Shu Kawai, a new student in our electric craft course, comes to Guitar Craft Academy Nashville all the way from Okayama, a Nashville-sized city in Western Japan near Hiroshima.
Shu grew up loving American blues music by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Claptonand Joe Bonamassa, among others, eventually getting interested in the science behind the sounds he was hearing. He was drawn to Nashville because of its musical history and its active luthier community: “Nashville is famous for guitar — it has Gibson and so many factories,” he says.
He’s currently working on a project guitar that combines a Gibson SG-style body with a Telecaster-like neck and pickup. “If possible, I would like to work in Nashville, be a repairman,” he says. “I want to know more about how to repair a guitar and build a guitar.”