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Leroy Aiello of Aiello Guitars

Leroy Aiello- A Guitar Luthier

Joe Jackson and Mandolin Brothers

Leroy is from Long Island, NY. He started his career by learning how to setup and maintain his own guitars in the late 80’s. Soon, he made connections in the business and had the opportunity to travel as a guitar road tech for Joe Jackson and Marshall Crenshaw. He was fortunate enough to apprentice at Mandolin Brothers with Flip Scipio in 1991.  Flip taught him the skills and respect needed to care for them. In 1996, Flip left Mandolin Brothers to start his own shop at which time Leroy took his place as the Head of Repair. Leroy stayed with Mandolin Brothers until 2010.

Aiello Guitars and Eric Clapton’s Guitar

Leroy left Mandolin Brothers to open Aiello Guitars in Point Pleasant, NJ.   He has worked on many restorations, but the ones that stand out are a guitar arriving in a bag and another authenticating the historic Stratocaster used by Clapton in Cream. Here are Leroy’s own words about being a luthier… “It’s always been about taking an instrument that ‘used to be special,’ and transforming it into an instrument that ‘is special.’ Whether it’s a setup or a full restoration, I’ve always felt that each guitar or mandolin shouldn’t be just a ‘routine job.’ The end result is always in my head before I even start. The before and after is the brass ring for me.  I perform restorations, both routine and extraordinary —  D’Angelico’s, 19th and 20th century Martins, and many other classic and rare vintage guitars.”

Interview with Leroy

Here are links to Leroy

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Bill Tuli- Author and Guitarist

Bill Tuli- Author of Stratocasters and Telecasters- A Love Story

If you wanted to know everything there is about Fender Strats’s and Tele’s, Bill’s new book is for you. Bill is a guitarist and author with several published books including Naked and Dimed, Naked and Dimed is a great book that focuses on the tones from different guitars and amps.

Stratocasters and Telecasters- A Love Story, is Bill’s share of the love he has for these guitars, he has played Strats and Teles his whole life. In this book, Bill wanted to explore why he loves them. it turns out the reason was far more complex than he ever thought. The book is filled with vintage pictures of Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters and technical data. In the second part of this book he explores the history of vintage Fender guitar values. Bill also explains the values they are today, and why, as well as where it’s likely headed tomorrow.

Great quote from the book “The other day my wife asked me how many guitars I owned. For the first time ever, I told her the truth. She didn’t get mad. She just seemed a bit puzzled. She asked: “Why would anyone need that many guitars?” I didn’t know. But I did know why the vast majority of them were Stratocasters and Telecasters. In this book, I answer that question.

Another quote from Bill. “It took me 40 years to completely understand why Stratocasters and Telecasters are so powerful. You cannot play one like the other. They have distinct personalities. You simply have to master each one separately. Most guys devote their lives to either one or the other. I feel blessed that I somehow managed to discover how to play both.”

Video interview with Bill Tuli

Here are other links related to Bill

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Dick Boak – Martin Guitars Part 1

Dick Boak- Martin Guitars

Meeting C.F. Martin III and New Career

Dick Boak started at Martin Guitars in 1976, and is well known in the guitar world. Before Dick began at Martin, he had been going through their dumpsters looking for scrap wood to make his own guitars.  After some time, the folks at Martin saw his work and eventually, owner C. F. Martin III, saw his work and was so impressed, he told one of his employees to have him apply for a job. Dick was soon hired as a design draftsman. Throughout his career, he has held many diverse positions, but his favorite was leading the formation of Martin’s Artist Relations Department, and the conception of more than 100 signature guitar collaborations, with artists such as; Eric Clapton, Mark Knophler, Paul Simon, Steve Miller, and many others.

Eric Clapton and the 000-42EC Model

After getting phone calls about the guitar that Eric Clapton used for the MTV Unplugged show, he was permitted to contact Eric about Martin issuing a limited edition Eric Clapton model. Eric loved the idea and the final version was based on the guitars he used for the Unplugged concert. Martin made 461 copies of the Eric Clapton 000-42EC model and was sold out immediately upon release.  Dick has worked with Eric on several models over the years. He was so grateful to Eric on the attention he brought to acoustic guitars and Martin, that he wrote a personal letter about him that was published in Acoustic Guitar magazine.

