Meet Danny Shoemaker | Owner/Luthier/Plek Operator/Setup Class Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danny Shoemaker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danny, what do you attribute your success to?
I would say that’s a multifaceted answer: I feel that a lot of people’s success has to do with a combination of 4 things: luck, timing, location, and a consistency of hard work. My success has certainly been a combination of those things, in addition to having a great team. My team has been a proponent of living in Austin for 17 years and starting to hire more repairmen starting in 2010. Collings Guitars in Austin (Dripping Springs) makes some of the very best instruments in the world, and many of my top employees have worked there at some point in their career. Another huge part of my success comes with a German made CNC machine used for manufacturing guitars like Gibson, Martin, Collings, and many others worldwide. This specialized machine allows for even greater accuracy than handwork, and is only available to the public at 30 shops around the country. I had the first machine available to the public in Texas back in 2016, and now we’ve expanded into Houston with a second Plek machine, the first repair shop in the country to expand to a second city with a second Plek.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My DNA as a luthier is really a culmination of many parts of my past: from detailing cars as a teenager allowing me to understand buffing, how to clean minute little parts and pieces, and running my own business as an 18 year old, to getting a master’s degree in classical guitar which allows me to have heightened awareness of how the strings are put into motion, along with a more keen sense of hearing. I have also had the opportunity to tune pianos at one point in my life, which certainly was applied to the classical guitars me and my collegiate friends were playing at the time. From my humble little liberal arts college in my home town, I went to graduate school at Florida State where there was such a huge guitar program the professor had seven teaching assistants! That’s completely unheard of and it gave me an opportunity to work on even more instruments in addition to making relationships that continued to feed me work after college in Atlanta for a decade.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m still living in Austin, so this question might not be the best for me to answer, but some of my favorite places to go with my wife are Empire Cafe and Pizaro’s Pizza. We’re still exploring what this city has to offer, so I’d be interested in seeing other answers to this question!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have many people I could shout out to for my success, but one of the top people would be the late great Bill Collings. Bill was instrumental in influencing me to take the plunge with the investment of a Plek machine by allowing me to refret one of my personal guitars and having them finish the job of milling the frets and cutting nut slots using their machine. This first hand experience with how the technology works and being able to feel the difference in playability with an instrument that I knew quite well had me hook, line, and sinker.

Website: https://straightfrets.com/

Email: straightfrets@gmail.com

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