Dear Harry & William, Just a bit of holiday cheer to the two of you from a very satisfied client.
Your craftsmanship and personalities make you both gentlemen & scholars in my book.
Sincerely, Salvador Rojas, Milwaukee WI (see scrapbook)
Your craftsmanship and personalities make you both gentlemen & scholars in my book.
Sincerely, Salvador Rojas, Milwaukee WI (see scrapbook)
1976, North Adams, MA
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2006, Northampton, MA
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William Cumpiano and I met in 1964 at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. where we studied Industrial Design. Our fifty year friendship has been sustained by mutual respect and admiration. I’m extremely fortunate to have known William all these years and am grateful for his influence. I was very impressed to watch him build his first guitar in 1968 and decided to enter the craft a few years later. Over the years he has inspired many others to do the same. His book “Guitarmaking, Tradition and Technology” continues to be the most respected book on the subject known as "The Bible of Guitarmaking" as it was called by Chris Martin of Martin Guitars.
William also introduced me to the Puerto Rican Cuatro, a small ten string instrument that is as dear to Puerto Rico as the bagpipe is to Scotland. It is pictured above along with a "Guitarron", a Mexican bass guitar. Over the years I have made many cuatros as shown on the next page. The family of fretted instruments reminds us though we are from different culures we are all cousins. See a small portion of this diverse community on the fretted instruments page.
William and I collaborated on many unusual projects over the years. Here is a marimbula, an instrument common to the Caribbean. It consists of a wood box with a number of metal strips attached. Tuned to different pitches they are plucked to produce a bassline for the music. |
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2008 Interview for Pratt Alumni Publication
Harry Becker, Bachelor of Industrial Design, ’68, and William Cumpiano, Bachelor of Industrial Design, ’68, have been friends since they first met 44 years ago at Pratt in 1964. Together they founded Becker & Cumpiano, a custom guitar making and repair shop, located in Northhampton, Massachusetts.
Where were you born?
HB: I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1946. I grew up in a tenement apartment above a grocery store that my mother and father operated with my aunt and uncle. I did well in public schools and gained admission into Brooklyn Technical High School, possibly the finest high school in New York City, where I began training in industrial design.
WC: I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1945 of mixed-heritage parents. My mother is a Boston native and my father is Puerto Rican.
How did you get to Pratt?
HB: I and a number of my classmates from Brooklyn Tech got accepted into Pratt. It was the best place to go if you wanted to be an industrial designer.
WC: I always loved to draw. As a young kid I wasn’t interested in sports, and I used drawing as a way to entertain myself. My initial interest was in airplanes and since my mother was an academician, she encouraged me to study aeronautical engineering, so I began college at Tufts in Boston. This experience proved that I wasn’t as good at math as I was at art. After failing a few classes, I decided to pursue industrial design and transferred to Pratt. I think the home test is what got me in.
When did you two first meet?
HB: Bill and I met during our first year at Pratt in the foundation classes. We were both majoring in industrial design.
WC: As I remember, we met at the Granada Hotel, one of Pratt’s resident halls. Our first year we weren’t roommates, but we lived down the hall from each other. After that year, the Granada was closed down, and for the next four years Harry and I became roommates and moved to various apartments around the Pratt area with our friend Bob Baker.
Did you socialize around Pratt?
HB: We were at Pratt during the mid-1960s and we were very much a part of the Bohemian scene that was going on at that time. We would go to Erik’s, the local saloon on DeKalb, and also to the art stores, Jake’s and Charlie’s. The art stores were places you could always run into your friends. Diagonally across the street from the DeKalb Avenue gates was a restaurant that was a true "greasy spoon." Like the tavern Eric's down on DeKalb, we would go there to have coffee, smoke cigarettes, and talk art. When we wanted to eat out fancy we would go to Junior's, the great old restaurant on Fulton and Flatbush.
