Played byBen Lacy · Munky of Korn · Matteo Mancuso · Cory Wong · Mark Lettieri · Ron Artis II & more
As seen inGuitar World · Premier Guitar · Reverb · Chicago Music Exchange
Who he is
The self-taught
groove guitarist
from Kentucky.
One lesson. That is all Ben Lacy ever took. He picked up the guitar at seven in Lexington, Kentucky, sat through a single session with a classical teacher, and taught himself everything after that on Kentucky bandstands, playing jazz, funk, dance and heavy rock until the styles blurred into one. Around the year 2000 he went solo, and audiences have been walking out dazed ever since, trying to put words to what one person just did with one guitar.
Guitar Player magazine put him on its list of the Top 101 Forgotten Greats and Unsung Guitar Heroes. He has shared stages with Frank Gambale and Tommy Emmanuel, and opened for Victor Wooten, Leon Russell and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. These days it takes one clip online, and the comments fill with the same disbelief, how is a single pair of hands making all of that sound.
“Beyond groove.” Two words, his own, for a solo guitar style nobody else quite plays.
How it found its voice
The sound the guitar was missing.
When the bluesman Dan Mudd plugged in Bruno's first baritone, he said: “if this guitar had more bass, it would be amazing.” That one line opened a gap, and Bruno set out to fill it. He fitted half of a Precision bass pickup, and the Leonardo dual output was born: two independent outputs, guitar and bass, from a single instrument.
In Minneapolis, recording Mudd's album, a session guitarist fell for it on the spot and bought it. A month later that guitarist, Cory Wong, released the first Fearless Flyers video with the Bacci baritone in his hands. When Mark Lettieri heard it, he had Bruno build his own.
Dan Mudd asked. Bruno answered with an instrument unlike any other.
