ABOVE: Most of my builds, in no particular order. There are a few missing here, but I’m currently constructing numbers 59-61!
Colin Warling: As a Luthier
Welcome to my website, I’m a luthier and multi-musician originally from Los Angeles. I primarily design and create electric guitars, basses, and other less-available oddities while constantly testing the boundaries of ‘industry specs.’ I frequently bend the rules of scale/string lengths, and body thickness/weight.
Prior to attending Roberto-Venn School of Luthierie in 2008, I constructed six instruments: two rudimentary electric-ukuleles, two electric-basses, and two electric guitars - steadily improving with each build. I have been constructing musical instruments consistently for 25 years. Those that I now create are professional grade and one-of-a-kind. I never build the same instrument twice. I’ve also been privileged to improve my skills while serving a long list of well-known clientele (see my Stories page).
Although I will continue constructing and improving my line of fretted/stringed instruments, I’m presently quite busy learning the ins and outs of building, repairing, and tuning pipe organs as the service manager for Bond Organ Builders, Inc. in Portland, OR. We are one of the only remaining pipe organ firms in the region, and I’ve gotten to help tune and repair hundreds of pipe organs across the greater Pacific Northwest, additionally having the privilege to tune organs for the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival. I will likely have a page of my pipe organ exploits up soon!
There is a great deal more to explore via the menu in the upper right corner, and thank you for taking the time to visit my website!
-Colin Warling
‘My Back Pages' - Establishing Experience
With a trade certificate from Roberto-Venn School of Luthierie in Arizona, I returned home to Los Angeles in mid-2008, quickly landing a repairman job at the fabled Westwood Music, working for the legendary Fred Walecki. Due to the economic recession striking that September, my employment lasted less than a year. I found supplementary work briefly as the repair-luthier for the Blueridge Pickin’ Parlor in Granada Hills (CA), and additionally as an apprentice to archtop luthier, Jim Ellsberry in Lomita (CA). There, I helped build production-level archtop guitars, as well as design and construct the jigs required by our processes.
In March 2010, Roland Belloir, a French music-lover and entrepreneur hired me to help build-out and open an acoustic guitar shop in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Together, we opened The Fretted Frog in June of 2010 at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Alvarado Street. I designed and constructed the service bench, a stage, lesson rooms, storage space, and several mobile guitar fixtures, thereafter employed as the luthier of the shop. In 2014, Roland and I closed and transported the entire shop and stock to a new location in Pasadena. Together, we constructed the interior and opened the new location, growing the stock to over 200 stringed instruments. During my eight years as the primary repairman for the Fretted Frog, I diagnosed and completed nearly eight-thousand ticketed repairs to both acoustic and electric stringed-instruments of all cultural variety, focusing my abilities as an inventor, and fabricator. These skills contributed to the quality of the instruments that I continue to design and build. Additionally, G&G Quality Case Co. has supplied me with custom fitted cases that have complimented and added to the beauty and value of my builds!
In August of 2017, my partner, Amanda and I relocated to Portland, Oregon. Within six months, we opened a guitar shop in the Southeast called Taborella Music, offering handmade instruments by local luthiers, including my own. Just as things were beginning to flourish, the pandemic interminably labeled our business ‘nonessential,’ so with regret, we promptly closed the shop. Rather than wait out the pandemic, I swiftly enrolled at Portland State University, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in History in spring 2022.
Exhibiting at the Rose Quarter Guitar Show, 2022
Workshop shots through the years
