Harry Fleishman has been building custom guitars for more than 35 years. In his Sebastopol, California shop he builds about eight guitars and acoustic basses each year. Fleishman guitars are each unique works of art, finely crafted for superb tone, aesthetics, and playability. Harry is the director and primary instructor at Luthiers School International, and formerly directed the American School of Lutherie. Harry also designs guitars and basses for Fender Musical Instrument Corp. As an active member of the Guild of American Luthiers, Harry has lectured on acoustic guitar amplification and chaired a panel on unconventional acoustic guitar design. He has lectured internationally on the topics of guitar design, amplification, acoustics, and multi-scale fretboards. Harry's research and experiments in asymmetric design, multi-soundport and multi-tonewood instruments, as well as his work developing lightweight basses, have influenced many builders. Harry is a former Revell model car contest winner and has built for George Holmes of the Inkspots.
Bio #2, a bit more info. From a very early age Harry was inspired and obsessed with music and art, if you can call surf music music, and model cars art. He loved fixing things, even when it meant breaking them first. By the time he was 14, he was playing in bands and doing some recording as a backup guitarist for singers. Through the sixties, Harry played with the Mugwumps and later with the Drifters, the Soul Brothers and other soul bands. For a while during the late ‘60s he was an in-house songwriter for Criterion Music Co. in Hollywood. After threatening to punch a producer (for intimidating a singer who was recording one of his songs), which he obviously was too big a wimp to actually do, he was fired and Jackson Browne took his place. Really. Think of it--Jackson Browne. Harry started building his first instrument when he was fourteen, but built his first legitimate instrument, an electric upright bass for bowing, in 1969. In the late Seventies he lied his way into Thinking Plague as keyboard player. During this tenure he built an ultralight, minimalist bass for Bob Drake. This bass morphed into the BASSIC IV, a right-hand tuning bass weighing five pounds. By the mid-seventies he was focusing much of his energy on acoustic guitars and electric basses. Over the next couple of decades he developed the voice of his guitars and began experimenting with new shapes, multi-wood tops, multiple soundholes, asymmetry, and unusual bracings to further refine the unique voice for which he was aiming. The aesthetic elements fell into place as a means of interacting more playfully with the instrument visually, but the quality of the voice was always most important. George Holmes of the Inkspots plays both fretted and fretless Bassic-IV basses. Dave Pomeroy, a Nashville bassist on more Grammies than you can imagine, has played one of Harry's EUBs for about 25 years. Other people, notable and merely worthy, also play the over 340 instruments from Harry's shop. In addition to building custom instruments, he designs for several companies, notably Fender Musical Instrument Corp, and spends about half of his time teaching guitarmaking and directing the Luthiers School International in Sebastapol, California. He is currently writing a book on advanced guitar making theories and techniques for luthiers, players, and collectors, and trying to find a second verse for one of his songs.
Bio #3, a self-serving plea for love and money I hope that the main reason you are reading all this is that you are interested in my work over the last 4 decades. I have tried in the over 340 instruments I've made to contribute something of value and fun, even humor, to the lutherie world. It is ultimately the music played on these instruments and the pleasure they bring that will be my legacy. I have been influenced by many other luthiers, and have influenced some myself. If you are interested in ordering a guitar or attending a class in lutherie, please don't hesitate to contact me. Building guitars is fun, interesting, and poorly paid. Keep your day job, but learn to build guitars. Playing guitar is probably the best thing you could do to improve your life. Playing it on one of my guitars is probably the best thing you could do to improve mine.
Fleishman Instruments 1533 Welter Ct. Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA guitars@sbcglobal.net 707-823-3537