WC: Yes, we did! There was a whole scene of students who lived in apartments around the campus, and we all hung out together. I also remember going to Junior’s down on Flatbush and to Gage & Tollner’s if you wanted to really impress a date.
What is your favorite memory from your time as students at Pratt?
HB: I took an elective at Pratt—fencing—that was not the typical Pratt course. This class was held in the basement of what is now the architecture building on Lafayette. At the end of the semester, our teacher had students from all the classes compete against one another to determine which one was the best fencer. The teacher was never pleased with me, because I didn’t use the technique he taught. Instead I used my Brooklyn street skills and ended up being the winner out of all the classes.
WC: I remember always working continuously to please the professors. They were very hard on us students and we just wanted their recognition.
How long after you met did you start your business?
WC: After graduating from Pratt, I entered the industrial design world in Manhattan. I worked for Knoll in the Special Orders Department. After a while I realized I didn’t want to work in an office and under someone else’s supervision, so I quit and began taking a class in guitar making. That class was the start of the rest of my career.
HB: By the early 1970s, I had moved to Massachusetts and opened a bike shop. Around 1974, Bill moved to the town as well and opened the Stringfellow Guitar Studio. I became a professional guitar repairman alongside him while still working at the bike shop. It wasn’t really until 13 years ago, in 1995, that Bill and I became official partners and opened Becker and Cumpiano Guitarmakers in Northhampton, Mass.
Have you ever collaborated on a project?
HB: A couple of times! One year we were employed to make a prototype for an invention a friend of ours had developed: a silicone chip reading device. We made the most beautiful little box out of ebony, with a series of mirrors inside to allow the machine to read the chip. We were also once commissioned to make a wooden architectural model of a hospital that was under construction in the late ’70s.
WC: We collaborate all the time! Becker and Cupiano is in itself a collaboration; we make decisions together on a daily basis.
Have you inspired each other’s artwork in any way?
HB: Oh yes, Bill and I are great fans of each other! I’m a musician and often Bill would sit in on my performances. He would play the bongos on the side of the stage as I performed. We have always been musical partners and fans of each other’s focus and individual work. Both of us were trained at Pratt under the same Bauhaus school of thought that stresses sensibility, simplicity, and elegance. I have been most inspired by the work Bill has done with the Puerto Rican cuatro guitar, for example.
What does Pratt mean to your relationship?
HB: Freedom of thought and exposure to diversity. Pratt was an oasis that allowed me to fulfill myself, it exposed me to an alternative way of looking at things, and it gave me the license to think differently and be supported by intelligent, freethinking individuals from all walks of life.
WC: It is the birth of our relationship, the cement. Pratt is what we have as our common philosophical foundation.
Have you ever competed with each other?
HB: I think Bill and I are simply not competitive people. We find cooperation to be more productive and fulfilling. We even shy away from using words like ‘best’ or ‘better.’ Only once that I can remember were there ever feelings of jealousy. During our Foundation year at Pratt, Bill and I had Rowena Reed Costello for a sculpture class. All the students were scared of her; you really wanted her approval of your work. When I completed my first salt block sculpture, Rowena asked if she could have it and put it on her desk. This was one of the highest honors, for Rowena to want my work for her desk. Whenever I mentioned this, Bill would say he was jealous.
WC: I believe our relationship is void of competition.
What is the best part about being artists and being business partners?
WC: Our skills are synergistic and complementary. Because we are both artists it is a multiplier to the work we do; we enhance each other and it makes our business more unique.
How, if at all, do you separate your work from your personal lives?
HB: It is all intertwined. When Bill and I get together there is a unique feeling of comfort. We’ve had a friendship for over 44 years. That’s a lot of history. At one point we were apart for 15 years. When we reconnected, we were both older and grayer and time had given us substance. It’s a great feeling to have someone around who knew you then and knows you now. We love getting together. Our friendship is not much different from a marriage; there are things you just understand about the other.
