Pro Guitar Team
Pro Guitar Safe-T-Stand was founded and designed by professional guitarists, a couple of aspiring newbies and several other successful business professionals.
Barry Levenson, Founder. Personal Website, Personal Wikipedia Page. Pittsburgh native Barry Levenson’s lifelong love affair with the blues began at an early age. At fourteen, an older friend played him some of Buddy Guy’s Vanguard records and Levenson immediately fell hopelessly and passionately in love with this great American art form. Levenson attended the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston and has worked with blues greats Big Mama Thornton, Pee Wee Crayton, Percy Mayfield, Lowell Fulson and J.D. Nicholson. He was also included on 2 Delta Laserlight compilations, Blues Guitar Heaven along with Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker and Mike Bloomfield to name a few; and Blues for a Rainy Day with T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy and Bobby Bland. Other highlights of Levenson’s career include work on William Clarke’s Groove Time CD, and traveling the world playing guitar for Canned Heat from 2006-2010.
Bernie Hamburger, Founder and Lead Design. Custom Guitar Builder. In a word, Bernie Hamburger is a custom guitar legend. He's an excellent guitarist in his own right but is mostly known for building some of the best custom guitars on the planet. He built and sold his first guitar in 1983 to Andy Summers of the Police. He's since built and sold untold numbers of custom guitars for icons such as George Harrison of the Beatles, Carl Perkins, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and many, many more.
Karen Lynn "Klynn" Person, Founder. LinkedIn Profile. Klynn has been in show business since she could talk. Known for her ability to memorize her lines and everyone else's, she excelled in the arts arena and at a young age. She wrote lyrics for skits as a pre-teen and starred in many community theatre shows growing up. After graduating from college, she immediately went to NYC to pursue her dreams! In NYC she was able to take voice lessons from Don Lawrence, voice coach to the "stars" including Lady GaGa and Christina Aguilera. As a member of Actors Equity, SAG and AFTRA, she not only found her way to Broadway, but her biggest secret is that she was on the Gong Show! Years later, she found that her love of writing, teaching, music, films and musical theatre led her in a new direction. JULY MOON, an award winning documentary with the original footage from "America's Moon Landing" and starring Buzz Aldrin was her own concept including black and white reenacted footage of the discovery of the original tapes! The lyrics from the theme song JULY MOON, were also written by her. Currently she is working on several musical concept Reality Shows and a Broadway Musical with book and lyrics written by her with the musical composition by Tim Grossi, Founder and President of Fragile Music Group. Karen also acts as our legal advisor.
David Ruggles, Founder, Design, President and CEO. LinkedIn Profile, AutosAndEconomics Blog, Twitter, YouTube
Jeff Cook, Founder. LinkedIn Profile, Twitter, YouTube. Cook is one of the ’newbies’ of the group. He started his journey learning to play guitar in 2015 at the spry age of 46. Since that time, he's progressed immensely with the help of several YouTube video personalities who offer paid and free online guitar lessons. These include (in no particular order):
- Steve Stine at Steve Stine Guitar Lessons and GuitarZoom.com
- Andy Crowley at Andy Guitar
- Craig Martin aka PartyMarty at EasyGuitarTunes
- Justin Sandercoe at JustinGuitar
- Marty Schwartz at MartyMusic
- Sean Daniel at Sean Daniel
Jack Wojack, Founder. LinkedIn Profile. Jack Wojack is the engineer of the group. Jack's varied career has taken him from Chrysler Corporation, 3M and Continental Engines. Along the way, he built a Factory 5 Racing Cobra and has ventured out on the track more than a few times. A fledgling guitar player, Jack just acquired a vintage Ampeg Gemini II, with the original tubes still present. Jack has extensive experience in fabrication and design, and is an expert in importing products from China, the global source for bamboo. He is also Safe-T-Stand laisson to the Chicago guitar scene.
Tony Grassano, Founder and Lead Design. Lead Guitarist of The Rum Runners and Pyro Surfers, both based in Las Vegas, NV. Tony started playing in New York more than 50 years ago. His Dad was in the military so he moved around a lot. He discovered that guitar would be his life’s passion at the age of twelve. He used to live in Taiwan where he would play at the officers club and NCO Club. He has opened for some of the greats such as “The King of the Surf Guitar” Dick Dale, rocker Link Wray, and rock and blues guitarist Coco Montoya. He played with the Las Vegas surf band the Sin City Surfers for years and has played at The Hard Rock, and at numerous festivals and events.
Caden Powell, Founder and Design. LinkedIn Profile. Caden is the youngest member of our team in terms of age, but not in the realm of business. Caden is a successful entrepreneur and business owner. His window and pressure washing businesses keep him busy and as the holidays come around, he has a holiday lighting enterprise too. He is also an aspiring guitar player and plays with several Las Vegas bands while also participating frequently in local Jam Sessions. Caden is an experienced Social Media enthusiast and an electronic expert who also builds his own amplifying equipment.