Cutline: For more than fifteen years John Longbow (Choctaw/Chickasaw), the founder of Longbow Guitars, has been at the forefront of crafting high quality guitars that you're not going see anywhere else.
KISS MY AX: An interview with John Longbow
By Brian Lush
RockWired Magazine Founder/Editor For more than fifteen years John Longbow (Choctaw/Chickasaw), the founder of Longbow Guitars, has been at the forefront of crafting high quality guitars that you're not going see anywhere else. When you get a Longbow Guitar you get something handcrafted and original. What you're not going to get is some assembly line Stratocaster knock off with a bunch of Chinese instructions. This is all American made as well as Native American made and you don't get more American than that. Currently Longbow is working on an artist series of guitars which will not only showcase his one of a kind handiwork but also the works of American Indian artists such as Marla Allison, Ryan Singer, Ryan Williams and Bruce King. ET: What inspired you to start Longbow Guitars? I've interviewed enough people who have picked up a guitar and that was it. But you're getting into designing and putting guitars together. What brought that about? LB: My mom and dad didn't want to buy one for me. My dad was a construction guy in the beginning. So I just hung around with him and we did the construction stuff so I decided to pick all of these things up so I made a funky little tranjo. It was more like a banjo and the frets were basically Elmer's Glue and I just took and made lines. It was a horrific mess but I did it and that was what really started me doing it. I was an adopted kid and my dad was the one that got me in the shop so to speak. That is where I started putting stuff together. I had the typical California lifestyle growing up. I was in band all throughout high school. I played woodwind and brass and all of that. After high school I got into drum corps and I marched for two drum corps. One was a world champion drum corps that I aged out of and then I went to college and took up Manufacturing with my minor in Music. Later I did an internship at Santa Cruz Guitars since I went to UCSC in Santa Cruz. At that time I was going back and forth from Fresno to Santa Cruz. After UCSC I went to the Roberto Venn School of Luthiery for guitar building and instrument making. Any type of stringed instrument-making is called Luthiery. It was a basic course in structure that lasted for about a year and now it goes on for six months. I took that class to develop the mechanics of it. That was when I developed my design. That was also where I got more validity to what my problems with some of these instruments that you get off of the shelf that are all copies. From there I started building my own stuff but at Roberto Venn I had no idea what to do in terms of design. On a final piece they gave me a telecaster design and I changed that out but after that I started developing my own style of instrument. At that point I was in a band that was doing pretty good and we were opening up for a lot of major people. We were a working band and working bands get paid and that was what I was looking for. That was what I did. We got paid and went on with it. At the same time I was in the middle of developing this guitar and I would take it out on the road with me. I've had people such as Tony Bellemy of Redbone who has played Longbow Guitars. Marty Stuart has played them and Mark Nadjiwan up in Canada is still a major endorser for me. I just pushed these instruments out. I came to Albuquerque in 1996 because I was doing a bunch of business. It's not like it is now. I did a bunch of business out here so I decided to move the business out here to give Native bands and bands that actually had some kind of longevity with what they were doing and getting them endorsements. That worked out for a little bit but in the end it didn't really work out because their business applications and how they did things verses the way I do things wasn't compatible. So I started doing business in Canada and based everything out of there. I don't sell any of my instruments out of here anymore. I like to get my price. Business has just worked out better in Canada than in Albuquerque or any of the reservations around here. They are more appreciative in Canada. ET: I've noticed that too in covering contemporary First Nations and Indian artists. Canada looks like it's got their stuff together. LB: They've had their stuff together since 2001 when it comes to the music. It has to do with a lot of people up there who know their treaties and their rights and that goes beyond music and all of that. Up there, they make a stand whereas out here all of that Spanish Colonialism takes all of that away. Up there they are more in your face and business oriented and they want to do business. They have corporations and you go up to the CN Tower and there is a skin up there who is a CEO. There is no difference here or there in terms of who a person is but there are obstacles that need to be knocked down and up there they have. They have the same problems as we have down here but when it comes to business they are way over our heads. You say you've noticed that with the music scene? For the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards I made an instrument for them and up until 2008 still had TV ads going on because of them. You cannot get that here. I'm gonna throw out names. You cannot go onto Koahnic Broadcasting and do anything like that. It's only going to be on at a certain time of day. You go up to Canada you can go on to any mainstream outlet and there it is. The music area right now is bland. There is nothing going on because the common denominator with that is everybody is screwing each other and that is why there is nothing going on down here. That was why I took my stuff up there in Canada and it's just been really lucrative. I'm just really surprised by what a difference five hundred miles makes and what it does. Tecumseh was famous for saying "Don't grovel to anybody. Stand your ground!" and that is what lacks here in the United States. ET: So Longbow Guitars makes basses as well. What other instruments do you guys make? LB: My specialty is hollow body electrics. There is the Cheyenne series of guitars which are hollow bodies. There are five string and four string basses that we make that I play. I have made a few banjos. I have also built some violins as well. Right now I want to get into building a pedal steel guitar. I know I can build one. It's something of a pipe dream. Right now I'm doing an artist series which encompasses hollow body and solid body basses and guitars. What I'm doing is taking paintings by Marla Allison, Ryan Singer, Ryan Williams and Bruce King. I'm also limiting my designs because I have like five different styles. So I'm taking it down to two bass styles, two hollow body styles, and two solid body styles just to condense the line down and give it more equity. ET: Your Artist series sounds amazing. Do you have any retailers that are interested? How is this thing going to work? LB: I have a publicist named Billy Myers and he is the curator for the Smith College Museum. I've been working with him for two and a half years now. He's been promoting my artwork and he has also been helping promote the guitars. There are markets for guitar collectors and at the same time there is some new playable art stuff that is coming out of these Ivy League Schools that are having art sales and what not. So I am trying to get on the tails of that and taking it to people that actually buy high end art. They can either play it or leave it on the wall to display. There are specific retailers that I'll be working with but there is no one here in Albuquerque that is worth it. I had four music stores at one time that I worked with. This was when they had a lot of music stores here. But I just pulled them because they weren't doing what they said they were going to do. That is what I do. I'm just as accountable as you so if you're not doing what you said you were going to do I pull the product. I'm looking out for my interest. I don't want to end up taking these people to court which is an endless thing that I've done. These guys will say things like "well, we don't do that out here!" and I'm like "Well I do so just deal with it" That is what we're doing with the artist series. And it keeps me from having to build so many instruments. I've been building since 1984 and I've built over nineteen-hundred guitars myself. ET: Where do you see Longbow Guitars in five years? LB: That's hard for me to say because I've hit my bucket list so many times. Even with this new artist series I'm not looking to be a rich millionaire like a lot of people expect. I'm looking at this thing historically. There still aren't any other Natives building instruments. I would like for people to look at this business and say that they got their inspiration from LongBow Guitars. (Brian Lush can be reached at djlush@rockwired.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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