BARRY GRZEBIK GREZ GUITARS
Given the fervent reappreciation of upcycled catalogue-inspired guitars these past few years, Grez guitars are well positioned to soar in the current marketplace – and the man behind them, Barry Grzebik, is primed to help them do so.
In addition to redwood-topped flat-top acoustics and custom-spec archtops, Grez’s best-known guitars are likely those inspired by the simple retro styling of a Harmony Stratotone Jupiter or a Silvertone Speed Demon, but rendered with the utmost consideration for resonance, playability, components and overall quality of construction. As Grzebik himself puts it: “I want to make a high-quality, beautiful instrument but I feel like it’s a bit of a working man’s instrument too. It doesn’t aspire to be in a museum. It’s going to be on stage. I think that comes from me working with musicians and sound engineers, and tours and live TV. You know, you make tools. It’s just sort of how I came up, I designed tools to get things done.”
SOUND DESIGN
After spending much of his youth in New Jersey, Grzebik moved to Northern California with his family at the age of 15, and has called the region home ever since. Obsessed with music in general and sound in particular as a teen, he forged a career in the live sound industry, working as a product designer for Apogee. Not only did the position see him designing loudspeakers, amps and equalisers for massive commercial PA systems, it took him all over the world, overseeing installations for events such as the Grammy Awards, the Oscars and the Olympics, as well as Broadway
