Saint Blues Guitar Workshop

The roots of Saint Blues started growing in the late 1960's, when Led Zeppelin's tour brought them to Memphis. Jimmy Page walked into Mike Ladd's guitar shop, known for some of the best customization work in the country, and asked Mike Ladd and Tom Keckler to overhaul one of his guitars. When Page saw Keckler's work he asked if Tom would refurbish all of his instruments. Many other entertainers followed over the years. The shop, located across the street from Graceland, ended up building a special guitar for Elvis that was a birthday present from his dad. This one-of-a-kind guitar can be seen being played by Elvis in his "Elvis, Live in Hawaii" video. Keckler moved his repair and custom shop to Strings & Things, the legendary Memphis music store founded by Charles Lawing. In 1978, Tom left Memphis to hook up with Tom Anderson and David Schecter to launch Schecter Guitar Research in Van Nuys. In 1983 he moved back to Memphis and rejoined Charlie to build custom guitars for Strings and Things. These first generation guitars were called S&T Custom Workshop Guitars ­ and dealers were wild for the guitars but not for the name. The name was changed to Saint Blues and the brand was born. The first original prototype design for Saint Blues was the Bluesmaster. It's unique shape, vintage appearance and playability created a lot of interest from players and led to its first production in 1985. The parts for these first guitars were made by ESP in Japan and shipped to Memphis for final assembly. The list of people who played that Bluesmaster is impressive, and includes Bono on the Rattle and Hum album, Elliot Easton of the Cars, Eric Clapton, Marshall Crenshaw, Joe Walsh, Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult, Scott Page (Pink Floyd, Toto), Bily Squire, Martin Briley, Elvin Bishop, Joe Walsh and Glenn Grey of the Eagles, Dave Edmunds, Albert King, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many more. While the guitars were a critical success, the business was continually hampered by lack of capital. By 1989, with the dollar at an historic low against the Yen, Saint Blues was priced out of the market. Without the capital to keep going, they stopped production later that year. Interest in the line has never wavered, with sales of vintage St. Blues models on eBay going for record prices. In 2004, Vintage Guitar Magazine wrote several articles about these guitars with Jeff Carlisi singing its praises above all of his other guitars, creating a new demand. Based on this continued interest, its rich history, and deep Memphis music roots, a local Memphis investor, Bryan M Eagle III decided to re-launch the company. He brought Tom Keckler back to advise on design and production and re-introduced the line again in January of '06. Today's top quality Saint Blues guitars are designed in Memphis and handcrafted in Korea. With hand-selected woods, genuine hand-cut bone nuts and top-quality name-brand components, each guitar comes though Memphis for setup and a complete quality assurance inspection. A custom shop is being built at Saint Blues' new headquarter across from the famous Sun Studio to handle production of high-end custom guitars.