Bill Asher in Westside Magazine!!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Bill was interviewed in this article in this months Westside Magazine. Here is the text to the story, or you can view the actual story on our website's Articles/Reviews page.
BILL ASHER
A local luthier is considered a master by legendary musicians.
By Margot Dougherty, photographed by James Acomb
In a sound-proof room off his home workshop, Bill Asher demonstrates the round, rosy sounds of a commemorative acoustic Hawaiian lap steel. It’s a gorgeous, zaftig instrument that’s one of the 100 or so guitars Asher and his small team, which includes his brothers Robert and Bo, make each year. The size of the outfit may be modest, but the client list is not: Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Lindsey Buckingham, Peter Frampton, The Black Crowes, and Rickie Lee Jones are just a handful of superstar Asher partons.
After building a replica of his Stratocaster in a shop class at University High School in West LA, Asher approached a local guitar store about a job. “I don’t need any money,” he told then, “I’d be happy to just put tools away and sweep the floors.” Thus began a four-year apprenticeship. Thanks to financial help from mom, Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery, and dad, producer-director William Asher, he took over the store’s lease at age 24.
By 2001, Asher wanted to concentrate on designing and building his own instruments. He set up shop in the basement of the Culver City home he shares with his wife, Jessica, and their two young girls. Asher Guitars now offers nine models, electric and acoustic, ranging from $2400 to $10,000. Whether it’s the Ben Harper Signature Model, the Ultra Tone T-Deluxe that Steve Miller bought, the Hawaiian lap steel acoustic or its electric counterpart, you don’t have to know a single chord to want one.
For more on Bill and Asher Guitars, call 310-821-2888 or visit asherguitars.com
