Abraham Wechter

Abraham Wechter is an American luthier who has been making custom guitars since the 1970s. He is known for building 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars and acoustic bass guitars.[1] He was a student of luthier Richard Schneider,[2] and for ten years he worked for the guitar company Gibson. After leaving Gibson, he started Wechter Guitars in Paw Paw, Michigan. In 2008 he moved his shop to Fort Wayne, Indiana.[3]

Wechter builds many guitars with his Pathmaker design, an acoustic guitar with a double cutaway. Some of his guitars have drone strings[4] and scalloped fingerboards. In 1976, he collaborated with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin to create the Shakti guitar, which was used by McLaughlin in his band Shakti.[5] The Shakti guitar is a customized Gibson J-200[6] with drone strings transversely across the soundhole.[7] He also made him a guitar with scalloped fingerboards.[8]

In 2013, Wechter Guitars closed and, according to his web site, Abraham Wechter moved his shop to Guangzhou, China, where he continues to build handmade custom guitars.

Wechter has built guitars for John Denver, Al Di Meola, Jonas Hellborg, Steve Howe, Earl Klugh,[9] Johnny Hiland, and Roman Miroshnichenko.

References
  1. Roberts, Jim (2003). American basses: an illustrated history & player's guide. Hal Leonard. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-87930-721-9.
  2. Erlewine, Dan (2007). Guitar Player Repair Guide. Hal Leonard. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-87930-921-3.
  3. Wechter, Abraham. "Bio". Retrieved 2014-09-19.
  4. Alexander, Charles (2002). Masters of Jazz Guitar: The Story of the Players and Their Music. Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0-87930-728-8.
  5. Milkowski, Bill (1998). Rockers, jazzbos & visionaries. Billboard Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-8230-7833-2.
  6. Stump, Paul (2000). Go ahead John: the music of John McLaughlin. SAF Publishing. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-946719-24-2.
  7. Wheeler, Tom (August 1978). "McLaughlin's Revolutionary Drone-String Guitar". Guitar Player. Archived from the original on 2002-04-24. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
  8. Stokes, W. Royal (2005). Growing up with jazz: twenty-four musicians talk about their lives and careers. Oxford UP. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-19-515927-1.
  9. "WECHTER GUITARS". Blue Book of Guitar Values. Blue Book Publications, Inc. Retrieved 6 May 2017.


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