Mario Andretti and Other Interests

After 42 years with the company, Dick retired in 2018.  His retirement party is a dream to some folks – the party was held at the State Theater in Easton Pennsylvania, and was called Boak’s Bash (see the video below), featuring Steve Miller, John Mayer, David Bromberg, and many others. Dick spends his time working on his illustrations and music.  He was also asked by his neighbor, Mario Andretti, if he could assist in helping with putting his racing archive together.

Part One of a Two Part Story

Video interview with Dick Boak (Part 1)

Dick Boak’s Retirement Party with Steve Miller

Here are other links related to Dick

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Ken Barr-We Are The Road Crew- Part 2

Ken Barr – Road Crew Technician- Part 2

Highlights From Part One

In Part One, Ken talked about how his career started in the NYC area clubs in 1978, working for Debbie Gibson, and how Phil Collins was almost run over at Atlantic Records’ 40th Anniversary at Madison Square Garden. We discussed the meaning of the word Roadie, his work with Alice Cooper, and Eric Singer of Kiss.

Stone Temple Pilots, Kiss, and Alice Cooper

Ken has some great stories working for Stone Temple Pilots. In their early days, he made a Slide Bandolero for guitarist, Dean DeLeo, and when he smashed Dean’s favorite guitar on stage. Ken tells the story of how he and some of the other guys from the road crew opened up for them at one show. We discuss him being a tech for Gene Simmons and  Eric Singer of Kiss, and his return to Alice Cooper.

Part Two of a Two Part Story

Video interview with Ken Barr (Part 2)

Ken Barr’s band, “Monkey’s with Guns” opening up for STP

Here are other links related to Ken

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Ken Barr- Road Crew Technician

Ken Barr – Road Crew Technician

 

Ken Barr was a road-crew technician (folks these days don’t like the word Roadies because they are a lot more technical than a Roadie) for a lot of bands throughout his career.  He started out in the NYC area clubs in 1978, and eventually landed a gig with Debbie Gibson in the early 1980’s when her first album was released. Ken has worked as a drum tech for Eric Singer of Kiss and Alice Cooper, then ultimately became Gene Simmons‘ bass tech, handling both Eric and Gene. He has worked with Air Supply, The Bangles, Alice Cooper, Stone Temple Pilots, and many other artists. In 2009, Ken decided to share his amazing stories in his book, We Are the Road Crew.

Eric Singer, Alice Cooper, and Phil Collins

In part one of our interview, we talk to Ken about meeting drummer Eric Singer. We also talk about Ken’s time working with Alice Cooper’s band and almost running over Phil Collins at the 40th Anniversary of Atlantic Records at Madison Square Garden.

Part One of a Two Part Story

Video interview with Ken Barr (Part 1)

Ken Barr’s band, “Monkey’s with Guns” opening up for STP

Here are other links related to Ken

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Bill Baker, Guitar Tech from Dave's Sound in Whippany, NJ

Bill Baker, Guitar Tech

Bill Baker, Guitar Tech

Bill knows a lot of people and has worked on guitars owned by Ace Frehley and Dez Cadena (The Misfits)

Who is Bill Baker?

Bill Baker, a guitar tech from New Jersey, works at Dave’s Sound Repair in Whippany, NJ. He has been fixing and playing guitars since he was a teen and has been working with Dave Hirsch his whole career. Bill is known for being former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley’s guitar tech and friend in the early ’90s and had a massive Ace collection. He fronted the Ace Frehley tribute band, Fractured Mirror. He also has the Ace Frehley Archive, a site dedicated to Ace Frehley. Further, he is known for his popular restringing video on YouTube. He has met and worked with a lot of people in the business. Bill has so many stories, so we have to do this interview in parts.

MUSICXPLORER — Bill, how did you become interested in guitars?

Bill — As a kid, I just loved music. My father had a couple of friends that played guitar and they would come over, and I would watch them and be fascinated by that. Later on, when we moved, the neighbor next door would sit out on his front porch, play bass, and jam along to records. I would watch him through the window of him playing. One time he told me to come inside and watch, and I’m like, “Well, you have got to teach me how to play.” So he gave me some lessons and kinda taught me how to get through the Eagles “Victim of Love.”

So you were learning how to play and fix guitars on your own?

Bill — Yeah, I started to take my guitars apart and put them back together. Back then you couldn’t buy a book on how to do that. I remember, I had this one guitar that didn’t work. It had these push-button switches that were very unreliable, and I sort of learned how to make a better contact using a soldering iron. So, I picked up little things like that along the way, but it wasn’t until I bought the first good guitar, a 62 reissue StratDemarzio.  I made a stacked pickup that I put in the Strat. It kind of gave me a start on working on guitars.

