The Crew

Master Luthier Tom Albert runs the shop with help from Michael Collins, Anthony Ludington, Alex Sorotchkine, Larry DeMyer, Mike Turnwall, and Jay Smith. Spencer Lull tends to sales and operations as President with help from Preston Lull.

  • Spencer got his first guitar from his dad when he was eleven and has been obsessed ever since. 

    Growing up in the shop, he experienced firsthand the time and care that went into every instrument repair and build. He would often geek out with his father about every idiosyncratic nuance of instruments, what made them tick and what changes affected tone, playability and overall quality.

    Spencer and his father were very close and would often discuss the shop and future plans. While it was always the plan for him to continue the family business, the timeline was accelerated after Mike’s passing in February of 2020.

    With an extensive background in business development, marketing and administration, Spencer manages the day-to-day operations of the shop and is the guy to talk to if you have any questions about a custom build!

    Spencer is beyond honored to keep his father’s legacy going strong and is committed to ensuring that every instrument that leaves the shop is something the entire team is proud of.

    In his free time, you can find him at the shop, playing guitar, bass or piano, or spending time with his wife and son.


  • Tom got his first guitar when he was ten, took a couple lessons at the community center and was hooked. Guitars would become part of his life for good.

    Years later, while in college searching for a career path, and after picking up a recently repaired guitar from Mike Lull, Tom’s wife commented to him “you could do that” launching his pursuit of a career as a Luthier. Within a few months he enrolled at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery.

    After completing the course in the summer of 1992, Mike hired him and he’s been hard at work ever since. Tom had the benefit and privilege of working side by side with Mike for nearly 28 years. He was Mike’s right-hand-man the entire time.

    Tom loves the challenge of making every instrument the very best it can be. He truly wants all of our customers to love their guitars/basses! He is the Master Luthier of Mike Lull’s Custom Guitars and everything that leaves the shop goes through him. He is honored to continue Mike’s legacy through continued instrument building for artists all over the world.

    Tom lives in Snohomish and has been married to his lovely wife Susan since 1991. They have three grown daughters and a new grandson.

  • Growing up as the youngest son of Mike Lull, Preston has been surrounded by instruments and music his entire life. With a family like his, a deep passion for all things music was practically inevitable.

    Preston has a keen ear for audio production, spending his time outside of work mixing, mastering, and producing music, as well as playing a variety of instruments. That same attention to detail and love of craft shows up behind the scenes at Mike Lull's, where Preston is the talent responsible for editing, mixing, and post-production of all of the shop's professional video content.

    As Shop Administrator, Preston is the heartbeat of the day-to-day operation. Whether you call the shop or walk through the front door, chances are Preston will be the first friendly voice and face you encounter. He takes pride in making sure every customer feels taken care of from the very first interaction.

    Preston is also much taller than Spencer. This is an important fact. (Preston didn’t add this, Spencer did.)


  • Mike grew up in Buffalo, where he started playing guitar at ten years old. Since then, his passion for playing guitar has led him to an ever-changing career in the music industry.

    Mike worked primarily as a live sound engineer through his 20s, but also worked for a backline rental company in New York City, gaining hands-on experience as a guitar tech. Through this job, Mike met some great industry role models, including Darrell Gilbert, a long-time repair technician for Gibson.

    When the pandemic made live music an uncertainty, he decided to make a change. Through college and work experience, he had gained skills in woodworking and electronics, while also maintaining his passion for playing the guitar. Pursuing lutherie seemed the best way to combine all his skills into one profession.

    In 2021, Mike found himself in the right place at the right time and landed a guitar repair job at a reputable shop in Salt Lake City. His standards for guitar repair were set high through learning from the shop’s Head Luthier, Moses McKinley.  In 2022, he attended the Galloup School of Lutherie in Michigan. It was there, after completing the program that he knew he was on the right path. Mike returned to his role in Utah for another two years before being offered a position at Mike Lull’s Guitar Works.

    Mike is happy to call Seattle home and is thrilled to be a part of the team at Mike Lull’s, where he continues to develop his skills repairing and building guitars.

  • Michael grew up in a musical family which led to an innate curiosity about musical instruments, their design and construction. He completed the luthiery course at Roberto-Venn in the fall of 1992. After working in repairs at a few music stores, he was hired at the Massachusetts firm of Hubbard and Broekman Harpsichords and Fortepianos where he honed his skills in manufacturing and woodworking. 

