Campy Looks, Distinctive Sound Attract Famous Fans

Chuck Lindert wasn’t surprised when John Sebastian was so enthusiastic about his guitars.

“I find that the people whose art I like,” Lindert explains, “seem to like my art.”

And Sebastian loves the Lindert Locomotive guitars.

“Yeah,” Sebastian says. “They just seem to suit my band.”

Sebastian, who made his mark in 60s rock and roll as the leader of The Lovin’ Spoonful - “Do You Believe in Magic?,” “Summer in the City,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Jug Band Music,” “Nashville Cats” - tours these days with a group called The J Band.

Sebastian discovered Lindert’s guitars at a national music industry show in Anaheim in 1996.

He was attracted first by the instrument’s unconventional look.

“It was nice to see the sense of humor in their approach,” Sebastian says.

But looks alone won’t inspire the loyalty of any musician. The sound and feel of the guitar hooked Sebastian.

“It’s a different sound than the sort of conventional sound you get from all the look-alike guitars that are being made today,” he says. “In a lot of ways, the bigger companies have become more and more homogenized.”

Sebastian wondered if Lindert might be able to build a baritone version of the Locomotive.

A baritone guitar has a deeper tone, achieved by using longer, thicker strings. This unconventional adaptation is usually achieved by moving the bridge further from the neck, creating an awkward feel for musicians used to the dimensions of a conventional six-string guitar.

But because of innovations Lindert uses in assembling his guitars, he was able to simply replace the conventional neck with a longer one.

“What is wonderful about the Lindert builders is their (company’s) scale is not so big that Chuck couldn’t say, ‘Okay, here’s my best shot at a baritone,’ and send it to me.

“And it is an amazing instrument.”

Lindert is currently making guitars at the request of country performer David Allen Coe, and Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones. Members of the British bands Seahorses and Black Grape play Locomotives, as does Steve Sturm of the Travis Tritt Band.

Bobby Cochran, former lead guitarist with Steppenwolf, has recently finished a tribute album to his uncle, legendary rocker Eddie Cochran. The album credits include a thank you to Lindert Guitars.

Another committed Lindert fan is Steve Cherne, author of The Blue Book of Guitars. The Blue Book is a comprehensive listing of guitar companies and their products, and serves as a guide to the value of new and vintage instruments. The newest edition, due out next month, covers 1,000 trademarks worldwide.

“I think he has a unique design that isn’t echoed in the current market,” says Cherne. “The semi-hollow body, the nature of the finish, and those grills are virtually unheard of. It looks like it would be a little bit more at home in the wacky days of the 60s.

“But there’s nothing wacky about this guitar.”

He says the Locomotive fits his criteria of quality. It looks good, sounds good, feels good and is made of quality materials.

That Lindert is selling the guitar at a suggested price below $700 is significant, Cherne says, because most good American-made guitars start between $900 and $1,200.

“I don’t own one of Lindert’s guitars yet, because I don’t believe in accepting free guitars,” Cherne says. “I get offered lots of them in this business. But my whole goal is for the book to do well so I can afford to go out and buy some of these guitars I write about and enjoy them.

“I respect the Lindert guitars, and I’m going to go buy one.”

Dan Halstrom is another believer.

But he’s not a musician or a guitar critic. He is president of Quest for Economic Development, a private non-profit corporation that contracts with government entities in Douglas and Chelan Counties to guide the area’s economic development efforts.

“Chuck Lindert’s business appears to have particularly good potential for creating good manufacturing jobs in the Chelan area,” Halstrom says.

Lindert says Quest’s interest is a breakthrough.

“It’s been a long road trying to get any of the local business groups to take us seriously,” Lindert says.

But after he returned from Germany earlier this year with orders for 110 guitars - most of them to be exported to foreign markets - he contacted Peavey, a major music manufacturer, to ask for advice in getting a production line going. The Peavey people were interested enough, Lindert says, to consider buying Lindert’s company.

That made Lindert Guitars look a lot more viable in the eyes of the local business community. And it also raised concerns about losing a potential manufacturer in an area of the state that has very few manufacturing jobs.

“We evaluate every business opportunity on its own merits,” explains Halstrom, “and this one is a much better business deal than it appeared to be a year or two ago.”

While Halstrom concedes it’s not a typical business, and Lindert is hardly a typical businessman, the economic developers are convinced Lindert Guitars has a lot to offer. Quest is seeking local investors to get the company running, emphasizing that they don’t want someone to come in from outside and move the company somewhere else.

“And we think based on investors we’ve had conversations with that there’s pretty good potential for securing the financing the company needs to enter into a full production mode,” Halstrom says.

Lindert says Quest is trying to find $750,000. At full production, he says, the company would employ 40 to 50 people.

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