ROBERT BUCHANAN
Owner - Buchanan Music

RUSH HARLEY
Master Luthier & Guitar Technician - Buchanan Music - Mesa, Arizona

Rush Harley works on a neck reset with an Epiphone Acoustic Guitar.

"I have a deep passion for working on and building guitars."

Rush Harley, has been a Luthier for 25 years and a guitar player for 32 years. He has been involved in wood manufacturing, production assembly and computer aided drafting. He holds and a Certificate of Completion from the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix Arizona, and an Associates of Applied Science degree from ITT.

He recounts his first attempt at building a guitar at the age of 16:

“I was inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Frankenstein’ guitar. I read in Rolling Stone Magazine, that he had chiseled out the humbucker cavity and so I did the same thing, but I didn’t have a chisel so I used a flat blade screwdriver! It worked… just barely. I bought the neck, a Fender, from a local music store. I worked every week to buy the next part I needed. When it was finished, I played it in the Jazz band that school year."

At that young age and lacking the proper tools and skills, he set out on a mission of learning which has never ended.

Rush began his employment at Buchanan Music in 2008 apprenticing under Robert Buchanan for over three years. When Buchanan relocated to California, Harley became the Master Technician at Buchanan Music. Rush's attention to detail, ability to determine customers' needs, and significant experience has earned him a great deal of recognition in Arizona. Rush's Corner, the official blog of the Buchanan Music Repair Center, is the highest visited section of BuchananMusic.net and about 80% of Buchanan Music's testimonials address Rush's work.

MARY McINTOSH
Operations Manager - Buchanan Music - Mesa, Arizona

TIMOTHY SCHROEDER
Associate - Buchanan Music - Mesa, Arizona

Timothy hails from Falkconer, New York and is a recent transplant to the Mesa area. An accomplished guitar player for over ten years, Timothy is training under Rush Harley, in the repair area, to be able to work on all instruments.

JONATHAN VARO
Store Manager, Marketing & Webmaster - Buchanan Music - Mesa, Arizona

Jonathan Varo with Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars in 2009.

Jonathan Varo is a music industry veteran with over 10 years of experience in music retail and over 20 in music education. A graduate of Boston's famed Berklee College of Music, Jonathan holds a Bachelors Degree of Music with a dual emphasis on Music Synthesis and Film Scoring. He has studied with Professor, Dr. Richard Boulanger, and has worked extensively on CSound and advanced MIDI systems which have impacted the way computers process music and sound today. Jonathan's work is published in The CSound Book by Dr. Boulanger for the first ever virtual Yamaha DX-7 within CSound. His work also illustrates the very first General MIDI library of virtual Yamaha DX-7 instruments ever programmed. In 1995, he moved to Louisiana and studied composition at the LSU School of Music with Dr. Stephen Beck. He also helped form the Baton Rouge based group, Crosstown Traffic, which toured the Southeastern United States for over four years.

Jonathan has taught piano, voice, songwriting, and has coached musicians and ensembles alike. He started teaching piano at age 18, student taught other Music Synthesis students at Berklee from 1993-1995, taught private lessons in Baton Rouge and New Orleans from 1996-2000, and assisted instructors at the World Music Nashville Education Center from 2001-2010.

In 2001, Jonathan moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began his career in music retail industry at World Music Nashville with retail veteran, Larry Faragalli. Working his way up through the ranks from salesman, web master and finally to store manager, Jonathan assisted in the development of WMN to help make it one of the premier music retailers in the United States. While at World Music Nashville, Jonathan developed the WMN web site, designed many of the promotional materials, and represented the company for many events and fundraisers in the Nashville area. In 2010, he resigned from World Music Nashville to move to Mesa, Arizona with his family. Jonathan began his employment at Buchanan Music in December of 2010 and took over the administration of the company in March of 2011. He is the designer and administrator of BUCHANANMUSIC.NET.

Jonathan Varo works the Gretsch Booth during the Brian Setzer Orchestra performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.Jonathan has performed and recorded with a variety of musicians over the years, sharing the stage and studio with: Phil Keaggy, The Little River Band, Stan Lassiter, Leo Lyons of Ten Years After, songwriter Alex Harvey, Ric Olsen of Gibson Corporation and the 80s rock band, Berlin, Kyle Jones (Emmy-Award Winning percussionist and composer), Ned Lubericki of Sirius Satellite Radio Bluegrass, Joe Pisapia (Guster), Marc Pisapia, David St. Romain (Nashville Star), Patrick Blackwell Ward of The Grayces, David Wallace (Jake Owen), Brett K. Smith (Matt Stillwell), Dan Tyler (songwriter and producer), Glass Harp, Doug McCall and many more. At World Music Nashville, Jonathan served many of Nashville's top session musicians and artists: Tim Akers, Sam Bush, Lee Roy Parnell, Peter Huttlinger, John Knowles C.G.P., Pam Rose, Muriel Anderson, Tom Hemby, Jake Owen, Porter Howell of Little Texas, Crystal Gale, Nash, Ian, Ryan & Jaime of Hot Chelle Rae, Mac Davis, Felix Caviliere, Brad Paisley, Jace Everett, Dan Cohen, Tom Keifer of Cinderella, Denny Jiosa, Chris Cottros, Kerry Collins (NFL Quarterback and songwriter), Victor Wooten, Chely Wright, George Marinelli, Alex Call (songwriter of Jenny, 867-5309), Leon Russell, Wynonna Judd, among others.