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Bone is an important but overlooked material used in guitars.  We use bone for the nuts and saddles, and sometimes bridge pins. The quality of the material and the fit make a big difference in the tone and playability of an instrument.  Bone blanks can be purchased from guitar suppliers, or they can be cut and shaped from bone itself.  Not all bone is equal and there are a few things you need to know before you make a switch […]

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 […]

Paul Geremia is a great player of country blues and historian of early American music.  He has been playing as a sole means of support for 45 years.  In that time he has traveled to most of his gigs in his car, crisscrossing the US countless times, and also touring Europe.  In June of 2014, Paul suffered a stroke and since then he has been on the road to recovery.  There have been some friends who have been helping him […]

Much of my appreciation of old instruments comes from listening to old recordings, seeing old photos of the musicians and asking the question, “What are they playing?”  The harder the instrument is to identify the better (I especially appreciate instruments that were built in small shops).  I then start digging and begin a process which a buddy calls “guitarcheology”, trying to find out as much as I possibly can about the instrument and the people who built it. I then […]

When I started building guitars I was very enthusiastic about using domestic woods.  The first guitar that I made had white oak back and sides, wood that came from a farm not far from my house, a maple neck and fingerboard, and a red spruce top. I had salvaged the maple from an old beam in a barn that I had worked on.  I used white oak for the first half dozen guitars that I made.  It’s fantastic wood.  It […]

I have been a bit negligent of the blog, but nevertheless busy in the shop.  I figured rather than write a post with a specific subject, the best way to catch up would be to post photos of some of the work I’ve done since the last post.  So here goes: Numero Uno:  Here’s a nice little 14 Fret Anunziata that I made for my friend Jack Klatt.  Jack is a great guitar player and singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He’s […]

Fraulini was my grandmother Angelina’s maiden name.  There were seven sisters in the family and I have named a model after each one of them.  My great Aunt Loretta was the baby of the family and is the last surviving sister.  She is in her 90’s and doing well.  She always gives me a hard time that the model that bears her name is the “cheapest”, but I like to remind her that it is also the most petite and […]