What would you say has been the key to making your relationship work over the years?
HB: Two things: respect and patience. Bill and I respect each other. We want to be near each other. I feel honored to be friends with him. I use him as a model point and I am inspired by him. In regard to patience, Bill and I both know that is it our business, we are in this together. If one sinks, the whole ship sinks. It is a team effort and that means we have to listen and be patient with each other.
WC: Tolerance. Harry works around my craziness, and I work around his. We don’t expect anything from each other but are very loyal to one another. Through our friendship and business partnership, we share a mutual admiration for one another.
How did Pratt (an art education) shape your future?
HB: I think Pratt is a great institution not only because it produces great artists and designers but also, and perhaps more importantly, because it trained me to be a creative and effective problem solver, to think outside the box and to be an original.
WC: Pratt helped me to realize that I didn’t want to work in an office.
Harry Becker, Bachelor of Industrial Design, ’68, and William Cumpiano, Bachelor of Industrial Design, ’68, have been friends since they first met 44 years ago at Pratt in 1964. Together they founded Becker & Cumpiano, a custom guitar making and repair shop, located in Northhampton, Massachusetts.
Where were you born?
HB: I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1946. I grew up in a tenement apartment above a grocery store that my mother and father operated with my aunt and uncle. I did well in public schools and gained admission into Brooklyn Technical High School, possibly the finest high school in New York City, where I began training in industrial design.
WC: I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1945 of mixed-heritage parents. My mother is a Boston native and my father is Puerto Rican.
How did you get to Pratt?
HB: I and a number of my classmates from Brooklyn Tech got accepted into Pratt. It was the best place to go if you wanted to be an industrial designer.
WC: I always loved to draw. As a young kid I wasn’t interested in sports, and I used drawing as a way to entertain myself. My initial interest was in airplanes and since my mother was an academician, she encouraged me to study aeronautical engineering, so I began college at Tufts in Boston. This experience proved that I wasn’t as good at math as I was at art. After failing a few classes, I decided to pursue industrial design and transferred to Pratt. I think the home test is what got me in.
When did you two first meet?
HB: Bill and I met during our first year at Pratt in the foundation classes. We were both majoring in industrial design.
WC: As I remember, we met at the Granada Hotel, one of Pratt’s resident halls. Our first year we weren’t roommates, but we lived down the hall from each other. After that year, the Granada was closed down, and for the next four years Harry and I became roommates and moved to various apartments around the Pratt area with our friend Bob Baker.
Did you socialize around Pratt?
HB: We were at Pratt during the mid-1960s and we were very much a part of the Bohemian scene that was going on at that time. We would go to Erik’s, the local saloon on DeKalb, and also to the art stores, Jake’s and Charlie’s. The art stores were places you could always run into your friends. Diagonally across the street from the DeKalb Avenue gates was a restaurant that was a true "greasy spoon." Like the tavern Eric's down on DeKalb, we would go there to have coffee, smoke cigarettes, and talk art. When we wanted to eat out fancy we would go to Junior's, the great old restaurant on Fulton and Flatbush.
WC: Yes, we did! There was a whole scene of students who lived in apartments around the campus, and we all hung out together. I also remember going to Junior’s down on Flatbush and to Gage & Tollner’s if you wanted to really impress a date.
What is your favorite memory from your time as students at Pratt?
HB: I took an elective at Pratt—fencing—that was not the typical Pratt course. This class was held in the basement of what is now the architecture building on Lafayette. At the end of the semester, our teacher had students from all the classes compete against one another to determine which one was the best fencer. The teacher was never pleased with me, because I didn’t use the technique he taught. Instead I used my Brooklyn street skills and ended up being the winner out of all the classes.
WC: I remember always working continuously to please the professors. They were very hard on us students and we just wanted their recognition.
How long after you met did you start your business?
