Jeff Luft

About Jeff

Growing up in South Florida, Jeff spent his early years playing sports and fishing as much as possible. Music and percussion started at age 13 with a pair of drumsticks and lessons started shortly thereafter.

More serious classical study started around his junior year of high school. Initial attempts at mallet making also began at this time with inspiration and encouragement from his teacher, Michael Garasi. Free time in the summer was spent hunting down bamboo poles from floral shops and landscaping supply companies with any friend who had a car.

Jeff attended Carnegie Mellon University where he studied with Timothy Adams and Paul Evans.

During his years playing as a percussionist with the Dayton Philharmonic Jeff continued to experiment and refine his skills with mallet making and designs. Again, Summer time allowed for more time to experiment and spend more energy making things.

Eventually through word of mouth and recommendations from friends and colleagues the business grew to the point where it became his main professional focus. Over the last few years he has branched out to making tambourines and drum pads. Each week is spent bouncing back and forth between the different products always with the aim of keeping the quality as high as possible. There are well over 15,000 pairs of sticks that he has personally made from beginning to end out in the world and each year he strives to make improvements every day.