The “bug” of guitar building bit Avishay (Avi) Shabat early on in his life, after he discovered the truss rod in his newly purchased 5-string bass was broken. After graduating from the Algranti School of Lutherie—and handcrafting himself a new neck-through bass from the ground up—Avi moved to Los Angeles where he apprenticed for a few local guitar repair shops before joining a well-known boutique guitar company. Avi spent the next four years honing his craft, building beautiful handmade instruments, and during this time, founded a company of his own, Guitar Groomer, where he restored and repaired guitars and basses from a small shop in his home. In 2012, Avi expanded his repair business and began designing and building his own instruments, giving birth to a brand-new line of handmade electric guitars and basses—Shabat Guitars.