March 20, 2017

Meet Fren Asken of Asken Guitars in West Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Fren Asken.

Fren, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I own Asken Guitars in Los Angeles. I do guitar repair and restoration, as well as hand build guitars.

I grew up in a musical family in Connecticut, and have always been mechanically, as well as musically inclined. I played a number of instruments as a kid, including guitar, bass, cello, piano, recorder, trombone, flute and drums. There was always an old Gibson guitar in the corner that my mom had bought before I was born and I started strumming it when I was about 6 years old. I played cello in youth orchestras in grade school, but got serious about guitar when I was about 12 and started practicing religiously. We were a classical music family, but I was much more drawn to rock and jazz as a teenager. I played in bands ranging from progressive to southern rock to oldies to original rock and even be-bop.

When I was about 13 I wanted to install a humbucking pickup into a Fender Mustang, which had single coils, so I chiseled out the pickup cavity with a hammer and a flat head screwdriver until it fit. It wasn’t very elegant, but it worked. Fortunately, my technique has improved since then. After that I started doing my own setups, making my own nuts, swapping out pickups and doing other electronics.

After I graduated high school, I moved to Hollywood and went to the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT), which is now MI. I ended up signing a management deal which soon went nowhere, and I ended up moving to Boston where I played in several bands, and worked as a salesman at E. U. Wurlitzer Music, which was the biggest music store in the city. It was there that I bought a Schecter neck and DiMarzio body and I began to assemble and work on my own, as well as friends guitars. I’ve used that guitar as a test bed ever since.

I moved back to Los Angeles in 1983, played with lots of bands and worked lots of different jobs. I even had a recording studio for a while. All the while I was working on guitars for myself and my friends, which I did as a hobby until about 2004 when I decided to transition from my web development job to guitar repair full time. I upgraded my lutherie skills and put a guitar repair ad on Craigslist every few days and began to build a clientele. I was also working for DeTemple Guitars for about a year, learning as much as I could from master luthier Michael DeTemple, who builds some of the finest guitars I’ve ever played. I was glad to find out that we had similar philosophies about guitar construction. Pretty soon I was so busy I couldn’t get out from under the work, and I haven’t had an empty shop since.

I’m always trying to further develop my skills and am constantly tested by some of the mangled instruments that come in the shop. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work on many guitars from artists that I admire.

I build original design fat neck electric guitars from scratch. My goal is to make the guitar so comfortable to play that it’s almost invisible. Everyone I build is my favorite, until the next one.

My shop is in my garage, so my commute is short. After 12 years in business it still feels like a hobby to me and I look forward to my work everyday.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve been fortunate that since I started doing this I haven’t run out of work. My clientele has always seemed to grow. Obviously, some repairs are more difficult than others, but I’ve been able to get through everything that I thought I could. One great thing about this job is that people have a passion for guitars that I share, so it’s more personal than fixing a car or something. They really appreciate when you do a good job and reward you with loyalty. As with any repairmen, I’ve had some instruments that didn’t work out as well as others, but I’m always my own harshest critic.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Asken Guitars – what should we know?
I repair, restore, and build guitars. Besides the common repairs like set ups, pickup swaps, nuts, saddles, etc., I do a lot of acoustic guitar repair and often end up as someone’s last resort, because I’ll fix just about anything that’s fixable. I do lots of crack repairs and impact damage, neck resets, bridge resets, new custom fabricated bridges, finish touch ups, neck reshaping, fret dress, refret…just about anything. I’ve done quite a few restorations as well. I think my professional experience playing guitar has had a huge impact on my luthiery.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I’m a huge fan of the guitar…playing and fixing, and I think my enthusiasm for my craft shows. I’ve always tried to do the best job I can, listen to my client’s needs, and be as helpful as possible. I seem to have a lot of repeat clients, so it appears to be working.

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