.. Hey There folks, I'm Steve Salvi, and welcome to my myspace.
For over 25 years I've been a passionate advocate of the guitar, it's players and it's music.
There is nothing I love more than to be around guitars and guitar players. I feel privileged to be where I am today and am looking forward to meeting you and many more players in the years to come.
I started playing music at an early age, and took up the guitar at age 12. I loved the music of Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges as well as many others, and ended up with a plethora of open tunings and finger style techniques that I still use today.At 14 I discovered Hendrix, Zeppelin, Van Halen, John McLaughlin, Howlin Wolf, Mike Stern, and Joe Pass and Al Di Meola amongst many others.Studying all of these guys passionately for years, has I believe, given me a broad horizon by which to see and play the instruments I now find myself building.
I attended my first instrument building class at the age of 17, with the late and great Peter Kempster here in South Australia, and spent years dabbling with building and repairs whilst playing in bands and doing solo performances here in Adelaide.
In 1992 I went to London and worked in Denmark Street, London at a premier acoustic dealership, doing sales and repairs and within 4 months was managing the whole shop. While there, I got to play, and work on, literally hundreds of premium brand guitars, like Martin, Lowden and Santa Cruz as well as many custom built instruments.It wasn't just the guitars I found compelling whilst in London. The players I met, jammed, hung out, with and learned from, whether famous, amateur or introspective, was a life altering experience. All of this experience has helped me understand what I, and others, need out of a guitar.
I came back to Adelaide in 1997 and started working in a very large specialist guitar dealership doing sales and repairs.In 2000 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship for guitar building and went to the US for a few months where I attended a contemporary guitar building course with Charles Fox, guitar builder and Jig master extraordinaire, and then traversed the countryside seeking out fellow builders and major factories alike, to exchange ideas and learn new techniques to add to my guitar building expertise before coming home and starting my own shop.
Right now I'm enjoying building and playing regularly. I'm proud to say that I can call some of South Australia's Premier builders and players my Mentors and close friends. I learn from them everyday, and I have learnt one thing for sure, if you don't know what a truly great guitar is, or sounds like, then you can't make one. The dream must be dreamt before it can become a reality.
My hope is to live a long and fruitful life improving my guitars, my playing and making new friends. Drop me a line if you like, I try to answer as many emails as I can.
Dream Peace.
Steve Salvi.
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