Welcome to the new website and a new company!
A New Beginning
I am very excited to launch this new company, The Gabriel Tenorio String Co. It is the result of a long and arduous path that has lead to this moment. Over the years, we, Guadalupe Custom Strings, have made our most sincere effort to re-establish and further evolve our little company. I am glad to say that as a result of the hard work of our team, founder, and matron. Our little company has become an amazing cultural and technical woodshed for so many of us. Along with our old and new customers, we have begun in earnest to build a return client base and a reputation for quality and service. There is always room for growth and this new company I am launching will help us all focus and specialize our efforts as string-makers--mine being Electric and Acoustic Guitars, as well as other fine metal strings.
Based on Tradition
My history with string making/Guadalupe Custom Strings started around two decades ago as a young professional musician. It was an honor and thrill to meet a legendary/infamous musician/string maker like Francisco Gonzalez at his shop in Goleta Ca. I say infamous because his strings were almost considered 'dangerous.' I took that to mean they were to be reckoned with and indeed, they were. It changed my perspectives on strings, luthery, and performance in a way that cannot be unlearned. It was liberating to play comfortably. It was powerful as an experience to be handed a string for my instrument for my playing by a master musician. It also made me a bit spoiled, actually very much so. I didnt have the same struggle with tuning, durability, or even finding the right strings in a retail outlet. I was freed from that weird thing that instrumentalists who play 'regional' music go through of stressing out at a music store piecing parts of sets. Guadalupe Custom Strings was founded on the principle of making the highest quality strings for our traditional instruments that are not represented in major commercial outlets, to keep them affordable, and to continue that tradition.
As with any art or craft, it takes dedication, persistence, sacrifice, and contingency, to turn it into a tradition. We are proud to continue to develop Guadalupe Custom Strings as a place to explore the work of our founder, traditional musics, and to build atop that. As part of my personal path with stringmaking, it came out of necessity, curiosity, and obsessiveness. I'll talk more about my process as we get along with building this company.
The New Company
The Gabriel Tenorio String Company is focused on producing the lines of Electric, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, and other fine metals that I've developed over the last decade. I am proud to say that I continue with Francisco's Original Standard Formula for Phosphor Bronze Round Core Acoustic strings (13's) which is the string that taught me so much about approaching gauges and metals. I am proud to have built the rest of my acoustic line based on his original formula. Once I stumbled upon understanding why my electric guitar strings always sounded so great and lasted so long, I began to develop the electric lines. I was also lucky enough to meet folks like Mason Stoops, Michael James Adams, and Daniel Tyack, who were instrumental in informing me, hours of testing with the best gear, and nothing but encouragement.
A year after attending my first NAMM (as a string maker) and actually showing at Nashville, the demand for these lines has grown and in order to protect the mission of Guadalupe Custom Strings and to continue to explore the work I've done, we've decided launching this new company as a positive and exicitng step. (think of it like the CustomShop, sorta).