ABOVE: Most of my builds, in no particular order. There are a few missing here, but I’m currently constructing numbers 55-58!
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 24 years. Those that I create are professional grade and one-of-a-kind. I never build the same instrument twice. I’ve also served a long list of well-known clientele, located on my 'Stories’ page.
ShoutOut LA Nov. 2023 write-up
Although I will continue building and improving my line of fretted/stringed instruments, I’m currently learning to build, repair, and tune pipe organs as the service manager for Bond Organ Builders, Inc. in Portland, OR. The experience has already taken me through 50+ pipe organs, and additionally allowed me to tune organs for both the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival.
You can tour the stringed-instruments I’ve constructed via the upper right menu, or you can purchase my instruments directly via ebay.
-Colin Warling
How I grew as a Luthier
With a trade certificate in Luthierie from Roberto-Venn in Arizona, I returned home to Los Angeles quickly landing a repairman job at the fabled Westwood Music, and working for the legendary Fred Walecki. Due to the economic recession of late 2008, my employment lasted less than a year. I found supplementary work briefly as the luthier for the Blueridge Pickin’ Parlor in Granada Hills (CA), and additionally as an apprentice to 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 repair 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 constructing the interior, opening the new location, and growing the stock to over 160 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 have 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 the 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.
more pics and videos on Instagram
Exhibiting at the Rose Quarter Guitar Show, 2022
Workshop shots through the years
