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.
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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.