Corey Keller - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Art guy turned video game artist turned apprentice luthier and occasional web entrepreneur...it's been a long journey back to the things I wanted so much to do when I was younger.

I'm married to a fabulous woman, and have three great stepkids. My dog is very short, yet somehow quite large.

After years in the commercial art and graphics world, including 8 years in the video game industry, I decided to pursue my youthful dream and become a luthier. Luckily, I was able to apprentice under the hilarious and wildly talented Cat Fox at Sound Guitar Repair in Seattle, WA for a few years.

Since relocating to Santa Cruz CA, I have opened the Friedrich Heights Guitar Co., and am working on a line of acoustic guitars.

At the moment, I also do repair and setup work on most kinds of stringed instruments. (For it doth pay the bills sometimes, yea, verily.) I count myself lucky to have befriended some of the finest luthiers working today, and to have developed a good working relationship with some wonderful clients

I play guitar in three or four styles, and sometimes bass.

I also play highland bagpipes, but can usually be induced to stop by either loud screaming, or a sizeable bribe.

My Interests

Um, guitars? Naaaaahhhhhh.....

I like playing them, hearing them, fixing them, building them.

Also:

craftsman design

art nouveau design

moderne and art deco design

Drawing and painting

good food

Coffee-mmm, coffee

Did I mention my wife?

My amazing old hound, Friedrich

two sassy cats, Pebbles and Tweaker

I'd like to meet:

All my heroes, and some of yours, too.

Music:

Yes, please!

I'm big on Neko Case, Heartless Bastards, Booker T & The MGs, John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Bukka White, Pierre Bensusan, Michael Hedges, Richard Thompson, Muriel Anderson, Danny Thompson, Bert Jansch, Buddy & Julie Miller, David Lindley, Redd Volkaert, Bill Kirchen, Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf, Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, The Cheap Suit Serenaders, Gene Vincent, Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell, Calexico, Mississippi John Hurt, Scary 80s Punk, Pipe Major Donald Shaw Ramsay, PM Alistair Gillies, Jaco Pastorius, Modern Jazz Quartet, Bola Sete, Vince Guaraldi, Marian McPartland, George Cables, Oscar Peterson, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Jim Hall, lots of the usual 60s stuff that everybody my age seems to default to, and basically any jazz, blues, roots-rock, rockabilly, country, or folk played with balls, heart and commitment. (though good chops sure help!)And of course folks like Yo-Yo Ma, Pablo Casals, Rubenstein, etc. They make the celestial palpable.

Movies:

The Producers (original), Mystery Men, most of the Coen Brothers films, Black & White In Color, Casablanca, The Princess Bride, City Of Lost Children, Most Hitchcock films, all the Pythons movies, most any pirate or sea adventure movie, except the really really bad ones... Pan's Labyrinth was a recent favorite.

Television:

Deadwood-was there ever any other show?

Books:

3 books a week, that's all we ask. Everything from the Decameron to the National Electric Code.Favorite authors include George Macdonald Fraser, Robertson Davies, Brooks Hanson, Oriana Fallaci, Albert Camus, Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins.

Heroes:

the great luthiers, fabulous artists, honest politicians (now that's a short list), my dad and mom, my wife and kids.