For this month's installment in my luthier feature series I was lucky enough to interview Rob Allen of Rob Allen Guitars. I have personally been a big fan of his MB-2 models for quite some time. I am very excited to present the interview here for you to check out.
John: How did you get into the luthier business and how long have you been doing it?
Rob: I've formed Rob Allen Guitars in 1997. I had built some 6 string guitars back when I was about 17 or 18 purely for my own enjoyment, and then stopped all building for quite some time( 17 yrs.?) as I pursued my music career full time. After working my way up the food chain so to speak, I had reached some reasonable success doing sessions, touring, and finally getting signed to my own record contract (as a guitarist). In the end, I felt like I had lost the very thing I started for: having fun making great sounds. It ended up that I was just under a lot of pressure to make a success of it all, so I decided to quit the business. At that point I was wondering how I might keep myself from having to get a job and I started making some 6 string guitars that I gave to my friend in Switzerland to sell for me. At the time original pieces weren't excepted too well here in the guitar market, so I thought it would be easier to sell them abroad, and this turned out to be true. At the same time, I would have conversations with my good friend and bass player Mark Browne. We would talk about the features that he was looking for in a bass and brainstorm the topic, mostly just for fun. Then one day his wife called me and commissioned a bass for him as a surprise present, so that was the first mb-2. With the exception of the addition of the volume knob, the design is completely unchanged. I delivered the bass to Mark on the night of a party he was having (mostly all musicians) and took a couple of orders that night from people who wanted one like it, and that pretty much started the bass business.
John: So, you are you a player yourself, as well as builder? Do players generally make good builders, or what, if anything is the connection between building and playing?
Rob: I've been obsessed with sounds/tone/recording techniques since I can
remember and I think this plays a very important part in making instruments. If you aren't really tuned in to the sounds and understand how they are produced it will be
difficult to make exceptional sounding instruments, because basically you will be
relying on someone else's ears. Obviously this isn't always the case (Leo Fender for
example, but he was surrounded by musicians that he called upon) but I think when
you approach instrument making from too technical a standpoint you're only getting
equations.
John: Where and how did you acquire the necessary luthier skills?
Rob: I'm primarily self taught, although I grew up in an environment where my dad had a
nice shop and was always making things, so that played an important role. I worked as an assistant to Seymour Duncan (the man himself) in the early days of the company ('80-83) so that was a big influence. Seymour is an amazing musician and showed me a lot of the finer points of good tone that I may have been oblivious to had I not worked for him. In those early days, the SD factory was a hot bed of creativity.
John: In my opinion at least, the MB2 has become a modern classic. How did you choose the direction you wanted to go with your instruments, as opposed to building say, a normal fretted bass like so many other builders?
Rob: I like to do things that are as un-mainstream as possible, while still being interesting and valid. The things I like in all instruments are basically the same, clean minimal design, good warm tone, no bells and whistles. I think it's to make things that you really like yourself, not just to please others. If the product is good it will resonate with people.
John: You are obviously not the first bass maker to attempt to capture the tone of the upright bass, yet I believe that you've come much closer to actually doing it than most of the others. What factors have contributed to your success in reproducing an unbelievably accurate representation of the upright bass sound?
Rob: I think the main thing is not trying to create too much acoustic volume. You really
can't make a chamber big enough to get the needed volume, but you get all the problems - feedback, lack of fundamental, poor sustain etc…I think the best way approach it is to try to make the most "acoustic" tone, and then amplify it. For example, a solid center block in a semi hollow body really helps the fundamental and the attack/punch of the string, but it reduces acoustic volume. Having the woods and wood combinations is everything, too. But to be honest, I haven't really studied any of this in a technical sense, it's more like intuition and experimentation.
John: How do you feel about the success of your instruments, especially the MB2?
Rob: I'm very happy with the acceptance of the bass and feel I've made a contribution
of some sort, even if it is pretty small
John: How many people are employed at Rob Allen Guitars?
Rob: Myself, plus 2-3 workers depending on the work load
John: What are their backgrounds and/or areas of expertise? What types of people with what skills would you want hire?
Rob: Experience has taught me to look for two types of people: ones with good technical skills (using tools, logic, problem solving etc..) and artistic people (sanding shapes, creative thinking, etc.). I have had people with an art background come to work for me with no woodworking experience at all who could sand a body almost perfectly with very little training, and I've had experienced woodworkers who couldn't get it right after considerable training. I chalk this up to the way people see things and how they interpret shapes, how visual they are etc…The key is finding what a person is good at and then putting them in a position where they can do that sort of work. As it has turned out I always end up with very interesting workers- usually people who are unique, philosophical thinkers ( I know this may sound strange, but that seems to be what I attract. It's almost like they come to me, I have never advertised)
John: Do you get much feedback from customers and how does that affect future instruments and/or changes to existing instruments?
Rob: I'm always open to feedback, usually people just email how much they like their basses. I do a lot of custom work too, when people call about doing something totally original. I try to stay open and sometimes really good ideas will come from a collaboration with a customer.
John: So you will do custom orders then? How custom can/will you go with an
instrument, or is it limited pretty much to the options listed on the web site.
Rob: It's wide open. The new site will feature a section on custom basses. For example
I recently made an 8 string bass that was four strings fretless and four strings fretted, all on the same neck. It has different woods for each fingerboard giving it a nic visuall. The bass has two outputs (one for each set of strings) and a 27" scale.
John: Any future plans for Rob Allen Guitars that you'd want to share at this time?
Rob: I will shortly introduce a fretted magnetic pickup bass and then some guitar models as well
John: Anything else that I've missed touching on here?
Rob: I think that's good for now. Thanks for the opportunity, sorry it took me so long to respond, I've been super busy!
