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Who We Are

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Owner/ Master Luthier

David Hosler

David Hosler has more than 40 years of experience designing, building and repairing stringed instruments. His Luthery experience is combined with playing lead guitar for many touring bands throughout the 80's and early 90's.

 

David first began working and building guitars in Florida.  In the early 80's he moved to Greenville, South Carolina where he opened the Guitar Workshop in Travelers Rest, SC building and servicing guitars.  His reputation and skills brought David to the attention of Taylor Guitars which soon offered him a position with the iconic company.  In the fall of 1996 he and his family moved to join Taylor Guitars in Southern California. During his time at Taylor Guitars, his talents and experience moved him up in the company, soon earning the title Vice President of Customer Service, Repair and Quality Control.  David's creative insight and experience also led him to design and create Taylor Guitars’ first proprietary pickup system, "The Taylor Expression System."  Legendary audio designer, Rupert Neve, worked together on the project and the original Expression System won numerous awards, including the coveted TEC award from the Mix Foundation.  In the following years David led the development of the Taylor T5, T3 and Solidbody line of Taylor Guitars.

In 2014 David brought another industry changing pickup design to Taylor Guitar by creating the highly acclaimed Expression System 2.

Retiring from Taylor in June of 2015 David moved back to his home state of Florida to open and operate

SEVEN C MUSIC in St. Petersburg with his son Joel.

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Co-Owner/ Master Luthier

JOEL Hosler

Joel Hosler, like his father, has over 25 years of experience building and repairing stringed instruments. He grew up watching and working along side his father at The Guitar Workshop in the Carolinas. Getting hired on at Taylor guitars in 1996 in the final assembly department, Joel began to work his way up in the company quickly becoming the head trainer and repairman for final assembly and eventually moved into the repair/custom shop where he became one of the head repairman.​

Joel also toured on and off throughout the late 90's and early 2000's releasing multiple albums with his band Noise Ratchet. Joel fronted the band where he worked and recorded with Grammy winning producers Rick Ruben and Nick Raskulinecz. After the band he landed back to Southern California where he returned to Taylor Guitars. After leaving Taylor in 2007 he worked on guitars at his home shop in So Cal and lead worship at a church in SoCal.

 

In 2016 Joel & his family returned to his home state of Florida, where he opened and runs

SEVEN C MUSIC in St. Petersburg with his father David.

Joel is also a Singer Songwriter recording and playing around the Southeast. More info here.

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Master Luthier

HUNTER ALLEN

Hunter Allen is a native Texan, born and raised on a ranch in central Texas.  In the early 1980's he moved from there to the Country Music Capital of the world, Nashville, TN. Once there he apprenticed at a small guitar shop in Spring Hill TN. learning instrument repair and building as a trade.  It wasn't long after he was hired on as one of the head repairman at Glasers Instruments in Nashville. Hunter spent 30 years at Glasers working on instruments for many legends in the music business such as, Emmy Lou Harris, Clint Black, Willie Nelson, Tony Joe White, Dwight Yokum, Keith Urban, Ricky Skaggs, Joe Bonamassa and many more... 

In 2016 Hunter moved to St Petersburg, FL enjoying the beach lifestyle and the local music scene.  Not long after moving to St Pete he joined the SEVEN C MUSIC family. With his experience and knowledge, Hunter is a great addition to the shop and a perfect compliment to the service we offer.

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Luthier/Guitar Technician

JOHN KRUEGER

John Krueger is the youngest member of our shop with over 7 years of guitar repair experience. John started fixing guitars in a big box music store in Atlanta, Georgia. He quickly excelled through the ranks reaching the top of the southeast district and learning from anyone available. Through training within the company and transferring between stores he worked in over 7 different retail locations across Georgia and Florida, eventually working his way back to his home of St. Petersburg Florida.

John has played music since a very young age and been a part of various different music projects from rock and roll to metal to folk to Church music. Music is what brought John to Atlanta to play in numerous different churches as well as local bands. It was there that he cultivated his passion for fixing guitars and various other instruments. John quickly found the ceiling in repair education in the big box music world and began to look elsewhere to further his knowledge and grow as a luthier. Being eager to gain more education of the repair trade he looked for every opportunity to hone his skill and thats how he’s found his home at SEVEN C MUSIC. On top of being one the shops top technicians, John also guitar techs for many bands such as Yellowcard, Larkin Poe, The Struts, Boyce Avenue, The Misfits and more...

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Repair Technician

AMANDA BLACKMON

Amanda Blackmon, a guitarist and singer songwriter herself was a customer for many years before she decided to join the team at 7C. Amanda is usually one of the first faces you see when you walk in the doors, helping customer with checking in their instruments or checking customers out with their purchases. She has also been honing her skills repairing instruments for over two years now and has become an asset to 7C. Wether she's doing a setup, refretting or repairing a crack or ding, she is always trying to get the customers instrument back in perfect playing condition. She has two cats

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Repair Technician

Evan Gatscher

Hunter Allen is a native Texan, born and raised on a ranch in central Texas.  In the early 1980's he moved from there to the Country Music Capital of the world, Nashville, TN. Once there he apprenticed at a small guitar shop in Spring Hill TN. learning instrument repair and building as a trade.  It wasn't long after he was hired on as one of the head repairman at Glasers Instruments in Nashville. Hunter spent 30 years at Glasers working on instruments for many legends in the music business such as, Emmy Lou Harris, Clint Black, Willie Nelson, Tony Joe White, Dwight Yokum, Keith Urban, Ricky Skaggs, Joe Bonamassa and many more... 

In 2016 Hunter moved to St Petersburg, FL enjoying the beach lifestyle and the local music scene.  Not long after moving to St Pete he joined the SEVEN C MUSIC family. With his experience and knowledge, Hunter is a great addition to the shop and a perfect compliment to the service we offer.

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