Linda Manzer

Manzer, Linda

Linda (Jane) Manzer. Guitar builder, b Toronto, 2 Jul 1952. She studied briefly at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and apprenticed 1974-8 with Jean Larrivée in Toronto and Victoria. Establishing her own shop in Toronto in 1978, Manzer specialized initially in flat-top, steel-string acoustic guitars and then, after studies 1983-4 in New York with James D'Aquisto, began also to make archtop instruments. She had completed some 120 guitars by 1990. Heather Bishop, Liona Boyd, Bruce Cockburn, Mike 'Pepe' Francis, Marie-Lynn Hammond, Gordon Lightfoot, and Sherry Shute have owned Manzer guitars, as have the US guitarists Pat Metheny and Carlos Santana, and the Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento. Manzer has also built several custom-designed and miniature instruments - eg, a charanga for Cockburn, the 42-string 'Pikasso,' the six-string 'Methenytone' and a 12-string tiple for Metheny, and a 20-string gitaroon for the Chilean guitarist Angel Parra.