By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

Matt Sohl feels like he lives a fantasy lifestyle: Traveling around the world with notable rock bands as their guitar tech, and at the same time running a guitar-repair shop in a rural town in Maine.

The side gig satisfies his concert cravings. Meanwhile, his main job takes Sohl along the journey musicians have with their instruments.  

“I get kids who bring me their first guitar and veteran players who are bringing me their $7,000 instrument to fine tune,” Sohl said. “There are not a whole lot of guitar builders or guitar repair people, especially locally. In Portland, there are a couple. I am here. I make sure everyone plays the instrument before it goes out the door and has a pleasant experience.”

“I want people to come and check it out. This is a friendly place to talk music and rock and roll. Bring your guitar. It is not like your guitar goes into a mystery room. You can sit down with me while I repair your guitar,” he said. “It is important to have that connection with people that you wouldn’t get at a guitar center.”

Sohl owns Sohl Guitars, which operates out of the garage/home located 4 S. High St., which is near the statue in Bridgton. Sharing space with Yahoo Music & More — Sohl Guitars is a separate but complementary business.

“I’m offering complete guitar setups, wiring modifications, refrets, and custom guitar builds,” he said. 

Sohl has seven years of experience as a professional guitar-maker at the company Sadowsky in New York. He has been able to use that talent after returning to Maine and going into business for himself.

“I’m from here originally. I grew up in Maine. I went to Fryeburg Academy,” Sohl said.

In 2015, Sohl moved to New York City. 

“I got a job building guitars professionally when I moved to New York City. I worked for a company called Sadowsky,” he said.

Sadowsky was started by Roger Sadowsky, a famous maker of stringed instruments. The occupation is referred to as a luthier.

“I started off from the very bottom doing body sanding and I worked my way up to the top being the production lead, and was there for seven years,” he said. “In that time, I learned from my colleagues, who are pretty renowned luthiers how to build my own guitars.”

“Basically, I learned all of my technical skills in the sense of all the correct math, all the measurements, the fine details, the minutia of guitar building and what that looks like. It is not a guess,” he said.

“It is really fun. I love my job,” he said, picking up a guitar to tune.

“The creative part is the best. The math part is the stuff that hurts your brain. It is the fundamentals. You have to learn it,” he said, stopping to explain.

“It is such a big effort to make a guitar, if you are not making it perfect, you are wasting everyone’s time,” he said.

It is always going to be substandard if it isn’t built to precision the first time, he said.

He wants Sohl Guitar’s to be part of the musical community.

“I want people to feel like it is a welcoming, safe place to come and learn about it. I am not trying to be gatekeeper of the information. I want to teach people who are interested,” he said. “If anyone is interested in building a guitar, my shop is open for you to talk to me and learn about it.”

How did Sohl get to this point? He’s self-employed and doing what he enjoys. It all started with the love of music, he said.

“I’m a musician. I’ve played all over the place, releasing my own music, which is how I got into this line of work,” he said.

During the pandemic, Sohl left behind his life in New York City and returned to Maine. A few years later, Sohl saw that someone had opened the music shop, Yaboo Music & More.

“He was looking for a guitar repair person. I answered the call, and it turns out I was the right guy for it because I had all these tools and all this know-how from doing that job,” he said. 

“When I’m not here, another form of what I end up doing is: I work with touring artists as a guitar tech. So, I have traveled all over the world working with different artists. I am the guy on side of stage who will set up their amps, do guitars swaps,” Sohl said.

Artists that Matt has worked with include Band of Horses, Sleeping with Sirens, August Burns Red, and LP.

“I get a chance to travel the world with rock stars and setup their guitar amps, and make sure the show goes on,” he said.