{"id":5430,"date":"2014-03-19T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=5430"},"modified":"2017-02-17T15:29:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T20:29:54","slug":"interview-with-bass-builder-mark-garza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/interviews\/interview-with-bass-builder-mark-garza.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview with bass builder Mark Garza"},"content":{"rendered":"

See Mark Garza’s business listing here<\/a><\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUSMark Garza is the owner and operator of <\/em>Garz Guitars & Basses<\/em><\/a>, specializing in handcrafted instruments using the best woods available. We chatted with Mark to get some insight on how he became to be a builder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Could you describe what your business is?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The manufacturing of guitars, basses, acoustics and mandolins. I also do repair work on those instruments as well.<\/p>\n

How long have you been building guitars?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I was 26 in 1986; that’s when I built my first guitar.<\/p>\n

What did you do before guitar building?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Railroad conducting as a civilian employee for the US Army, although I did several different types of jobs when I was working for the Army.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUSWhat inspired you to build guitars?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I had already been playing for a while. I also owned several guitars that I didn’t feel were comfortable to play. While in a guitar shop one day I saw a book on how to build guitars, picked it up, read it and that’s where I started.<\/p>\n

My first project came out pretty good, and after that I was hooked on building and have been doing it ever since.<\/p>\n

Did you teach yourself how to build and repair instruments?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. I bought more tutorial materials which included books and VCR videotapes. Since there was nobody in my area that was building or repairing guitars the way I wanted to, I had to learn it all myself.<\/p>\n

Your signature bass guitar design has a very distinctive body style. Could you explain how you came up with the design?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a combination of styles I was exposed to over the years along with my own ideas. I went through several designs on paper before making the first one. Many of the other shapes I have come up with are by the same process, although now it’s true that customer input is also incorporated into the designs. <\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUSWhat are your favorite materials to work with?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For basses, I really like walnut for body wood. I’ve made several out of that and I really like the tone it brings. I also like alder and northern ash over swamp ash. Northern ash is heavier and more difficult to work with but I prefer the sound I get out of it. <\/p>\n

What are your favorite specifications for a bass guitar?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite specifications are anything functional that doesn’t take an overly extended amount of time to construct. For example, I like the 34-inch scale, straight-up electronics like the OBP-3 and Bartolini pickups (or Nordstrand). Sometimes I even wind my own pickups. <\/p>\n

The best thing is when the customer knows what he wants. I don’t mind educating customers and walking them through the available options available as that is normally part of the process, but when the customer knows up front what he wants in a build, or at least has a very good idea, that makes things go along a lot better both for the customer and myself.<\/p>\n

Do you have favorite brands of certain electronics?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I like the Hipshot bridges as they sound good and are good to work with. For pickups I’ve been using Bartolinis for years but as I said I’ve also started using Nordstrand as well. For preamps I usually stick to Aguilar. <\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUSWhat is the biggest\/largest build or repair project you’ve ever had?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I built a 9-string jazz guitar for a customer, full hollow-body with carved top and back and all-wood binding everywhere (headstock, fingerboard, etc.); that took me the longest to make. It ended up being really good.<\/p>\n

Which bass player would you most like to build for?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As long as the customer can appreciate a luthier’s time he puts into a build, that’s the player I prefer to build for. And if the customer regularly plays and enjoys the instrument I build for him, so much the better.<\/p>\n

\"p1010025Have you ever had to turn down a request for a custom build or repair job for one reason or another?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven’t had to yet. <\/p>\n

What are some of your basses aside from what you’ve built?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I like Ritter Designs<\/a> because they’re different.<\/p>\n

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned over the years of building and repairing guitars?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay focused on the instrument you’re building and do the best job you can with what you’re given. I personally find fretwork to be paramount to a proper build, as I’ve seen many custom builds by others where everything was great except the frets.
Many customers are most impressed by “the little things” with a custom build, and that means everything on a custom build must be done right the first time, both for the big stuff and the small stuff. Miss anything, and the customer will notice. Always.<\/p>\n

What would you say is the biggest improvement in guitar technology compared to 10 years ago?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Electronics. Preamps in particular seem to be getting much better.<\/p>\n

What’s your #1 tool that you use?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite tool is my thickness sander. It saves me a lot of time and effort having that compared to before when I didn’t.<\/p>\n

What’s your favorite grit of sandpaper?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On oil finishes, 600. On lacquer finishes, 320.<\/p>\n

The last grit however is always my favorite one.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to other builders looking to get into the business?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being there are so many more builders now, it would be wise to get an apprenticeship as there will probably be a luthier nearby who could train you. It’s possible to learn a whole lot faster now compared to the way I did it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See Mark Garza’s business listing here Mark Garza is the owner and operator of Garz Guitars & Basses, specializing in handcrafted instruments using the best woods available. We chatted with Mark to get some insight on how he became to be a builder. Could you describe what your business is? The manufacturing of guitars, basses, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}