SCHNEIDER, RICHARD

In 1996, when luthier/designer Richard Schneider was asked what he considered his occupation, he simply replied, "I don´t make guitars, I make guitar makers." While known for his Kasha-inspired acoustic guitar designs, Schneider also trained and encouraged younger builders to continue crafting guitars. At last count, some 21 full term apprentices had been taught in the craft of classical guitar design. Schneider is best known for his over 25 year collaboration with Dr. Michael Kasha, in their advanced design for the classical guitar. Kasha, the Director of Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University, worked with Schneider to pioneer an entirely new and scientific way of designing and constructing classical guitars. This advanced design has been the topic of controversy for a number of years in the classical guitar community.
Schneider first apprenticed with Juan Pimentel in Mexico City, Mexico from 1963 to 1965. Schneider served as proprietor of Estudio be las Guitarra from 1965 to 1972, which housed a guitar making workshop, retail store and music instruction studio. It was during this time period that Schneider began his collaboration with Dr. Kasha. In 1973, Schnieder became the director and owner of the Studio of Richard Schneider in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This studio was devoted solely to classical guitar design and fine construction using the Kasha/Schneider design. Schneider was a consultant to the Gibson Guitar company between 1973 and 1978. His duties included design, engineering, and production procedures for the Mark series guitars, which was based on the Kasha/Schneider design. He also designed the The Les Paul electric guitar model. In 1983, Schneider also engineered and built five Taxi prototypes for Silver Street, Inc. of Elkhart, Indiana.
In 1984, Schneider moved his family and workshop to Sequim, Washington. The Lost Mountain Center for the Guitar was founded in 1986 as a non-profit organization whose purposes include research, development, and information disseminating about improvements in guitar design. Schneider continued to make improvements to his Kasha/Schneider design, which made significant improvements to the tonal functions and playability. Luthier Richard Schneider passed away on January 31, 1997, (Biography courtesy Bob Fischer, Lost Mountain Center).
Schneider estimated that he constructed over two hundred guitars by 1996. Approximately sixty were handcrafted traditional concert guitars, while fifty models were the advanced Schneider/Kasha design. Rather than assign a serial number to his guitars, Schneider used to name them instead.
In addition to his own guitar designs, Schneider estimated that he had built over one hundred prototypes for the Gibson Guitar company, and Baldwin-era Gretsches.
Schneider met with Maestro Andres Segovia on eighteen separate occasions, and auditioned new instruments with Segovia on six of these visits for purposes of critique and analysis. After Segovia passed away, Schneider then consulted with guitarist Kurt Rodarmer, whose CD The Goldberg Variations features two of Schneider's guitars.