LOTS OF PLUCK

from page 79

"There's a guitar that I got off of this nice bloke who works on the Ford assembly line in

Detroit and he makes guitars, too. He's called Bernie Hamburger, and I met him a couple of

years ago and got a couple of guitars from him. So that's the one you'll see in the ["Real Love"]
video; it's a solid-body electric guitar [the 'Model T' Hamburguitar] that's painted green, and

that's what I play the solos and all the little fills on. That [Hamburguitar] is his own make; I

like his guitar a lot. He's just a small manufacturer, but it's a very, very well-made instrument,
and he does it all himself, including the electronics ..."

— Former Beatle George Harrison, "Billboard" magazine, March 1998

Hamburger, 47, laughs warmly, his eyes crinkling,
as he replies with a remnant of a New York accent,
"I'm a little guy, pushy and persistent. I got that
from my father."
His late father, Felix, a Holocaust survivor from
Auschwitz, came to the United States from Lutz,
Poland, in 1950 with his sister, the only surviving
members of their family. In New York; he met and
married Tilly, Bernie's mother. The family moved to
Detroit when Bernie was 13 and his brother, Glenn,
now a drum-maker in Canada, was 7.
The guitar maker gains much inspiration from
his father. "A day doesn't go by that I don't think
about the Holocaust," says Hamburger, whose
father's first wife and 3-year-old son were extermi-
nated by the Nazis. "It's a combination of being
proud and disturbed."
When Hamburger was 14 years old, his father
bought him his first guitar. "I saw the Beatles on
The Ed Sullivan Show" he says, "and fell in love with
Beatlemania."
Within a few months, he had decided to take
apart his new guitar and make it play better.
"My father, [also a Ford factory worker], didn't
make a whole lot of money [and] wanted to know
what the hell I was doing. 'Trust me,' I told him,
`I'll put it back together. —
Necessity and perfectionism, he says, gave him
the chutzpa to tinker. "My guitar didn't play as well
as my friend's that cost five times more than mine,"
he notes, but Hamburger's first venture was such a
success, his friend asked him to make his more
expensive guitar sound like Bernie's.
Hamburger went on to repair guitars in local
music stores. Thirteen years later, he made his first
guitar from scratch. He had no mentors, no books,
no teachers.
"I had a couple of guitars I took apart, took mea-
surements and combined some of my own ideas to
make my own guitar," says Hamburger.
He sold the very first guitar he made to lead gui-
tarist Andy Sommers of the British band the Police
for $500. At 31, Hamburger sneaked backstage at
Joe Louis Arena to show Sommers the guitar. He
tried it out during sound check, bought it and played
Hamburger's creation for the encore that night.
Flush with success, Bernie went to Cobo Hall a

couple of weeks later to see the band Iron Maiden.
Again he maneuvered backstage, and this time sold a
guitar to the group's guitarist Dave Murray ,.

Hamburger hasn't always been successful. Paul
It's that green guitar, Hamburger points out, that
McCartney, "who was very polite," decided to pass
Harrison played on "Real Love," the new release
on a "Hamburguitar" (although he posed for a pic-
from the 1996 CD Beatle Anthology 2. "Harrison
ture with Hamburger). Steve Howe, guitarist for Yes, says [the green guitar] is still the one he reaches for
also declined.
to record," says Hamburger.
The guitar maker's big break came in 1992, when
When the mandolin was ready, Hamburger and
the owner of a record store in Garden City, Mich.,
his wife agreed to meet Harrison in New York,
introduced him to the renowned artist Carl Perkins,
where the guitarist was set to play in a Bob Dylan
who wrote and recorded the classic "Blue Suede
tribute concert.
Shoes." Perkins ordered one of Hamburger's guitars
The mandolin, Hamburger says, was far superi-
and asked to have it delivered to him in London.
or to anything Harrison had expected. He gave
Knowing Carl's connection to George Harrison,
Hamburger and his wife front-row tickets to the
Hamburger brought two guitars overseas, just in case
concert for Dylan, whose guitar Bernie later
he could wrangle an introduction to
worked on.
the former Beatle lead guitarist.
What was it like returning to
"Consider it done," Perkins said,
work in Detroit after his heady trips
when Hamburger presented him
to New York and London?
with a green Hamburguitar and
"Yuch!" Bernie laughs. "But I was
asked to meet Harrison.
only eight years away from retiring
That evening Hamburger went up
with a full pension. I had to endure
to Harrison's London hotel suite
these past 30 years; it was a learning
with the other guitar and knocked
period, like a sentence I had to serve
on the door.
to put a roof over our heads and
"I freaked," he says honestly. "Carl
food on the table. I couldn't just
answered the door and there behind
walk away."
him was George. 'Hello, I'm George,'
The price he paid to keep making
he says, shaking my hand." And in
Hamburger drew inspiration
guitars while working a full-time job
an awed, shy voice, Hamburger mim- from his late father, Felix, a
was a rigorous daily routine.
ics his simple reply, "I know."
Holocaust survivor.
Hamburger averaged five hours of
"The highlight of the evening —
sleep a night. When he got home
and there were several — was sitting on a couch
after work, he would shower, eat dinner and work
between these two legendary figures, each playing a
on his guitars until 11 p.m. Then he'd watch the
guitar I made," says Hamburger.
news, go to bed, and get up at 5 the next morning
Harrison invited Hamburger to join him and his
to go to work.
wife that evening at the Hard Rock Cafe 20th-
While Hamburger also worked repairing and
anniversary party.
making bodies and necks for other brand guitars, he
"Like I had something better to do," Hamburger
averaged 10 of his own each year, selling them for
chuckles.
$1,600 to $2,500 apiece.
But before they left, Harrison asked Hamburger
To date, he's made 93 complete guitars. "Every
if he could make him a mandolin. "Absolutely," said
one a one-and-only," he boasts. "I oversee everything
Hamburger, who had never made one in his life.
and I don't cut corners. If I'm not proud of it, it's
That evening at the Hard Rock Cafe, George sat
firewood."
for over two hours discussing in detail the sound,
Did he ever give up the idea of making guitars?
the look and the feel of the mandolin he wanted.
"Never," he says. "That was my motivation to
At one point, when George was called away for
keep going."
an interview, Carl Perkins returned and told Bernie
Ultimately, Hamburger's goal is to make a differ-
that Harrison wanted his green guitar.
ence in the music industry, to create instruments

Hamburger smiles, still delighted by the story.
"'That's fine, Carl,' I told him. 'I'll make you anoth-
er.'" Perkins requested a blue one.

that give musicians initiative to play and compose.
"I want to make guitars [so] that an artist can say,
This is exceptional.'"

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