When did you start to work on guitars for a living?

Bill — I walked into a music store in Morristown to get an amplifier fixed and told the owner, Dave Hirsh, that I work on guitars, and said, “I can do little repairs on guitars, if you need somebody,” and he said, “You know, maybe you could come in on Saturdays and do some things for me. I could use some help.” I started working for Dave one day a week, and then eventually turned into two days a week. Dave eventually moved to a bigger location, and I have been with him ever since.

So, you really taught yourself how to repair guitars?

Bill — Yeah, sometimes I would learn by doing. For example, somebody would come in and say, “I got a Tele and I want a Floyd Rose put in it.” I knew it was going to be difficult, and I tried to talk him out of it. I told him the guitar was going to get butchered up. He was still insistent on getting it done. I’d say to myself, “Okay, how am I going to do this?” While I had the jig to put in the Floyd Rose, I had to measure twice and cut once. I wish I had a picture of that because it was crazy to do, and stupid because it was an early seventies Tele that would be worth a pretty good buck now.

Bill Baker working on Ace Frehley's (KISS) Les Paul
Bill Baker working on Ace Frehley’s Les Paul
Ace Frehley from KISS and Bill Baker
Ace Frehley and Bill Baker

How did you start to figure out how to refret?

Bill — I was looking at other fret work jobs that other repairmen did, and I would see something that didn’t look right and I’m like, well, gee, I got to figure out a way to do this better. I saw a lot of bad refrets, and you know, there’s got to be a way to do it nice and clean. So, I decided to start on a Gibson Flying V that I had, and I refretted the guitar a few times until I got it right.

Did you go anywhere to learn how to do inlays?

Bill — I went to the Guitar Symposium that was held at the Nazareth College, sponsored by Martin. There was a guy there who was cutting pieces of Pearl, and I was like, oh, that looks kind of cool, and I always wanted to know how to do inlays. I asked about it, and he let me practice cutting up the Pearl with him. I then decided I was going to refret that Flying V one more time. I cut out musical notes, and I inlaid them going up the fingerboard.

That sounds pretty cool!

Bill — It was, and I thought that guitar was going to be wonderful and it was going to be my guitar, because it was so cool, but then I realized I didn’t like playing it cuz the way the flying V sits on your body. So I sold it.

What’s your favorite thing about repairing guitars?

Bill — Probably my favorite thing is just seeing the varieties of different guitars, especially working on really cool guitars.

What is your dream guitar?

Bill — I love Les Paul’s. So my dream guitar would be like a flame top Les Paul with super jumbo, Dunlop 6000 frets, just one humbucker, and a volume control. But, I know the Gibson Custom Shop would probably want about 10 grand for it, so I’ll never have one.

That would be nice to have though. What’s your least favorite thing?

Bill — The thing that I like the least, is working on these Chinese knockoffs. They are low-end quality and because there’s a lot of problems with them. It’s hard to get parts that fit because a lot of these companies make up their own sizes, and the work and wiring are sloppy. I got a story about that.

Yeah, you have some good ones.

Bill — And they are all true.
Somebody brought me a Chinese counterfeit Gibson and the wiring was not shielded, so the thing is really noisy. The parts are cheap, and the guy thinks he got a great deal. But when I added up how much it’s going to cost him to put in better pick ups and pots, and all new wiring, it’s gonna be more than what he just paid for the guitar. Then the fret work is no good and the nut and bridge are just awful. I started adding all the stuff up to make it, and I said, “You should have just bought a used Epiphone and you would have had a much better guitar.”

What are the Pots?

Bill — Pots are the controls. That’s short for potentiometer, in layman’s terms.

You have a couple of videos that are pretty popular on YouTube about your “Z” method for restringing guitars. There is one that has over 15,000 views. How did that come about?

Bill — Is that the high-definition one?

Yeah.

Bill — I think on the first one I did, there were over 200,000. The video I did in 2008 was with the guitar that I bought from Dez Cadena of the Misfits.

Did you also work on Doyle’s guitars?

Bill — No, but I did work on the basses that Jerry Only designed that were made by CWF in Newton.

Bill with Jerry Only of The Misfits
Bill with Jerry Only of The Misfits

Cool. Have you seen the controversy on your method versus the Gary Brawer method?