WC: After graduating from Pratt, I entered the industrial design world in Manhattan. I worked for Knoll in the Special Orders Department. After a while I realized I didn’t want to work in an office and under someone else’s supervision, so I quit and began taking a class in guitar making. That class was the start of the rest of my career.
HB: By the early 1970s, I had moved to Massachusetts and opened a bike shop. Around 1974, Bill moved to the town as well and opened the Stringfellow Guitar Studio. I became a professional guitar repairman alongside him while still working at the bike shop. It wasn’t really until 13 years ago, in 1995, that Bill and I became official partners and opened Becker and Cumpiano Guitarmakers in Northhampton, Mass.
Have you ever collaborated on a project?
HB: A couple of times! One year we were employed to make a prototype for an invention a friend of ours had developed: a silicone chip reading device. We made the most beautiful little box out of ebony, with a series of mirrors inside to allow the machine to read the chip. We were also once commissioned to make a wooden architectural model of a hospital that was under construction in the late ’70s.
WC: We collaborate all the time! Becker and Cupiano is in itself a collaboration; we make decisions together on a daily basis.
Have you inspired each other’s artwork in any way?
HB: Oh yes, Bill and I are great fans of each other! I’m a musician and often Bill would sit in on my performances. He would play the bongos on the side of the stage as I performed. We have always been musical partners and fans of each other’s focus and individual work. Both of us were trained at Pratt under the same Bauhaus school of thought that stresses sensibility, simplicity, and elegance. I have been most inspired by the work Bill has done with the Puerto Rican cuatro guitar, for example.
What does Pratt mean to your relationship?
HB: Freedom of thought and exposure to diversity. Pratt was an oasis that allowed me to fulfill myself, it exposed me to an alternative way of looking at things, and it gave me the license to think differently and be supported by intelligent, freethinking individuals from all walks of life.
WC: It is the birth of our relationship, the cement. Pratt is what we have as our common philosophical foundation.
Have you ever competed with each other?
HB: I think Bill and I are simply not competitive people. We find cooperation to be more productive and fulfilling. We even shy away from using words like ‘best’ or ‘better.’ Only once that I can remember were there ever feelings of jealousy. During our Foundation year at Pratt, Bill and I had Rowena Reed Costello for a sculpture class. All the students were scared of her; you really wanted her approval of your work. When I completed my first salt block sculpture, Rowena asked if she could have it and put it on her desk. This was one of the highest honors, for Rowena to want my work for her desk. Whenever I mentioned this, Bill would say he was jealous.
WC: I believe our relationship is void of competition.
What is the best part about being artists and being business partners?
WC: Our skills are synergistic and complementary. Because we are both artists it is a multiplier to the work we do; we enhance each other and it makes our business more unique.
How, if at all, do you separate your work from your personal lives?
HB: It is all intertwined. When Bill and I get together there is a unique feeling of comfort. We’ve had a friendship for over 44 years. That’s a lot of history. At one point we were apart for 15 years. When we reconnected, we were both older and grayer and time had given us substance. It’s a great feeling to have someone around who knew you then and knows you now. We love getting together. Our friendship is not much different from a marriage; there are things you just understand about the other.
What would you say has been the key to making your relationship work over the years?
HB: Two things: respect and patience. Bill and I respect each other. We want to be near each other. I feel honored to be friends with him. I use him as a model point and I am inspired by him. In regard to patience, Bill and I both know that is it our business, we are in this together. If one sinks, the whole ship sinks. It is a team effort and that means we have to listen and be patient with each other.
WC: Tolerance. Harry works around my craziness, and I work around his. We don’t expect anything from each other but are very loyal to one another. Through our friendship and business partnership, we share a mutual admiration for one another.
How did Pratt (an art education) shape your future?
HB: I think Pratt is a great institution not only because it produces great artists and designers but also, and perhaps more importantly, because it trained me to be a creative and effective problem solver, to think outside the box and to be an original.
WC: Pratt helped me to realize that I didn’t want to work in an office.