Duluth's Ed Schaefer has been building jazz guitars for a decade and building guitars generally since 1974. He's become nationally known for it, supplying handmade guitars for some of the greats of the jazz world, such as Fred Hamilton and Mike Wheeler.
He's currently building a guitar for Eric Johnson, a Grammy winner and writer for Guitar Magazine.
After moving here two years ago from Fort Worth, Texas, where he had lived for 35 years, he opened up a retail shop below the Electric Fetus, hoping to build some retail traffic and some local business.
Having made the connections he wanted in the local art scene and struggled to attract the kind of retail traffic that would justify rent, Schaefer says he's going to be shutting down his retail outlet when the lease runs out and working full-time out of his home shop.
But he says the shop has given him the local exposure he needs. "Duluth knows I'm here," he said.
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It must. In addition to the Ben Lacy master class that will be held at his retail store, Schaefer has inspired a Sacred Heart event of people playing his guitars for this spring. That will also bring in a master class. He's got a backlog of work a year deep.
As you might expect, Schaefer first started making guitars because he plays them. But building a reputation in that industry takes time and usually happens by word of mouth.
"It takes a good eight years in this business to really get going," he said.