Bill — I forget, but I saw it.

It’s on The Gear Page.

Bill — Gear Page. Yep, you’re right, there were.

Yeah, so it was on The Gear Page in 2017, and it’s also on the Seymour Duncan and The Right Brain site. The debate is the over and under, one string at a time method, and yours.

Bill — Yeah, which I saw people call it the the “Z” method. Well, I’ll explain that.

Many years ago, Dave my boss, told me three fingers are good to wrap around the tuners. That’s what they had come up with, from when he was working at Robbie’s Music, back in the 70’s. That was kind of my rule too. When I first started playing, I had a Strat. Strats have those slotted tuners so you just kind of put it in and wrap it. I learned because of the tremolo that you had to stretch the strings out and get the slack. You couldn’t have too many wraps that couldn’t be sloppy. It had to be nice and neat.

The majority of the comments I have seen on the restringing videos are that people say that you shouldn’t take all the strings off at once because it messes with the neck.

Bill — Well, here is my opinion on that. When the guitar was made, did it have strings on it?  No, it didn’t, so it’s OK to take them all off. Don’t take them all off and let the guitar sit for a couple of years, because the truss rod is pulling in the other direction. But, if you take it off for say a half hour, or an hour, or even a couple hours, or even if you have to do some major work, you have to take them all off. If you have to take them all off to clean the guitar and put the strings right back on, the guitar is going to go right back where it was. The truss rod was set for the counter tension of the strengths. Now, let’s say you had twelves on there, and you took all the strings off and you put on eights, the neck is probably going to be too straight. If you had eights on there, and you put twelves on, the neck is probably going to be a little too curved; but if you had tens and you put back on tens, then you’re going to be OK.

A Les Paul is different because of the floating bridge.

Bill — On a Les Paul, if you take all the strings off, the tail piece falls off, the bridge will fall off, and the little wheels can lose their their spot. So a safe way to play it is, change them one at a time. If you’re paranoid about anything going out of adjustment or whatever, just change them one at a time; but it makes it a little tougher to clean the guitar.

On a Strat, you wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Bill — If you have a floating tremolo on a Strat, it’s the string tension that’s causing the bridge to float. If you take them all off the bridge, it is going to lay on the face. If you have a Floyd Rose guitar and you take them all off, the Floyd Rose is going to flop onto the face or into the cavity, and it’s going to be a pain in the ass to put it back. So, what you want to do is, if you have to take them all off, and if you have a tremelo on a Strat, you could always stick a guitar pick under the back of the bridge, and it’ll keep it up where it was. You don’t really have to, but if you wanted it to be exactly where it was, you could do that.

What do you think about the other restringing method?

Bill — There’s nothing wrong with either — there are pros and cons to each one. I guess there’s really no right or wrong. It’s whatever you want to try.

What made you do the video in the first place?

Bill — The whole reason that I made that video was because when I was in my Ace Frehley tribute band, Fractured Mirror, we were going to play one last time at a KISS convention and the original guitar player, Mike, from that band showed up with his guitars, and he says, “Can you change my strings for me?” and I’m like, “Mike you’re 40 years old you can’t change your own strings?”

That’s funny!

Bill — Yeah, I told him, I should make a video, so, I said, “Okay Mike, you’re going to hold the video camera, we’re going to use your guitars, and we’re going to make a restringing video.” I then transferred it to a DVD, and sent it to my friend in Australia who runs my website and he uploaded them for me.

We are running out of time for this part of the interview. But how did you meet Ace?

Bill — I had a table at one of the KISS conventions in 1990 and this guy was asking if anyone wanted to buy one of Ace’s guitars. I said, “Sure, but I don’t have the cash on me right now.” I told him about a Marshall cabinet I was selling, and he said that we could meet at his house to trade the amp and the guitar. He also said that he could have Ace meet with us to sign the guitar since he had to bring it to his house.

Sounds pretty cool.

Bill — Yeah, and when Ace showed up, it was kind of surreal. He was pretty cool about things, and then we all went out to dinner and had Sushi.

We will will continue this interview in another segment that will talk more about Ace Frehley, Dickie Peterson, and the bass guitars he and Bill made. We will also talk about Bill’s involvement with the Misfits, Volbeat, and other good stories. Stay tuned and subscribe to get the latest info on MusicXplorer!

Thanks, Bill — we surely will be talking with you again.

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Check out Bill Baker’s restringing video on YouTube:

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