While in his teen years Rob was passionate about Woodworking & Music. His building & repairing of musical instruments started sometime in his late teen years, as he discovered that he loved to work with Wood & Music. Rob’s very grateful for all the musicians, builders, luthiers and repairman who taught, mentored, inspired & encouraged him to keep at it, including Bernardo “Bernie” Rico Sr.(B.C. Rich Guitars), Fred Gerlach, John, Ed & Rudy Dopyera (O.M.I.), John Quarterman, Red Simpson, Robin Williams, Tony Vorell, Ren Ferguson, Larry Brown, Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Doc Kaufman, most memorably. The education Rob received from his mentors was invaluable...not at all comparable as going to guitar making classes or a luthier school. Rob started out mostly by trial and error... trying to repair broken instruments, and building mountain dulcimers (while working in cabinet shops, going to school, and pestering luthiers). After college, he started his career working for some of the world’s largest known guitar manufactures.
In 1972, Rob began his professional career at Original Musical Instruments “Dobro”
(resonator guitars), the inventors & designers of “National & Dobro” Guitars, (the
Dopyera brothers, Emil (Ed) & Rudy). While there, he worked with John Quarterman
(Quarterman Res-
From there in 1973, Rob apprenticed with world famous Master Luthier, Ren Ferguson
(Ferguson Guitars & Banjos), where he helped build John McLaughlin's famous "Double Rainbow"
guitar, along with many pre-
After that in 1974, Rob was then employed by CBS Musical Instruments (Fender®,
Rodgers & Rhodes), working in the Neck Fabrication Dept. until he was promoted to the Quality
Control Dept., where he found the sister of George Harrison's famous solid rosewood
Fender® Telecaster guitar from 1968, buried under a heap of boxes. In 1976, when
Mr. Leo Fender went back into business as CLF Research, for (Music Man Guitars),
Rob was employed in the Wood Shop and Assembly Dept. for CLF Research (Music Man),
and later becoming (G & L Guitars). Within six months, warranty repairs were starting
to come in, and Rob was asked by Mr. Fender, to head up the Repair Dept., where he
worked on guitars owned by the famous Albert Lee, Joe DiBartola, Carl Perkins, Johnny
Cash, James Burton, Eric Clapton, and many others. While working at “Music Man” (pre-
In 1979, Rob moved to S.Oregon, and in 1980 started his own musical instrument repair business until 1998, when he started to pursue other interests.
In 2007, after great demand & requests, Rob felt led to start the Repair Shop back up again, as "BlueNoteWoodworks.com" under RC Enterprises LLC.
As a follower of Christ, Rob believes that all music is created and inspired by God, the giver of Life & our Eternal Living Soul. And that God gave us Art & Music, the language of our Soul & our Inspired Worship. Rob's desire is to help bring God's Inspired Art & Music back to the venues, streets & homes of today's mainstream culture.
About
Rob Cusumano has been building & repairing musical instruments professionally, since 1972. He was born and raised in the burbs of L.A. County CA, of Italian descent. He had mentored under, and worked for, some of the world’s largest & most popular guitar manufactures and luthiers in the world. With over 30 years of experience in manufacturing & repairing thousands of instruments, rest assured, Rob will professionally take care of and handle your prized instrument with up most care. Today Rob continues to strive to help his customers get the best possible sound & performance out of their instruments.