2015

One of the sources I draw on for inspiration for new projects is old photographs of musicians with their guitars.  I have been especially interested in trying to recreate the instruments of some of America’s most iconic musicians.  I have made copies of Leadbelly’s 12 string, Ernest Stoneman’s Galiano, Lydia Mendoza’s Acosta 12 string and Daddy Stovepipe’s 9 string guitar.  When I can locate an example of one of these instruments, I use it as reference.  If I unable to […]

I recently finished some guitars for my inventory.  They are all completely handmade, with dovetail neck joints, dual action adjustable truss rods, built with hide glue and finished with varnish.  They are built in the spirit of the guitars of the 1920s and 30’s, sound like old ones,comparable in feel and weight.  The truss rod,  radiused fingerboard, modern frets, compensated saddles etc, combine to make them more player friendly than the old ones.  They are all great guitars at  great […]

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who is a Wisconsin farmer.  He works his tail off from early Spring to late Fall, then spends his winters in Honduras. He has been working for several years on a project, planting trees, mainly mahogany, on mountainsides in order to restore forests which have been clear cut.  Because the mountainsides are free of trees, erosion and mudslides have become big problems as there is no structure to hold the soil together […]

I’ve been keeping my nose to the grindstone, working in the shop and haven’t taken the time to update the blog.  I have a backlog of pictures that I’ve been meaning to get up.  So here are 11 guitars that closed out 2014 and brought in 2015. 1.  A customer asked me to build a very plain Erma, in the style of some of the early Antonio Cerrito built Galiano guitars.  These guitars usually had top binding only, a very […]