Life With Strings Attached
Everything in life is better understood if you can learn to see the strings attached.
Life With Strings Attached is a long-form conversation series hosted by Jamie Gale that explores the people, ideas, and disciplines shaping the evolving world of the guitar.
Drawing on decades of experience across touring, retail, distribution, manufacturing, education, consulting, and global cultural exchange, Jamie brings together builders, designers, artists, scientists, historians, entrepreneurs, collectors, and innovators to uncover the patterns that connect seemingly unrelated worlds.
From guitar design and architecture to philosophy, physics, craftsmanship, psychology, and culture, each conversation explores the universal principles that influence how we create, think, and connect.
Hosted by the curator of the Boutique Guitar Showcase, Life With Strings Attached contributes to the ongoing conversation of the guitar by inviting thoughtful dialogue, celebrating diverse perspectives, and discovering new possibilities for the future of the instrument.
Episodes
122 episodes
When Life Tests the Maker | Simon Padalka
Today's guest is luthier and architect Simon Padalka, a guitar maker with few peers.In this conversation we talk about the dramatic events that unfolded at the end of the 2025 Boutique Guitar Showcase enTour season, when the Padalka gui...
André Gonçalves (ADDAC System) | When Modular Synthesis Meets the Guitar String
In this episode, I speak with Lisbon-based artist, musician, and instrument designer André Gonçalves of ADDAC System.For sixteen years, André has explored modular synthesis, experimental music, and the physical interfaces that make elec...
From a Guitar Shop at 19 to the World's Biggest String Company | Chris Griffiths (D'Addario)
In this episode, I sit down with Chris Griffiths, someone I’ve known for nearly twenty-five years and whose remarkable career I’ve had the opportunity to see unfold firsthand.Chris opened his first guitar shop at nineteen, trained as a ...
30 Years, Kirk Hammett and the Guitar That Never Compromises | Nik Huber
Welcome to Life with Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. Today's guest is Nik Huber, one of the most well-respected guitar makers in the world.30 years is a remarkable milestone for any guitar maker. It's long enough to build t...
D'Angelico, Loar and Why New York Changed the Guitar Forever | Cristian Mirabella
Welcome to Life With Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. My guest today is famed archtop guitar maker Cristian Mirabella.This episode is the result of an impromptu conversation at the end of Cristian's biography episode. After ...
The Man Who Made Rust Beautiful | James Trussart
Every guitar James Trussart builds carries far more than steel, wood, and craftsmanship. It carries the influences of a life lived across France, Louisiana, and Los Angeles, a fascination with history, and an unwavering belief that every instru...
Biography | The Story of Markus Spohn
Welcome to Life With Strings Attached. I'm your host, Jamie Gale. This episode was filmed live on location at Tom Anderson Guitar Works in Southern California. My guest today is Markus Spohn, co-owner of Tom Anderson Guitar Works. Born in a min...
Biography | The Story of Cristian Mirabella
My guest today is famed archtop guitar maker Cristian Mirabella. Cristian's story begins in New York, on Long Island, in a family shaped by music, resilience and a deep sense of purpose. At just 10 years old, Cristian started worki...
Biography | The Story of Steve Klein
Today's special biography episode with legendary guitar maker, Steve Klein, was filmed live on location in Northern California.Steve's story begins in San Francisco in 1949. It's a story shaped by Austrian immigrants who were ski instru...
Biography | The Story of Ervin Somogyi
Today's special biography episode with legendary guitar maker, Ervin Somogyi, was filmed live at a location in Northern California. Ervin's tour begins in Budapest during the Second World War. The son of parents whose lives had been shaped by c...
Tom Anderson & Markus Spohn | Passing the Torch at Anderson Guitarworks
This episode is filmed live on location at Anderson Guitarworks in Southern California, where I sat down with the company's co-owners Tom Anderson and Markus Spohn.Now, in their fifth decade, Tom Anderson Guitarworks has earned one of t...
David Sutkin | What 350 Basses Taught Me About Craft, Collecting & the World's Best Luthiers
This episode was filmed live on location in Tuscany, where we sat down with David Sutkin, founder of Bass UpFront. A global community of more than 36.000 bass players, builders, collectors, people who care deeply about the instrument.Da...
Biography | The Story of Sheldon Dingwall
This episode was filmed live on location in Tuscany, where I sat down with revolutionary guitar maker Sheldon Dingwall to document his biography. He'll be the first to tell you that he didn't invent the multiscale concept, but he r...
50 Years of EMG | Rob Turner on Metallica, Active Pickups & the Black Box
Today's episode was filmed on location in Northern California at the headquarters of EMG. Our guest is Rob Turner, founder of EMG pickups, a company that helped change the sound, function, and possibility to the electric guitar, becoming synony...
Biography | The Story of Tom Anderson
Today's special biography episode was filmed on location at Tom Anderson Guitarworks in Southern California, with a man whose life's work is so interwoven into the modern history of guitar that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the tre...
The Obsession Behind 2-Rock | Eli Lester
My guest today is Eli Lester, owner and CEO of Two-Rock Amplifiers and Divided by Thirteen. Eli is someone deeply obsessed with sound, craftsmanship, history, and the idea that the smallest details still matter. From vintage gear a...
Biography | The Story of James Trussart
In this episode, I'm sitting down with legendary guitar maker James Trussart in his workshop located in Echo Park, California. From growing up on a French horse farm near the border of Luxembourg to discovering American music through nearby air...
The New Music Industry | Linnea Sundberg
In this episode, I’m joined by Linnea Sundberg who's joining us from Brooklyn, where she’s working at the intersection of music, technology, and the evolving artist economy. From her early days in Sweden to Oxford, to investment ba...
The Guitar as Art, Not Just a Tool | Michihiro Matsuda
Today, Michihiro Matsuda returns to the podcast. It feels less like a continuation and more like stepping back into an ongoing conversation that never really ended.When you walk into Michi’s workshop, you don’t just see guitars, you see...
Should Musicians Be Worried About AI? | Sourabh Pateriya
Welcome to Life With Strings Attached, I’m your host, Jamie Gale. In this episode, we’re stepping into a space that is, depending on who you ask, either full of possibility… or full of uncertainty. My guest today is Sourabh Pateriy...
The Man Who Redesigned the Guitar | Steve Klein
Today’s conversation takes place in the workshop of Steve Klein. Someone who, for more than half a century, hasn’t just built guitars, but has continuously rethought what the instrument could be.This isn’t a conversation about legacy. I...
The Lesson Every Maker Needs to Hear | Ervin Somogyi
Welcome to Life With Strings Attached, I’m your host Jamie Gale.There are certain figures in guitar making whose influence runs so deep, it begins to shape not just instruments, but the way we think about them. Ervin Somogyi is one of those...
The Role of the Artisan in the Age of AI | Grit Laskin | LWSA Ep 100
Welcome to the 100th episode of Life With Strings Attached. There are certain conversations that stay with you. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, they’re the ones you get to return to. For this milestone episode, it felt right to come back to whe...
Experience Filters w/ Neural DSP, Fishman, D'Addario & Two Rock | Live Panel Discussion
Welcome to Life with Strings Attached. Today's episode is recorded live in Anaheim, California at The NAMM Show as part of the 125th anniversary of NAMM within the 10th annual Boutique Guitar Showcase. As part of these special anni...
Verso Instrument's New "LOG" Lapsteel and Creativity through Play
In this episode, Robin Stummvoll returns to the podcast to talk about the release of Verso Instruments’ latest design and the broader ideas that continue to shape his work.Robin is a designer and luthier whose work consistently challeng...