SHOP TALK TOM BARTLETT BARTLETT GUITARS
Call it ironic, perhaps, that Canadian guitar maker Tom Bartlett’s deeper love of vintage Bursts was fuelled by his own disappointment in his first real Les Paul. But so it began. Such was the fervour with which Bartlett chased the Burst down the rabbit hole that, in addition to having crafted several highly regarded detail-perfect reproductions, he has long run a successful side business selling components and luthier supplies to help other hobbyists do the same. The crowning achievement of his own guitar making, however, came in putting his own original twist on the style. But that was some time in the making – and to get there he had to learn the legend inside-out.
“I grew up in Ontario,” says Bartlett, “just outside of Toronto, and as soon as I was exposed to music, really, as an independent listener, that’s all I did. Forever more it was just me walking around with headphones on and absorbing as much as I could. Particularly the rock ’n’ roll of eras past, even. It was such a huge influence on me and I immediately wanted to play the guitar but could not play it at all.
“A friend of mine got an electric guitar – we were maybe 10 or 12 years old – and I thought, like, ‘I’m immediately going to sound like Eddie Van Halen’. I picked it up and just couldn’t make a sound out of
