When it comes to owning your own business, it’s a full-time grind, and the God-honest truth is you’ll never know what occasion, or what new person, may open up a new creative platform, or revenue stream. Simply put, having a business is a full-time hustle. The constant headaches, the worries, the sleepless nights, are all a part of the art, and as with any business you have to constantly traffic your talents and explore different paths and avenues. Just ask Izzy, the owner of Tintaz based out of Buena Park, California. He’ll tell you plenty of stories about how business has been gained, but his later collaboration with Fortaleza Guitars is one that happened by chance.
Some time ago, Izzy decided to hire a group called Inteligencia Nortena to play at his father’s birthday party. He decided to have the party over at his shop, and the festivities turned out great. But after playing, Rick Ramirez, the guitarist for the group, asked what kind of work they did at the shop. Izzy went on to show him some of the custom paints he had laced onto a few lowriders, and as Rick was looking at all the cars he had expressed that he had always wanted a lowrider, but never got around to building one.
On that quote, Izzy decided to offer Rick a custom paintjob for his guitars and Rick took him up on the offer. After a few weeks of waiting, the finalized piece was delivered to Rick and he was floored. He showed the guitar to his manager Luis at AfinArte, and from there the guitar made its rounds and all the way up the ladder to the owner of Fortaleza guitars.
At that point, the owner of Fortaleza examined the piece, and he was impressed with the attention to detail and the paint quality. Needless to say, the owner saw the potential in this custom piece and reached out to Izzy to have all his custom guitar builds painted by him. As the purveyor of guitars for many of the top Norteno artists, like Voz De Mando, Canarios De Michoacan, Grupo Antrax, and many others, you will no doubt see many of Izzy’s collaborative works in action with Fortaleza. Since the day they’ve connected the orders keep pouring in and it’s great to see two master craftsmen working side by side.
As always, it’s also great to see how facets of lowriding have crept into other industries. It’s great to see that the influence of our culture is gaining the recognition it deserves, and it’s equally compelling to see how cross-cultural promotions have merged the world of guitars with the world of lowriding.
Till next time … keep your six-string tuned and your sixth sense sharp.
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