“I’ve done somewhere close to 30,000 fret jobs. Holding a crowning file for that many hours a day will tear you up if you’re not careful”: How fixing thousands of guitars changed the way Tulsa blues cat Seth Lee Jones plays the thing

Seth Lee Jones in his workshop with a 1969 Gibson ES-345.

Tulsa, Oklahoma’s, Seth Lee Jones is best known as a master luthier, but thanks to the swampy blues and country licks on his latest album, Tulsa Custom, that could easily change. Songs like the 5/4-time stomp Good Dog, album-opener 110 and the languid Bird of Paradise showcase his fluid slide skills and proclivity for punchy blues-rock riffs.

“I’ve always found myself coming back to blues,” says Jones, who studied classical and jazz in addition to graduating top of his class from the Musicians Institute Guitar Craft Academy. “Blues and country are really closely related. If you look at them musically, they’re not too far apart, and one feeds the other.”