John LeClair

Owner & Partner / Head of Repairs

Overall description of yourself. Who you are, where you are from, a little industry background.

My name is John LeClair (not the hockey player). I grew up in Reading Pa, where pretzels, Showbiz Pizza Place, and a Pagoda with a chimney all felt normal to us. I started playing guitar in the summer of 1996 when watching my best friend get kissed by three girls after playing some mediocre Nirvana riffs at a pool party. I immediately asked my parents for a guitar after that. I quickly learned that you had to play guitar AND be handsome if you wanted to get kissed. I couldn’t LEARN to be handsome but I could learn how to play some fairly difficult Metallica riffs. So, I didn’t get kissed that summer (insert frowny face here). For the next seven years, I soaked up as much as I could about guitars, amps, effects, and rock and roll. In 2003, in the back of a Guitar World magazine, I saw an ad for Luthiers International, a guitar repair school led by John Marshall in Georgia. My dad put up the money and sent me that fall. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me up until that point in my life. Once I finished school, I started repairing and modifying my own guitars, which turned into friend’s guitars, then client’s guitars, and I eventually had to start a waitlist. Word got out, and now I’m teaching others how to repair and modify guitars whenever I get free time.

I’m very proud to say I co-founded Tone Tailors in 2015 with two incredible partners that helped build this shop into what it is today. When I get days off I’m usually creating weird sounds on my guitar, working on my handicap, hiking, or searching the internet for 1980’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I watch a ton of zombie movies and Phillies baseball (when there aren’t sucking too bad). If the band Phish is playing anywhere near the North East I will most likely be there.

What do you play:

I play electric guitar. Currently, you would be hard-pressed to find me playing acoustic guitar.

Past and present bands:

I’ve played guitar in Franny’s Wolf, Boop Loomis, The Main Street Mystics, The Dabby Paddy Allstars, and countless other projects and pickup bands.

Hobbies:

I play golf, flyfish, and I study herpticulture.

Favorite food:

Jiff Peanut Butter!

Top 5 pieces of gear I own:

Digitech Whammy, PRS Hollowbody II, Boss Sy-1

Bucket list gear:

1996 Fender Lonestar Strat in Teal Green Metallic… I take it back! My wife bought me one as a wedding gift!

Top 5 bands:

In no particular order – Phish, Hall & Oates, A Tribe Called Quest, Taylor Swift, and Stone Temple Pilots.

Best concert:

4-17-2002 Rob Zombie at the Electric Factory Philadelphia, Pa Cool local bands: Yam Yam, You Me And Everyone We Know, and Tuck Ryan Band.