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The Mike Lull Club Part 4

#3,342
TonyP- said:
*Important Message from Mike Lull's General Manager, Paul Schuster*

In this shared time of grieving for our friend and mentor Mike Lull, I have been asked on a daily basis the same question: is the shop staying open? I want to state in a public way that the answer is unequivocally, YES. In fact, we have great plans for the future of Mike Lull's Guitar Works and Custom Guitars.

Every great company has a great leader, and every great leader knows that building a top-rate brand is done by a team, not an individual alone. While the loss of Mike will be felt deeply every day, fortunately for all of us Mike was always incredibly generous with his knowledge and mentor-ship and saw it as his duty to teach others, especially while doing work under his name.

Mike Lull Guitar Works will continue onward in every aspect including our Luthier work and manufacturing of high-end custom guitars, all through the lens Mike showed us. We will also continue to be a local and family-owned business. It has long been planned that Mike's son, Spencer, would join the company someday. This plan now has been accelerated and Spencer will be moving from Florida back to Bellevue in March and joining our staff as the Director of Sales and Marketing. We are all excited about the addition of Spencer and his desire to continue building a legacy company.

I first met Mike in 1985 where like many folks, I was allowed to hang out at his shop for hours on end, day after day, just playing music and talking guitars. I became Mike's very first Luthier apprentice in 1988 for about two years before heading off to tour in bands for several years. I came back to work with Mike ten years ago as his General Manager and have enjoyed spending every day with him, furthering our cause together of great guitars, great friendships, and a great work ethic to provide the best quality service in this industry.

Mike was an absolute gem of a human and I am personally as committed as ever, along with our entire amazingly talented staff, to continuing Mike's legacy and making him proud of every instrument that leaves this shop, now and for generations to come.

Peace in music,
Paul Schuster
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Yeah the company Mike started will continue and continue making great instruments. Founders leave companies they started for various reasons and companies continue on, and I'm sure they'll be revisiting their marketing now to keep up industry and customer awareness.
 
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#3,347
Lots of great comments here. I have a Lull on order (placed in January) and have some reservation about it. Not that I have any concerns over the experience or ability of the employees, but any change in a routine process gets me a little nervous about the impact it may have (if any) on the final product.

I went with a Lull because I love the aesthetics of a J bass and tone of a Thunderbird. The few examples of Mike's work that I got to handle were all top notch. Put the three together and it seems like a winning combination. But admittedly, I don't know much about the shop itself outside of the reputation Mike carried.

So correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like Mike's role was similar to Roger Sadowsky in that the main work is completed by a team of highly skilled individuals and Mike was just there to review the final product. Under this assumption, there should be no difference in overall workmanship or quality of the instruments, right?

Lots of you know the shop much much better than I do so I'm hoping you can put my mind at ease on this.
 
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#3,349
Geri O said:
Not sure of your point or context...
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Just saying that a brand can certainly continue after the departure (one way or another, no disrespect intended) of a founder. There are plenty of examples of that, and Fender is a good one.
 
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#3,352
Tom was the guy Mike would lean on his the main builder now under miles building concepts.

You are going to get the same product.

Tom has 28 years of full time building, don't worry ;)
 
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#3,355
Geri O said:
:roflmao::roflmao:

I was gonna make an obvious and too-easy joke there, but nah, I get it...:D
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6 ft PJs is all I need
images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRyQVX6VMBFyN0MkDgBrAWNFMoeZ8sTJ3w5xKZnYIkFvbVwZZxt.jpg
 
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