Podcast 292: Luthier Sherwood Phifer

As a kid, guitarmaker Sherwood "Woody" Phifer would tinker with
everything, from model airplanes to his high school track shoes.
"I would look at something and I'd be redesigning it as I was
looking at it," he says. Eventually, he was taking guitars apart,
which led to him building his own instrument and stumbling upon
Charles LoBue's Guitar Lab in 1970. Within a couple of visits to
that influential NYC shop, he found his passion for lutherie and
his life's calling. During this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast,
Phifer tells us about that fateful trip to Guitar Lab (a shop
that employed soon-to-be-legendary employees Larry DiMarzio,
Charles LoBue, Ralph Novak and Steve Kauffman), walks us through
some of his thoroughly original creations (including his archtop
guitars, his chambered-body electrics, his unique bridge system
and more), and describes what it's like to be one of the only
Black guitarmakers in the country.


https://www.phiferguitars.com
https://www.fretboardjournal.com