How Gelvin Guitars started is kind of a long story, but here it goes. When I was a kid I was interested in learning how to play the piano. My great-grandmother knew how to play, but told me that I was too young for her to teach me. When I got older she would teach me. So I anxiously waited and when I was old enough she had a stroke and forgot how to play.

I had to take it upon myself to learn how to play but there were two problems. We were poor and I had nothing to practice on. For Christmas one year I asked my mother to get me a Casio pt from K-Mart. At the time it was $60.00 from what I remember which was a lot for the early 80s. She put it on layaway early in the year and was able to get me one.

I played with it for hours trying to figure out how it worked and learned my first song by ear from the radio. “Tell it to my heart” was released in 1988 so it had to be that year I started playing. I was 15 or 16 at the time.

Piano to guitar

I loved the keyboard and when I was able to make some money, I saved up and got a Yamaha PSS which I loved. By this time I was playing with both hands and was able to play Toccta and fugue in D minor. Once again, I couldn’t read music but learned everything by ear.

One day a friend of my older brother’s was having him listen to some Van Halen. When Eruption came on I was in disbelief that a guitar could sound like that. I thought it had to be a keyboard because guitars can’t sound like that. When I realized it was a guitar, I needed to learn how to play one so I could be like Eddie Van Halen.

I became friends with people in the high school band so I could learn how to read music as well as learn more about the piano. I used what I knew about the piano and carried it over to the guitar. I didn’t have anyone that could teach me, so I just like many before me, had to learn from the school of hard knocks.

Cheap, but it works

My first working guitar was classical with the brand name Conn. It was used and cost me $80.00 which I got from Rainbow guitars in Tucson, Arizona. I learned some chords and was writing music with it within a few weeks.

Time progresses and I wanted a Fender Stratocaster. I felt that it was the only real guitar out there. I traded a guy at work for a squire 2 red strat for my Winchester defender shotgun. I was still broke and didn’t realize I got the short end of the stick at the time. All I knew is it was a Fender and looked like what I wanted. This was the guitar I would use to learn all of my Van Halen licks and songs.

It didn’t take me long to see there were problems with how it functioned. Keeping it in tune was impossible, and the setup was awful. I did everything within my power to fix it, but being self-taught made it difficult.

Army to San Diego

I joined the Army and was part of the 900th chemical detachment which was a part of the 12th and later the 19th Special Forces group. Due to a back injury, my military career was limited. I got out with blown-out discs due to airborne operations and got out with disabled veteran status.

I soon moved to San Diego, California with a hundred bucks in my pocket and my guitar taken apart in my suitcase.

I came to San Diego to learn the trade of construction. I started as a laborer and within a short time moved up the ladder with my ability to use tools, and build things. It wasn’t long before I was in charge of the field and training all the framers. By this time I had taught myself plumbing, electric, stucco, roofing, drywall, flooring, and concrete. The only thing I learned from the company was framing and how to do lumber takeoffs.

Sciprocon master builders

I left the company and started my own construction company “Sciprocon Master builders” which was a success and brought me more revenue than I thought possible. I went from living in an apartment to being married and living in a house. Things were moving up, and I did this for 12 years.

During this time I could afford whatever I wanted and I got all the guitars and amps I wanted thinking they would make me sound like Eddie Van Halen. Like many people, I blamed my gear for my sound. It didn’t take long before I realized that chasing gear to sound like your favorite artist is a sham. The guitar industry pushes this in order to sell gear to unwise guitar players. By this time I was playing mostly Ibanez guitars.

I had all the tools to build a guitar and I thought what the hell? How hard could it be? So I designed my first guitar and built it. There was room for improvement to be sure. My brother has the first one I built. It actually sounds and plays quite well.

Going back to school

I got out of construction because my back just couldn’t handle it anymore. I had a good run, but that part of my life I considered over. I went back to school and got my bachelor’s in bioinformatics with a 4.0 GPA. Top of my class with hopes I could get into the biofield. They only wanted P.h.d. and not what I studied. So all of this was for naught.

I thought about it and was thinking about the guitars I had built for myself and others when I considered starting a guitar company. I had some radical ideas and did things no one else did. I took a chance and started Gelvin Guitars in 2010.

Gelvin Guitars begins

I came up with some designs that made sense in strength, tone, and comfort. They did quite well, but I knew I could improve upon my designs. I listened to guitarists about what they liked and what they thought needed improvement. I kept my nose to the grinding wheel until I came up with some rock-solid designs that people liked, and were very versatile.

I started winding my own pickups because I didn’t like spending so much for pickups that I would be unsure how their performance. After I came up with some of my own winds I really liked, I considered an idea that would change pickups forever. My Gelvin VIPs. A passive pickup design that would change the way your guitar could sound with a turn of a knob. It could go from one guitar tone into another with a completely different attack and tone. I patented the idea, and things took off.

Things take off

It didn’t take long before I was building for professional guitarists, entertainers, and celebrities. I would be featured in Guitar World for a guitar I built for Andrew Dice Clay, and later mentioned in Wikipedia for guitars I made for other musicians and artists.

My claim to fame was my design, one-piece guitars, and my versatility due to my wiring and Gelvin Vips. I had a YouTube presence under the name “WillsEasyGuitar” that later turned into Gelvin Custom Guitars where I would teach people how to build and set up their own guitars. It became one of the most influential channels on YouTube between 2012 and 2019. As YouTube was changing with rules and policies the channel became somewhat hidden by the algorithm. Many people on YouTube copied my format, and the market became flooded with guitar builders.

Thank you, MS

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis which damaged my eyes and my ability to use tools as effectively. Slowly but surely I could no longer build for the general public anymore.

This site stays up because I still have the desire to build great guitars for those that want only the best custom guitars made by hand in the US. I am not sure when I will be able to pump more out, but when I do they will be for sale here.

I had a guitar-building course I used to sell here for $199.00 you can find it on my YouTube channel now for free. I know I still influence new guitar players and builders, so I try to share what info I can. My YouTube career was fun while it lasted, but all things must come to an end. I will still post things there from time to time.

I still think about you

I will try to post things here when I am capable and have the time to also help with your guitar setup or building projects. Information not shared is information wasted.

I still have my Master the Fretboard series on videos for sale here. If you have the means and the desire to look at the fretboard completely differently I recommend checking it out.

Have a wonderful day, and tell those you love that you love them. It is important.

William Gelvin

Owner Gelvin Guitars