The shop
After having to relocate our first beloved shop in 2014 (a space we’d worked out of for a little over seven years) we moved into the Mile End Guitar Coop, which at the time was home to Indian Hill Guitars (Mike Kennedy), 52 Instrument Co. (Jeremy Clark), Island Instruments (Nic Delisle) and a slew of other talented builders. I’d worked with Nic Delisle from Island for about three years prior and when the guys heard we essentially were assembling guitars out of my car, they kindly invited us to “stay as long as we needed to”…what was meant as a temporary fix may have turned into one of the most important professional decision we took that same year. We moved in as full time members a few months later and haven’t looked back since! Originally, the space was founded by Jeremy and Mike, who met during an apprenticeship with master builder Sergei de Jonge, himself first apprentice to famed Canadian luthier Jean Larrivée. You can imagine the level of skill and knowledge that circulates here on any given day. We’ve since incorporated our shared workspace into a full blown cooperative entity, which counts ten active members. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of this “greater whole” and my approach to guitar building has grown exponentially since setting shop here.
Lenny P. Robert
I studied Fine Arts at Concordia University with a specialization in Painting & Drawing, making a living in visual arts in my mid-twenties while exploring the Canadian gallery scene. I grew up in a creative environment, doing mural work, faux finishes (which were hugely popular in ‘90s) and scenic painting for my parents’ design firm in Montreal. They made props, window displays and conceived mannequins for old school department stores throughout the 1980s and into the early 2000s. Working for them as a kid was my first exposure to the “atelier” setting, a work environment which immediately felt natural and, as it turns out, has followed me my entire career.
I eventually got into guitarmaking by building whimsical instruments inspired by Depression-era jug bands after seeing an ancient cigar box guitar for the first time on the internet. Its sheer simplicity and historical significance struck a chord. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful object I’d seen in a very long time. I made a replica for myself in the studio and, quickly, one fretless three-string instrument multiplied into a few more. Soon enough my painting space was littered with dozens of weird sounding stringed oddities. This in essence was the beginning of Daddy Mojo Stringed Instruments. After a chance meeting with Luca Tripaldi (Instagram), my creative partner for the subsequent ten years, the painting studio was slowly transformed into a full-fledged guitar workshop. Daddy Mojo has from the very beginning been dedicated to handcrafting quality instruments inspired by the heirloom of American blues and roots music. As builders, We have taken every opportunity to pay tribute to the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the primitivists with equal regard to the style and sophistication of the American classics. Over the course of a decade, we’ve tweaked and perfected close to twenty original cbg models as well as a line of bespoke solid bodies, chambered and archtop guitars - all the while developing partnerships with many brick and mortar guitar shops internationally. Our instruments have sold the world over to the likes of Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones), Jack White (The White Stripes), Edge (U2), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Nels Cline (Wilco), Band of Horses, Counting Crows and many others. Daddy Mojo is located in the heart of Montreal, Canada, and ships worldwide.
