Since studying with Richard Schneider and Jeffrey Elliott in the ’70s, eighteen-year member John Mello has built, restored, repaired, and sold guitars in the San Francisco area for thirty-eight years, during fifteen of which he eschewed guitar construction in favor of a mortgage and raising two, now-grown children.
▪ bio current as of 2014
2021
AL#143 p.66
John Mello
▪ Although the Micro 299 was reviewed, the current model at the time of publication was the Micro 431.
2014
AL#119 p.58
John Mello
▪ John Mello examines two favorite issues of The Fretboard Journal, #32 and #7, and relates the pleasure of the articles with his own mentorship experiences, in particular with Alvino Rey.
2012
AL#112 p.64
John Mello
▪ Cobbling together an unobtrusive, battery powered recording setup for live performance capture.
2009
AL#100 p.20 ALA3 p.80
John Mello John Gilbert
▪ Gilbert, born in 1922, made his first guitar in 1965 while a tool designer at Hewlett-Packard. He has 120 guitars to his credit.
2008
AL#95 p.64 read this article
John Mello
▪ The reviewer finds this book to be “an impressive achievement, a logical first choice of the available stand-alone methods for classical guitar construction.”
2008
AL#94 p.63 read this article
John Mello
▪ The reviewer finds this book to be a useful addition to the beginning luthier’s library, but that it falls short of being a stand alone teaching text.
2008
AL#95 p.5
John Mello
▪ John reviewed a book by Alex Willis in AL#94. He criticised a certain technique reccomended in the book. Now he thinks Alex was right.
2007
AL#89 p.64 ALA2 p.22
Alan Perlman John Mello
▪ Both reviewers test fly the Luthiertool Binding Cutter Base, an attachment for a small router or laminate trimmer. Perlman is enthusiastic about the tool. Mello is a little less so but admits he’s glad he bought it. With 1 photo.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2006
AL#88 p.58 ALA2 p.10
John Mello
▪ The reviewer (who bought these tools, by the way) finds that they were a good investment that saves him time and increases the accuracy of his work. With 7 photos.
1996
AL#48 p.28 BRB4 p.408
Cyndy Burton John Mello
▪ Mello is a repairperson, guitarmaker, restorer, and instrument dealer. He apprenticed under Richard Schneider and worked with Jeffrey R. Elliott before opening his own shop.Much of the interview dwells upon the restoration of an 1862 Torres guitar. With 11 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.