticism about your work; some of my best teachers have been clients who have been very critical of my earlier work, and I learned and improved.

And presumably, you were doing this because you absolutely love doing it, and what better reward is there to go through life than doing something you love? What a gift that is.

How do you stay updated with the latest trends and developments in luthiery, and how does that influence your work?

I read some of the stuff on the Internet and look at some of the videos of what people are doing, but at this point in my career, I have a pretty clear concept of what I want to do, so I don’t really reference what other people are doing. I do love that I can get fantastic technical information easily about glues, electronics, and new snazzy tools, etc., but I also have a group of luthier friends with decades worth of experience who I talk to regularly, and that’s really my source of information. They know me, and I know them, and we share information as we have for decades.

It boils down to that my biggest competitor is myself. I try to make each guitar a little bit better than the last. One day, I hope to get it right!

3 Key Takeaways from Guitar Girl Magazine’s Interview with the Trailblazing Female Luthier Linda Manzer