Franko Torres
Franko Torres
My name is Franko Torres and I’m a guitar player by trade but love to experiment with other instruments, especially bass and cuatro. I grew up in a small town in Puerto Rico and when I was 14 I had to make the tough call to either play soccer or guitar as an extracurricular, and guess what I picked…
Since then, I’ve spent the past decade+ playing music from my bedroom, to the classroom, to the stage and studio and have enjoyed all of it!
Outside of Sweetwater, I spend most of my time playing and recording music as a hired guitarist and original projects, as well as still teaching guitar for the love of it. I also love trail hiking, photography, and gaming.
Besides spending hours in trainings every week, I constantly put in the time to check out all sorts of gear that I can, to provide the best information that I can! I’m very passionate about both learning and music, so if there’s something I don’t know, I’m going to do my best to learn about it more and figure out what works best for your needs. I’m deeply committed to providing my best to everyone I meet!
As your personal contact here at Sweetwater, please let me know anytime I can offer help or advice.
(800) 222-4700 ext 3688
E-mail Franko-
Education/Certifications:
Jazz & Contemporary Music Performance, BA - Puerto Rico Interamerican University Metropolitan Campus
Minor in Music Business
MBA in Marketing and Sales Management - AGMU -
Why did you first apply for a job at Sweetwater?
I’ve always loved gear and talking to people about gear, and on top of that, I’ve been a Sweetwater customer for a few years! So I thought… Why not try to combine them all? And thankfully, here I am! Loving every second that I get to nerd out about guitars and music gear!
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Foreign languages:
Spanish
Conversational Portuguese -
Favorite music-related website:
I’d have to say Equipboard and Premier Guitar! It’s what first got me into gear after all. I remember being a 13 year-old looking up John Frusciante’s pedalboard chain on equipboard, and buying the strings he used on his strat for my stratocaster. Fell in love with every bit of music gear.
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Instruments you play:
Guitar
Bass
Piano -
Gear you own:
Many guitars, more than what I want to mention on here but some notable ones are: Fender Custom Shop GT11 Strat, Ibanez Prestige MM7, Iconic JM62, 70s Lawsuit era Ibanez Flying V, Heritage H535, Gibson LP Studio, LP JR, SG Standard, Fender American Tele, Taylor 814e Gold Label.
Nord Stage 3
Apollo Twin, X6 + Satellite
Quad Cortex, Ampere Stage, Helix Stadium, Quilter Elevate
The list of pedals can go on and on... but my favorites are the Xotic BB Preamp, Xotic RC Booster, Dirty Boy Preamp.
Amps: Mesa Single Rectifier Rectoverb, Orange Rocker 15, Fender Princeton, Vox Ac15 HW -
Family info:
Beautiful woman I get to call my wife, and our dog Lana, who's a Husky/Shepherd mix.
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Other stuff we should know about you (hobbies, talents, interests, etc.):
I love photography! It’s one of those things I started to learn to take better photos of my guitars and suddenly found myself a few years later doing pro-photography for a while. I've also gotten into Film Photography which has a neat twist to it. I was also certified as a clay artisan for a few years, which is usually not something people expect.
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How would your best friend describe you?
My best friends say that I'm extremely energetic, focused on my goals, hard working and obsessive with everything I do. My wife says that my best traits are my honesty and how much I love to take risks.
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What is the most important thing you've learned at Sweetwater?
How to manage my time and how to maintain better work-life balance.
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What's the biggest gig you've ever played?
Opening for Panic! At The Disco for a 14K people crowd.
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Who are some of the notable artists you've worked with?
A few of the artists that I’ve either played live or recorded guitars for their songs: Jacky Fontanez, Smash Hits, 'Koi, The Great', Sonic View, Constantly Crashing, Sharif Rafael, Axel Pabon, De La Rose, Plagiarize, Jeyy.eyy, and LOUU. The song I worked with Smash Hits and De La Rose with went number 1 in Spain, Argentina, and multiple latin american countries.
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Links to my music
instagram.com/frankotorres
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=frankotorresmusic
https://www.instagram.com/sonicviewband/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3OPD8NNhI8
