Mike Lull - About Us
Mike Lull Custom Guitars hand-builds bass guitars and electric guitars and perform all types of guitar repair and luthier services for customers worldwide from our shop in Bellevue, WA. Our work is renowned the world over and is based on Mike's long reputation of outstanding craftsmanship.
About Mike
Mike Lull's Pacific Northwest roots run deep. In 1954 he was born 50 miles east of the Pacific Coast in the valley of Eugene, Oregon. Five years later, his family moved north to Bellevue, Washington—a newly incorporated small city just ten miles east of Seattle and its thriving music scene. Mike couldn't have known it then, but this move to the Puget Sound area would eventually shape his life as a musician and luthier in immeasurable ways.
In 1970, when he was sixteen, Mike took his first job repairing guitars for a local guitar shop. There he was able to cultivate his gifts and talents, while building the solid foundation that he needed to become a luthier. Soon, word got around that Mike did exceptional work and he developed a positive reputation among local musicians. As his positive reputation grew, so did his dream of opening his own business.
Open For Business
This dream became a reality when, in 1976, he opened Mike Lull's Guitar Works in his hometown of Bellevue. He was just twenty-one at the time and at the beginning of what would quickly become a successful, lifelong career. Over the next few years his business grew wildly—especially when he started building his own custom basses and guitars. That was when his now-legendary fretwork and fine-tuning started to attract the attention of artists from many musical genres, including jazz, pop, metal, classic rock, blues and country—to name just a few.
Excellent Craftsmanship, Worldwide Reputation
Around the same time that his business started taking off, Mike became a working bass player in the Seattle music scene. His experiences as an active musician helped him to further develop his unique understanding of playability and tone, which eventually inspired him to launch the Mike Lull Custom Guitar and Bass lines in 1995. Since the launch of these two lines, Mike's business has continued to grow and he has created and repaired instruments for thousands of artists from around the world, including Randy Jackson, Bob Dylan, Heart, Queesnryche, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie, Willie Weeks and Mike Merrit.
We Build Basses and Guitars
Mike Lull Custom Guitars manufactures world-class bass guitars and electric guitars from our shop in Bellevue, Washington - just across the lake from Seattle.
Browse our instruments pages and don't miss our Custom Builds Gallery or our Signature Artists section, where we highlight our proud association with renowned bassists like Jeff Ament, Bryan Beller and Tom Petersson.
Guitar Repairs and Upgrades
We restore, modify and repair all kinds of acoustic guitars, electric guitars and basses. From pickups to pickguards, we've got you covered. See our repairs page for more.
PLEK Pro Precision Fret Leveling
Get your guitar or bass into amazing playing condition with a PLEK Pro fret leveling, which can adjust frets to within .001 inch, resulting in incredibly smooth playability.
Have Questions?
Despite our decades of expertise, our shop isn't an intimidating place to visit, so whatever your experience level we welcome you to come to our shop during office hours and we will be more than happy to discuss your instrument with you. That said, we're proud to note that we've worked with some amazing artists over the years. At Mike Lull Custom Guitars, you get the best of both worlds: a world-class, professional guitar shop with a friendly, neighborhood atmosphere.
Legacy
It is with tremendous sadness that we share our great leader and company’s founder, Mike Lull, unexpectedly passed away on February 12, 2020. Mike was an icon and visionary, and we passionately honor his name daily by continuing his legacy for years to come at Mike Lull Guitar Works.
Proud Member Of
Our Crew
Master Luthier Tom Albert runs the shop with help from Gehrig Uhles, Michael Collins, Anthony Ludington, Alex Sorotchkine and Larry DeMyer. Spencer Lull tends to sales and operations as President with help from Preston Lull.
Spencer Lull -
President
Spencer got his first guitar from his dad when he was eleven and has been obsessed ever since.
Growing up in the shop, he experienced firsthand the time and care that went into every instrument repair and build. He would often geek out with his father about every idiosyncratic nuance of instruments, what made them tick and what changes affected tone, playability and overall quality.
Spencer and his father were very close and would often discuss the shop and future plans. While it was always the plan for him to continue the family business, the timeline was accelerated after Mike’s passing in February of 2020.
With an extensive background in business development, marketing and administration, Spencer manages the day-to-day operations of the shop and is the guy to talk to if you have any questions about a custom build!
Spencer is beyond honored to keep his father’s legacy going strong and is committed to ensuring that every instrument that leaves the shop is something the entire team is proud of.
In his free time, you can find him at the shop, playing guitar, bass or piano, or spending time with his wife.
Tom Albert -
Master Luthier
Tom got his first guitar when he was ten, took a couple lessons at the community center and was hooked. Guitars would become part of his life for good.
