SHOP TALK JOHN WOODLAND MASTERY BRIDGE FOUNDER & GUITAR DESIGNER
A modest, soft-spoken type whose guitar-world achievements may perhaps justify just a dash of immodesty, John Woodland does leap to his creation’s defence at one point during our chat, when we mistakenly reverse the cause-and-effect that saw a simultaneous explosion in both offset-style guitars and Mastery Bridge products around the early 2010s, a trend that remains buoyant to this day. Upon our suggestion that the boom in the Jazzmaster-inspired market must’ve helped launch Mastery’s success, Woodland politely replies, “I really think Mastery Bridge was a large part of that.”
Of course it was. With the arrival of this more functional bridge in 2008 and its proliferation in the market soon after – along with the sturdier and more reliable vibrato that joined it – these groovy but otherwise glitch-prone guitars became exponentially more viable for the gigging guitarist, and everybody started cranking them out as a result. But a lot went into forming Woodland’s design ethos long before the Mastery was even a glimmer in its creator’s eye.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Woodland was born in Cambridge, Minnesota in 1972, and although his parents weren’t particularly musical, that drive ran deep through his extended family. “When we would visit my grandparents’ home,” he says, “my uncle and cousins and relatives all played guitar and banjo, and my grandma played organ. It was a given that you’d bring your guitar.”
Gifted his first guitar at the age of four, Woodland was
