If you were to ask Kim Breedlove about his greatest accomplishment at Breedlove, he wouldn’t be able to name just one. “To have preserved, taught and passed on the original core philosophy of high-level awareness of craftsmanship, materials, artistry and work ethic necessary to produce world-class quality stringed instruments,” says Breedlove. “To have had a positive contribution to the success of the company. To have continued a life-long career building stringed instruments. To have been able to live, love, work, play, and retire in a place as beautiful as Central Oregon.”
And that’s where this whole journey began. It all started back in October of 1990 in Central Oregon – specifically in Bend, Oregon. “Two young instrument builders – Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson – had a dream of designing and building innovative stringed instruments,” says Tom Bedell, Founder and Owner of Two Old Hippies. “They could not have possibly envisioned the dynamic company that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In fact, Larry and Steve were not a part of most of Breedlove’s growth… most of the credit belongs with Kim Breedlove and his unique eye for design. The willingness to design guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles with fresh, novel approaches resulting in unique balance and clarity has been the hallmark of Breedlove throughout the years.”
Bedell himself didn’t join in with Breedlove until 2010. “I had re-launched my Bedell Guitar company in 2009,” Bedell explains. “Not having my own workshop, I designed my guitars and had them made in Asia. So I was actively looking for a USA workshop where I could fulfill my dream of being a part of guitar design and craftsmanship right here in America. So when the Breedlove workshop in Bend, Oregon became available, I jumped at the opportunity. Over the five years I have been able to lead the Bend company we have acquired Weber Mandolins, established a unique workshop team for Bedell Guitars, and significantly expanded Breedlove’s workshop capability. We now complete an average of 100 extraordinary instruments a week.”
This year, Breedlove celebrates its 25th anniversary. Colin Bescanon, USA Breedlove brand manager, says a lot has changed over the past 25 years, but at the same time, the fundamental core Breedlove values will always remain the same. “We’ve experienced a tremendous growth pattern while still looking back to our roots for guidance on our design and quality standards of building custom designed finger-style guitars,” says Bescanon. “However, we’ve looked beyond just that niche and expanded into building many musical genres, and instrument styles.” Tom Bedell believes that Breedlove’s understanding of the distinct individuality of each piece of wood is what sets them apart from other guitar manufacturers currently on the market. “Like snowflakes, every tonewood set has its own charter and potential for creating music,” Bedell says. “We have our own designs for jumbos, dreadnoughts, auditoriums, concerts, and parlors and we use different construction approaches for each shape. Our necks have a special finger-style friendly profile. Our asymmetrical headstock allows all six strings to have equal tension. Our auditoriums and concerts include the Breedlove Bridge Truss, which reduces the string tension on the soundboard allowing for more sustain and individual note warmth. Breedlove uses a broad array of music woods including myrtlewood, ziricote, cocobolo, koa, blackwood, walnut, rosewood, mahogany, maple, and we have the world’s largest collection of legally harvested and documented Brazilian rosewood tone wood sets.”
Breedlove was at Winter NAMM showing off new product releases and catching up with old friends. “Our NAMM experience this past winter was fantastic,” says Bescanon. “It is a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and peers throughout the MI industry, as well as having the opportunity to show off our new releases for 2015.” As far as those aforementioned new product releases go, Bescanon was fairly tight-lipped, but he did mention an anniversary release. Breedlove will release 4 separate limited edition guitars with a starting price-point of $699 to commemorate 25 years of Breedlove. “One of the models is the Kim Breedlove signature 25th anniversary is $10,000 and is based off the first BL (Breedlove) guitar built in 1990 – limited to 10,” says Bescanon.
With 25 years under their belt, there seems to be a concensus that the focus always has been, and will continue to be, on cultivating a distinctively crafted sound. “Our goal is to be the world’s experts on understanding how to maximize the music capability from every tonewood species and individual music wood set. We aspire to build instruments customized for each player, their playing style, and the sound they long for. Creating instruments that deliver your sound is how we will truly accomplish distinctively crafted sound,” says Bedell. “We are clearly defined by our distinctively crafted sound,” Bescanon echoes. “Looking to outfit each instrument with a target voice, projection, and sustain quality. We use a lot of alchemy with the shapes, sizes, and tonewood options to achieve our distinct voice. It is this focus that separates us… We are in a constant evaluation of our building process’, and the final voice of the instruments themselves. It is safe to say that we are always going to be looking for ways to improve our quality. I’m very gracious for getting the input from our dealer base, distributors, and all of the players in the world to drive us to make the Breedlove sound better.”
