<<return to list of topics
Love music, but not performing? Don't worry. There are plenty of jobs that let you enjoy those sweet sounds...behind the scenes. Consider Clayton Gibb, who studied guitar at the Musicians Institute in California. He played gigs in Los Angeles and New Orleans for a while before getting a job at a New Orleans guitar shop.
While fixing a guitar at work one day, Gibb recognized Keb' Mo'--an award-winning contemporary blues guitarist, singer and songwriter--in the shop. Keb' Mo' mentioned that he needed a guitar tech and Gibb started that night.
Gibb has been playing with Keb' Mo' for seven years now. When he's not on tour with the band--Gibb spends about half the year traveling--he and business partner Jim Skanberg design and build guitars for their business, Centerline Guitars.
It takes Gibb about a week to build a guitar by hand. But he and Skanberg have streamlined the process using computer-aided design so that every model comes out the same.
"It's the norm for small independent guitar makers to be as high-tech as we are," Gibb says. "Your measurements have to be so precise. The computer helps a lot in that."