Jeff and Juli Strametz
and Boulder Creek Guitars:
An Ever Growing
Musical Family
By Amy McElroy
66
I
f you wander into Milias Restaurant
in downtown Gilroy on a Wednesday
night, you’ll typically fi nd a man and a
woman singing 1960’s and 70’s covers
—with an unusual looking guitar. The
couple, Jeff and Juli Strametz, also co-own
Boulder Creek Guitars, whose headquarters
is located in Gilroy. Jeff still has long-
time friends who think he owns a typical
music store. But in fact, the international
business manufactures and sells a unique
type of guitars, basses, and ukuleles to
distributors, along with custom work for
customers created right in Gilroy.
Boulder Creek Guitars originated back
when a golfing buddy of one of Jeff’s
music students had an inventive idea for
designing guitars. Jeff, who had a back-
ground in business development and sales,
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
wanted to take a look. Jeff said, “One day
this kid rolls up with a balsa wood model
of this new idea for a guitar on the back of
his Harley.”
After completing several mock-ups and
settling on a design in 2006, they opened
the company. They started by calling one
music store at a time across the country,
and business took off. Two years ago, Jeff
and Juli bought out the other owners, and
it’s now a family-run operation.
Jeff uses the image of another instrument
to explain the basic design: “Picture a drum
head on a snare drum, with no hole in
center” Like the plastic head on most snare
drums, Jeff explained, “wood transmits
sounds and creates tone on a guitar.” By
cutting the giant hole in the center, you lose
much of the ability to transmit tone.
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