Mike Eldred

Mike Eldred is an American guitarist and luthier. Eldred originally came to national attention while backing Lee Rocker in the mid-1990s. He also served as director of the Fender Custom Shop. He has put out four albums as leader of the Mike Eldred Trio. Career Early career Eldred, a native of California, started playing guitar at 14 when his parents bought him an instrument. He started building guitars at age 19 and was hired by the Charvel company in early 1979. He worked there for about eight or nine years, then joined Yamaha Corporation, where he also spent roughly eight or nine years. Eldred also eventually started a blues band called The Blue Diamonds, which recorded a demo tape to get club bookings. The tape came to the notice of Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats, who were breaking up. Setzer passed his copy on to Stray Cats bass player Lee Rocker.