Frank Ford, a renowned guitar builder and co-founder of Gryphon Stringed Instruments, passed away December 17. He was 79 and suffered complications due to congestive heart failure.
A native of the San Francisco area, as a student at UC Santa Barbara, Ford discovered bluegrass music and began playing the mandolin, which spawned his curiosity on building and repairing stringed instruments. In 1969, he founded Gryphon with Richard Johnston, building guitars, mandolins and banjos in their Palo Alto shop.
In February of ’73, they expanded to include a retail and repair business, though Ford continued to focus on repairs, restorations, and maintaining customers’ instruments, which was his passion.
Colleagues at Gryphon cited his kindness to customers and staff, as well as his penchant for going beyond the expected level of concern, which came naturally, as he enjoyed talking about every aspect of fretted instruments, from their history and maintenance to the music played on them.
Over decades, Ford developed new techniques and tools for maintaining instruments. A self-taught machinist, he fabricated any replacement parts he couldn’t buy or otherwise find. He built a number of fixtures used in his repair work, and documented much of his work to share via his website, frets.com. He was also a regular at repair clinics and lectures at Roberto Venn School of Lutherie, in Phoenix, as well as at various luthier conventions.
“Frank was a super-bright, warm, and generous person – a truly great guitar repairman,” said fellow repairman and VG columnist Dan Erlewine. “With his passing, the lutherie world lost one of its greatest repairmen, inventors, and teachers of the trade.
“His reputation drew me to visit him in the late ’80s, and we became fast friends, and he became my go-to answer man for many a repair dilemma. His website has been a great source for thousands that will remain an extension of his legacy.”
Gryphon repairman Brian Michael met Ford while he was a student at Roberto-Venn in 2002.
“He was doing a live demo showing how to re-fret a Martin in an hour, start to finish!” Michael said. “He offered me a job in Gryphon’s repair department after I graduated, and I soon discovered why he was so respected among luthiers near and far.
“Frank enjoyed passing along his knowledge and expertise in instrument repair just as much as he enjoyed the work itself. He was more of a mentor and friend to me than my boss for 20 years, and his employees felt the same way about him. We miss him greatly, and will do our best to carry on his legacy.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s March 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
