Rick Turner, icon of American guitar making, co-founded Alembic in 1970. He was heavily involved in the design and construction of Alembic instruments. In his custom guitar video, Rick talks about how he founded Turner Guitars in 1979 and joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division.

Rick Turner left the Gibson Guitar Company in 1992 and ran a guitar repair shop at Westwood Music in West Hollywood where he developed piezo pickup designs, worked with Jackson Browne, David Crosby and others. Later Turner co-founded Highlander Musical Audio, manufacturer of piezo pickups for acoustic guitars. Rick Turner still designs and builds custom electric guitars for many professional players such as Lindsey Buckingham, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, David Crosby, and Andy Summers. His present company is Renaissance Guitars producing acoustic electric guitars and he has partnered with Seymour Duncan to form D-TAR.

Gourmet Guitar’s featured Ruck Turner as one of the most famous master luthiers and “inventors” in American Guitar History. Based in Santa Cruz, CA, Rick has built custom electric guitars for some of the most successful guitarists of all time. Watch his custom guitar video as he talks about his role as one of the sound pioneers of the Grateful Dead.

His Model 1 custom electric guitar has written rock and pop history as the main guitar of Lindsay Buckingham, who turned it into one of the cornerstones of the Fleetwood Mac sound. He has also worked very successfully as manager of the R&D department of the Gibson guitar company. He designed the Chet Atkins model and was part of the revival of the Les Paul with Slash of Guns&Roses in the 1990’s. Watch a part of Rock’n Roll history and enjoy Rick, Henry Kaiser, Richard Glick and Bill Walker in his custom guitar video to hear the story first-hand . Learn about the influence of Howe-Orme guitars and Space-Age technology like graphite braces and ceramic frets in guitar making.

RICK TURNER | Icon of American Guitar Making – Custom Electric Guitars Part 1
RICK TURNER | Icon of American Guitar Making – Custom Electric Guitars Part 2
RICK TURNER | Icon of American Guitar Making – Custom Electric Guitars Part 3
RICK TURNER | Icon of American Guitar Making – Custom Electric Guitars Part 4