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Amit R Sadras
(left) with business
partner Tal Macmull
INDUSTRY INSIDER Guitars was born. Sharon Levi came into
MACMULL CUSTOM GUITARS our lives in a very dramatic way. He’s our
in-house devil’s advocate, and he’s unafraid
INTERVIEW SAM ROBERTS to be constructively critical where necessary.
Sharon became a mentor to me and Tal, and
We speak to owner Amit R Sadras about how this he was a big influence at Macmull thanks to
Jerusalem-based guitar brand turned a passion project his genuine musician’s perspective.”
into a viable business by focusing on timeless designs
Starting a small business is tough. Did you
How did you get into guitar? and learn through blood sweat and tears. get any help or support in the early days?
“Our story began when Tal and I met as We’re self-taught, which gave us the drive “The only investment was self-investment.
kids. We’ve been friends ever since. We to get things done.” We’ve invested our hearts and souls, every
built our first two guitars in 2004, when minute of every day. No investors or
we were 16. Tal was always that kid who When did you realise you had a viable business? government grants. We’ve had a few offers
could naturally fix anything. He could find “In about 2010, after spending a few years from business investors and partnerships
technical errors and, despite having no completing our mandatory army service, we but we tend to refuse them because we
formal experience, come up with solutions started taking our profession more seriously. don’t want to sell Macmull’s identity.”
quickly. He still isn’t afraid of turning a I was into the worlds of guitar and sound,
vision into a reality on the workbench, and had my own recording studio at the At what point did you feel like you had really
which is often a difficult thing to do. time. We were always involved in each nailed your branding?
“We were music-obsessed teenagers back other’s work. I helped Tal in the workshop “There are so many great vintage-style
then. We couldn’t collectively afford to buy and he helped me in the studio. At that builders out there, and we all share the
a guitar good enough to meet our standards point, our business was local and so were same outlines and curves. We had to come
but thankfully we shared a passion and a our clients. After many years of guitar and up with something that will represent
deep mutual ambition. Tal had technical sound research, we had the dream of doing our philosophy of simplicity. Our original
experience and I had playing experience. something that hadn’t been done before. headstock was testament to that and
Just like that, the seedlings of Macmull We wanted to fix the issues we had in the became the symbol of Macmull guitars
guitars were planted. studio and workshop, and discover how in terms of branding.”
“We were getting into it deep at a time to bring back that vintage sound to the
when it was difficult to find literature and forefront of the modern guitar building. How did you come up with your best-selling product?
information. YouTube wasn’t even a thing We put all of our passion, knowledge and “Our Heartbreaker series. Our approach
yet. We had no choice but to work hard experience together and Macmull Custom to sound is bright and unique, which
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