Years later, while in college searching for a career path, and after picking up a recently repaired guitar from Mike Lull, Tom’s wife commented to him “you could do that” launching his pursuit of a career as a Luthier. Within a few months he enrolled at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery.
After completing the course in the summer of 1992, Mike hired him and he’s been hard at work ever since. Tom had the benefit and privilege of working side by side with Mike for nearly 28 years. He was Mike’s right-hand-man the entire time.
Tom loves the challenge of making every instrument the very best it can be. He truly wants all of our customers to love their guitars/basses! He is the Master Luthier of Mike Lull’s Custom Guitars and everything that leaves the shop goes through him. He is honored to continue Mike’s legacy through continued instrument building for artists all over the world.
Tom lives in Snohomish and has been married to his lovely wife Susan since 1991. They have three grown daughters and a new grandson.
Preston Lull -
Administrator
Gehrig Uhles -
Luthier
Less than a week after graduating Roberto Venn School of Luthiery, Gehrig began his career at Mike Lull’s Custom Guitars.
Although his passion for tinkering began as kid by taking apart every piece of furniture and VCR his parents owned, he now puts his talents to better use in extensive guitar repair and guitar building.
After a 4 year stint at Dusty Strings learning the ins and outs of vintage acoustic repair, Gehrig is back at his roots here at Mike Lull’s Custom Guitars.
When not in the shop you can find him playing in his band, High Pulp, at a brewery, or humiliating his coworkers on the golf course.
Michael Collins -
Luthier
Michael grew up in a musical family which led to an innate curiosity about musical instruments, their design and construction. He completed the luthiery course at Roberto-Venn in the fall of 1992. After working in repairs at a few music stores, he was hired at the Massachusetts firm of Hubbard and Broekman Harpsichords and Fortepianos where he honed his skills in manufacturing and woodworking.
Meeting his wife prompted a move to Canada, where he took a special interest in the construction of Archtop and Selmer-Maccaferri guitars and authored a book and instructional video on the subject.
After his return to the US, he opened a shop in Phoenix Arizona to continue to build instruments as well as honing his skills in CAD drafting and CNC manufacturing in his shop, while also working for Fender Musical Instrument Corporation.
When he is not designing, building, repairing or playing musical instruments, he likes to spend time with his wife and children as well as enjoying the great outdoors while long-distance cycling and camping.
Michael is extremely pleased to join the Mike Lull Guitar Works team and settle in the Pacific Northwest.
Anthony Ludington -
Luthier Apprentice
Anthony is an Indiana native whose comedy career in Arizona led him to stumbling upon Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. He was fascinated by the notion that he could learn to build and maintain the tools used by artists and attended R-V's Fall 2020 Five-Month Guitar Making and Repair program.
Anthony now calls Washington State home, he is proud to be part of the outstanding crew at Mike Lull's Guitar Works.
In his spare time, he writes & performs stand-up comedy, makes tie dyes, and of course, plays guitar!
Alex Sorotchkine -
Luthier
Alex Sorotchkine began a lifetime love affair with music (and guitars, in particular) in early childhood. After secondary school in the former Soviet Union, he spent two years in the College of the Arts in Siberia and another five years in the College of Music in St. Petersburg, after which he toured with his band playing lead guitar and working in music production until 1991 when he emigrated to the U.S.
Ultimately landing in Phoenix, Alex spent the next seventeen years taking courses and classes in music and video production, script writing, and, ultimately, producing a music production that traveled in India. His guitar(s) have always been his closest (non)living relatives! In 2014, Alex attended Roberto Venn School of Luthiery and followed up his time there with apprentice work, additional courses, and working with CNC technology and 3-D modeling.
Alex is thrilled to have the opportunity to work at Mike Lull's Guitar Works - a company whose passion and reputation for quality work and dedication to detail match his own.
Larry DeMyer -
Luthier
As a kid at summer camp, Larry injured his foot and didn’t want to go home. One of the counselors gave him a guitar, taught him three chords and suggested he figure out how to play it. That was the beginning of a lifelong passion to learn all he could about guitars and music.
As soon as he could, Larry applied to and graduated from the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, studying under William Eaton, John Roberts and Bob Venn. Between 1978 to 2004, he worked in a number of vintage guitar shops based out of his hometown of Indianapolis as a luthier, guitar buyer and appraiser.
Larry has toured the United States, Canada, Ireland and Europe with his guitars and has worked as an audio engineer/producer with many album credits. Two years ago he left the Chicago area to follow his son, a professional dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and now lives in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. Larry is honored to be part of the team at Mike Lull.