Just Jazz Guitar Q&A with Luthier Bill Moll

Luthier Bill Moll

Over the years, Just Jazz Guitar has published several great interviews with many of the archtop guitar luthiers featured on FineArchtops.com. In August 2003, luthier Bill Moll was interviewed by the magazine, and talked about his early days building archtop guitars and his building technique at the time of the interview.

Here are some quotes from the five-page feature.

On the state of the guitar-building business at that time:

It’s always been my philosophy that you have to keep guitars in an affordable range. While many guitar prices have gotten astronomical, I can’t help but think that value has kept us thriving. I’ve noticed now that Guild has come out with a new model in a lower price range, (Jim) Triggs has come out with one, and (John) Buscarino came out with a laminated model in this range a while ago. It seems like everyone is realizing that we need to back up here and answer the call from the marketplace. It really had to happen, it was just a matter of time.

On differentiating himself from other luthiers:

Well, there’s value, track record and reputation, but our most frequent complement is on our sound. Right now, we are truly in the golden age of lutherie. There are more good makers than ever before. In fact, at least year’s New York show, I looked at the roster and about 75% of the names were unfamiliar to me. Higher-priced builders now have to compete with these makers who are building outstanding guitars and extremely high prices get more difficult to justify. Many of these new folks will have a tough time building recognition in the crowd, but there are several who will be contenders for many years to come.

On laminate vs solid-carved guitars:

I cut my teeth hand-carving violins and bows, so I never wanted to work with “plywood.” It wasn’t until I was approached to build a guitar for John (Pizzarelli) that I even considered it. John is all over the world and really has to have the climatic stability of laminated plates. Solid carved plates give me the ability to “sculpt” an instrument’s sound – to voice and tune the instrument, but the laminates sound a lot better acoustically than I thought they would at first. They also make it possible to build in a price range that people can more easily afford.