The roots of St. Blues started in the 1960’s, when Tom Keckler went to work for Mike Ladd, who was well known in the Memphis music scene, at Mike Ladd’s Guitar City. He had gone to high school and played with Greg and Duane Allman but couldn’t join them when they started Allman Joy. He was in a band call The Breakers that was so popular the Yardbirds opened for them when they played Memphis.
Mike also did custom customization and soon he and TK built a reputation for doing some of the best customization work in the country. People like Jimmy Page from Led Zepplin were customers of Mike Ladd’s. Page liked what they had done so much he even asked them to go on tour and tech for them. Many other guitar legends followed over the years. The shop, located across the street from Graceland, ended up building a special guitar for Elvis that was a birthday present from his dad. This one-of-a-kind guitar can be seen being played by Elvis in his “Elvis, Live from Hawaii” video.
After a long illness, Mike Ladd closed his store in 1972 and Keckler moved his custom shop to Strings & Things, the legendary Memphis music store founded by Chris Lovell and Charlie Lawing. In 1978, Tom left Memphis to hook up with Tom Anderson and David Schecter to turn Schecter Guitar Research from a parts supplier to a guitar company. In 1983, he moved back to Memphis and rejoined Chris and Charlie to build custom guitars for Strings and Things. These first generation guitars were called S&T Custom Workshop Guitars and dealers were wild for the guitars but not for the name. The name was changed to St. Blues in 1984 and the brand was born.
The first original prototype designed for St. Blues was the Bluesmaster. Its unique shape, vintage appearance and playability created a lot of interest from players. The list of people who played that Bluesmaster is impressive, and includes Bono on the Rattle and Hum album, Elliot Easton of the Cars, Eric Clapton, Marshall Crenshaw, Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult, Scott Page (Pink Floyd, Toto), Billy Squier, Martin Briley, Elvin Bishop, Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Dave Edmunds, Albert King, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many more.
While the guitars were a critical success, in 1989, with the dollar at an historic low against the Yen, St. Blues, single sourced by ESP in Japan, was priced out of the market. Without the capital to retool elsewhere, they mothballed the line, but continued to build custom guitars.
Interest in the line has never waned, with sales of vintage St. Blues models on eBay going for record prices. In 2004, Vintage Guitar Magazine wrote several articles about these guitars with Jeff Carlisi singing it praises above all of his other guitars, creating a new demand. Players and dealers alike wouldn’t let it go, so in 2006 St. Blues was reborn by investment from Memphis Ventures and Bryan M. Eagle III with Keckler back at the wheel. Today, every St. Blues guitar is finished and set up in Memphis and will always have its roots in this hallowed ground.
