Saint Blues Guitar Workshop :: Saint Blues Story

Authentication

St. Blues Guitars was born in the heart of the Delta, where country tangled with the blues and spawned the true birthplace of Rock & Roll, Memphis. On the street now called Elvis Presley Boulevard, across the way from Graceland, Mike Ladd and Tom Keckler were doing something magical with guitars at Mike Ladd’s Guitar City. Seems whenever these boys laid hands on someone’s guitar, it just played a whole lot better. Hell, they even customized one for the King ordered by his father. You can see him play it in “Aloha From Hawaii”.

After Mike Ladd’s Guitar City, Keckler worked as the guitar guru at the legendary Strings and Things music store, where his skills and legend continued to grow. Here is where the “Bluesmaster” body was first designed, built from a telecaster esquire that Keckler was looking to modify.

In 1978, Keckler joined Tom Anderson and David Schecter out in California to turn Schecter Guitar Research from a parts supplier to a guitar company. But anyone who’s ever lived in Memphis knows you can’t stay away long and in 1983 he came home to continue his guitar work, and formed St. Blues Guitars with the founders of Strings and Things in 1984. Using the body shape that Tom had created some years before, the first St. Blues model was created and not surprisingly named the “Bluesmaster”. Sometimes you hit it just right. This unique guitar stands up to any classic design, and people who know a great guitar were quick to notice. Soon you would find a Bluesmaster in the hands of Eric Clapton, Bono, Albert King, Elliot Easton, Marshall Crenshaw, Glen Frey, Billy Gibbons... We could go on but this isn’t a book.

In 1989, St. Blues took a break, but like Memphis itself, you just got to come back to a good thing. Players and dealers alike wouldn’t let it go, so in 2005 St. Blues was reborn with Keckler behind the design and quality control. Whether it’s a Pro Series model built overseas or a Workshop guitar built here in the USA, every St. Blues guitar is finished and set up right here in Memphis and will always have its roots in this hallowed ground.

Find a Product