Art Chowder July | August 2018, Issue 16 | Page 42

GUITARS For The Stars From Lynn Ellsworth - Handcrafted in Spokane By Janis V. Bers T here are Gibsons and there are Fenders, along with Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Guild and Gretsch guitars, to name just a few. But for the truly discerning guitar players who demand nothing but the very finest and most precise hand crafted custom instruments, the name Lynn Ellsworth stands out right at the top of their wish list! Indeed the very title of this article, Guitars For The Stars, isn’t just a catchy headline. Iconic national and international guitar superstars including Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards all proudly own and play at least one Lynn Ellsworth original handcrafted guitar. There are actually so many more artists demanding Lynn’s unique instruments that if I continued naming them I’d fill up this complete article with nothing more than a massive list of names! Instead, I’m throwing the spotlight directly onto this remarkable master craftsman, or luthier, to give him his rightful title. And coincidentally this story is particularly apropos to Art Chowder, because Lynn Ellsworth creates his guitar masterpieces in Spokane, Washington, the very same city in which this magazine is published. Serendipitous would be a fair and accurate adjective to describe Lynn Ellsworth’s entry into and development of his fascinating career. His first “fortunate accident” came about as a result of playing guitar in a teen pop group alongside his school buddy, a young Wayne Charvel, who later would become a successful guitar manufacturer in his own right (Charvel/Jackson guitars.) Wayne would often ask to use Lynn’s father’s workshop to paint his guitars, and perhaps it was then that a tiny spark of inspiration ignited Lynn’s imagination. 42 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE Years later, after Lynn had returned from a missionary tour of Germany and had aspirations of becoming a doctor, he contacted Wayne Charvel’s mother to find out what his friend was doing at that time. She told him that Wayne was working as a freelance contractor for the Fender guitar company and was responsible for the refinishing work on their guitars. Knowing that Lynn had developed a fondness for working with wood and was honing his skills by replicating items of antique furniture, Wayne asked him to craft a copy of Fender’s famous “Stratocaster” design.