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.
He was a student of luthier Richard Schneider, 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
Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 United S ...
, Indiana.
Wechter builds many guitars with his Pathmaker design, an acoustic guitar with a double cutaway. Some of his guitars have
drone strings 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
Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; 'energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability') in Hinduism, is the "Universal Power" that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti refer ...
. The Shakti guitar is a customized
Gibson J-200 with drone strings transversely across the soundhole. He also made him a guitar with scalloped fingerboards.
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
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
,
Al Di Meola
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his work in jazz fusion and world music, his breakthrough came after joining Chick Corea's Return to Forever group in 1974. He launched, from 1976 afterwards, a s ...
,
Jonas Hellborg
Jonas Hellborg (born 7 June 1958) is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Anders Johansson, Ginger Baker, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaga ...
,
Steve Howe
Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, London, Holloway, North London, Howe d ...
,
Earl Klugh
Earl Klugh ( ; born September 16, 1953) is an American acoustic guitarist and composer. He has won one Grammy Award and received 13 nominations.
Biography
At the age of six, Klugh commenced training on the piano until he switched to the guitar ...
,
, and
Roman Miroshnichenko.
References
External links
Official websiteInterview with Wechter on his official YouTube channelInterview with Wechter at the NAMM Oral History Library (2017)
Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States
People from Paw Paw, Michigan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
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