    Meeting his wife prompted a move to Canada, where he took a special interest in the construction of Archtop and Selmer-Maccaferri guitars and authored a book and instructional video on the subject. 

    After his return to the US, he opened a shop in Phoenix Arizona to continue to build instruments as well as honing his skills in CAD drafting and CNC manufacturing in his shop, while also working for Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. 

    When he is not designing, building, repairing or playing musical instruments, he likes to spend time with his wife and children as well as enjoying the great outdoors while long-distance cycling and camping.

  • Anthony is an Indiana native whose comedy career in Arizona led him to stumbling upon Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. He was fascinated by the notion that he could learn to build and maintain the tools used by artists and attended R-V's Fall 2020 Five-Month Guitar Making and Repair program.

    Anthony now calls Washington State home, he is proud to be part of the outstanding crew at Mike Lull's Guitar Works.

    In his spare time, he writes & performs stand-up comedy, makes tie dyes, and of course, plays guitar!

  • Alex Sorotchkine began a lifetime love affair with music (and guitars, in particular) in early childhood. After secondary school in the former Soviet Union, he spent two years in the College of the Arts in Siberia and another five years in the College of Music in St. Petersburg, after which he toured with his band playing lead guitar and working in music production until 1991 when he emigrated to the U.S.

    Ultimately landing in Phoenix, Alex spent the next seventeen years taking courses and classes in music and video production, script writing, and, ultimately, producing a music production that traveled in India. His guitar(s) have always been his closest (non)living relatives! In 2014, Alex attended Roberto Venn School of Luthiery and followed up his time there with apprentice work, additional courses, and working with CNC technology and 3-D modeling.

    Alex is thrilled to have the opportunity to work at Mike Lull's Guitar Works - a company whose passion and reputation for quality work and dedication to detail match his own.

  • As a kid at summer camp, Larry injured his foot and didn’t want to go home. One of the counselors gave him a guitar, taught him three chords and suggested he figure out how to play it. That was the beginning of a lifelong passion to learn all he could about guitars and music.

    As soon as he could, Larry applied to and graduated from the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, studying under William Eaton, John Roberts and Bob Venn. Between 1978 to 2004, he worked in a number of vintage guitar shops based out of his hometown of Indianapolis as a luthier, guitar buyer and appraiser.

    Larry has toured the United States, Canada, Ireland and Europe with his guitars and has worked as an audio engineer/producer with many album credits. Two years ago he left the Chicago area to follow his son, a professional dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and now lives in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. Larry is honored to be part of the team at Mike Lull.

  • Obsessed with Rock n’ Roll since he was a boy and saw “Back to the Future” in the theater, Jay Smith enrolled in the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery at age 22 because simply playing the guitar wasn’t enough for his obsessively curious mind anymore. He had to learn how it was put together and what made the instrument go.

    On the application to the school, there was a question regarding specific reasons why the prospective student would want to attend. Unable to stop himself from displaying all the intellectual cache of an English Major with an AA degree from a local community college, he wrote that, “Every Jedi must construct their own lightsaber before completing their training,” to let the teaching staff know they were dealing with a real cultural powerhouse that had read a couple of Star Wars paperbacks in his time.

    Upon graduation in summer 2000, he went on to work locally for Tacoma Guitars, Rainsong Guitars, The Trading Musician, and A# Music Co. He also toured the country three times in a van with a Rock en Espanol band called Los Burbanks. During that time they signed to an indie label and made a record at Watermusic Studios in NJ. He went on to play with local hard rock stalwarts Late September Dogs for over a decade and even got to open for The Aristocrats (feat Lull endorser Bryan Beller) once at Neumos.

    Today he continues to play guitar, bass, saxophone, lap steel, harmonica and sing and write lyrics for his band, The Double Cross Committee. He also has recorded over 10 audiobooks as a narrator for independent authors on Audible, and is somewhere around his 6th year of producing his own episodes of “A History of Rock n’ Roll in Film and Rock n’ Roll,” available on all podcast platforms. Beyond all the musical fixations, he likes to sew, read detective novels, wallow in trashy film of varying genres, and listen to classic radio stories while cooking exciting new recipes each week in the kitchen to varying degrees of success.

    Jay is both grateful and proud to have found a place among the crew at Mike Lull’s and says there’s not much that feels better than knowing that we’re making it easier for others to make their own music and strengthen the bond that they have with their instruments. 

  • The newest addition to the Lull team!