Mike Lipe is a literal one-man manufacturing operation for hand-made guitars. He works out of his garage at his east San Fernando Valley home as well as in a space in a former orange packing plant in Fillmore. He makes the high-end Signature series guitars and the less-expensive Pro series. He uses wood from swamp ash and alder for the bodies and maple for the necks. Owner Lipe Guitars USA Tujunga/Fillmore Why is Los Angeles a good place for making guitars? It’s Hollywood and the recording background. When I started, it was the place. In the Hollywood area you had Whiskey A Go Go, the Sunset Strip and a lot of studios. It was the place for all the rock stars. What makes your guitars unique? They are all handmade. I started in 1976 and I have a lot of knowledge of what the player likes and how to give them what they want. I use the best quality wood and have some little unique things in my guitars. What is the price? $2,895, that is my Signature series. There are a couple of upgrades that can make them go up a couple hundred bucks. Then I have a new series that I call the Pro series that is $1,950. It is not the roasted wood so it’s a little cheaper. How many guitars do you make in a year? Seventy five. It’s about five to six a month. How did you start making guitars? I got a job in a music store and took the place of a guitar repairman. I thought it was my niche and I kept going ever since. I got jobs at a couple of manufacturing companies and I worked my way up and became a master luthier (guitar maker), which is getting experience and learning the right way from instructions from higher-ups who were intelligent luthiers. You didn’t get into guitar making because you were a musician? I was a musician. I could not support myself playing five nights a week because they were not paying that well. So, I did music on the side – and I still do it – and started working in a music store because I would be around musicians and could get gigs. It would be a way to stay in the music field. How do you sell your guitars? I have had dealers and sold them that way. But sometimes the dealers slow down and you are at their mercy. So, it’s online sales basically. A lot of stuff goes on eBay and Reverb.com (an online marketplace for musical instruments) and then through my website. Who are your customers? My guitars are boutique guitars, they are quite expensive. So, I have guys that are either pros or have been around a lot and experienced a lot of different guitars. It’s kind of like having a Ford and moving up to a Porsche. It’s getting a better, more fancy, unique guitar than the basic production models in the shops. Have any big-name artists bought your guitars? When I used to work for the Ibanez custom shop I did a lot of guitars for Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, a lot of the rock players. Alex Skolnick. But with my guitars the competition of having to give them a guitar compared to the big companies is pretty hard. I don’t have that kind of money. Do people buy guitars because of the sound quality or the look? Sound quality. The look gives them the style. You’ll have a country guitar player that will play a Fender-style guitar rather than a rock guitar, like what they call the Super-Strat. That is more for the heavy metal player, rock player or fusion player. You have your semi-hollow body guitars for the jazz players or blues players. When they go out on a stage they want something that gives them a look and goes with the body style of what that genre of music is. What is the vision for your company? To survive and to expand as much as I can. But I don’t really want to get into paying the employee tax and stuff like that. Then how do you plan on expanding? Eventually maybe selling it out to somebody or have someone who wants to back it up. That is my basic idea.