Luthier Jeff Traugott displays his guitars at the 2005 Healdsburg Guitar Festival.

Acoustic Guitar magazine began publication in 1990 just as the steel-string acoustic guitar market was poised for a much-needed recovery. The 1980s had seen a frightening decline in guitar sales in general, but as that decade wound down, the acoustic steel-string got a huge boost when MTV began airing MTV Unplugged, with the casual, in-the-round performances of R.E.M., Paul McCartney, and others inspiring two different types of guitar players to reconsider their abandonment of the instrument. One group consisted of guitarists who had always played acoustic but had neglected their chops when the guitar fell out of favor in the synthesizer-fueled pop music of the ’80s. The second group was primarily composed of adults who had grown up playing electric guitar but had tired of the heavy gear, rehearsal space, and everything else that goes with playing full-scale rock ’n’ roll. To these guys, seeing rock idol Eric Clapton distill his already-classic hits down to solo acoustic guitar arrangements on Unplugged opened up a whole new repertoire.

More Guitars at Every Price

Along with the renewed interest in the acoustic guitar came innovation from opposite ends of the pricing scale. On one end, American companies had figured out a way to make more affordable, solid-wood guitars (see “The Price Is Right”). But at the same time, manufacturers found that many midlife returnees to the acoustic guitar were better able to fund their guitar addiction than when they were college students, and as a result, deluxe models that had previously been slow sellers quickly became almost common. Limited editions and models with extra helpings of pearl inlay helped test the upper limits of guitar buyers’ budgets. However, with increased media attention on how guitars were made, as well as what they were made of, some guitarists began looking beyond the expensive limited editions made by big companies.

A Personal Approach to Custom Guitars

Much to their surprise, American guitar manufacturers found that they had new competition for well-heeled guitar players’ dollars—and from an unexpected source. The big manufacturers had become accustomed to smaller companies such as Bourgeois, Collings, Goodall, and Santa Cruz nipping at their heels in the upper price ranges, but the rise of independent luthiers added a whole new dimension to the custom guitar concept. Instead of just the usual choices regarding body shape, binding, and inlays, an increasing number of solo luthiers offered customers a wide range of woods and options, plus direct dialogue with the person who would actually build the instrument. It was like having a personal tailor. So it wasn’t surprising that this growing movement toward highly personalized instruments was dubbed the “boutique guitar market.” Besides the obvious choices in woods and neck width came an ever-widening number of special features, such as arm bevels, “sound ports” in the side, and wedge-shaped bodies; all of which were first seen on luthier-made instruments.

By the mid-’90s, the total number of individual luthiers made up a significant and growing portion of the steel-string guitar market. Established names like James Olson and Linda Manzer were joined by Jeff Traugott, Kevin Ryan, and other builders, some with a primarily regional following. What many of these guitar makers had in common was a focus on fingerstyle models, especially the 16-inch “small jumbo,” although many other guitar shapes, both new and traditional, were being offered.

Guitar brands with household-name recognition weren’t the only ones feeling the results of this new, potent force in the market, with small independent companies also feeling the same competitive pressure from even smaller one-person shops. Maybe customers couldn’t play their custom guitar before spending thousands of dollars to place the order, but they might be able to go out for lunch with the person who was going to build it instead.

From the Acoustic Guitar archives: January/February 1993
The slice of the guitar market being cut away by the luthier trade is now significant enough to make the larger producers pay attention. Once dismissed as copycats and woodworking lightweights, luthiers have come to hold a position of high regard and prestige within the larger industry. —William R. Cumpiano

A New Type of Guitar Festival

The wide variety of woods and decorative elements that independent luthiers could offer their customers was in part fueled by Luthiers Mercantile (LMI), a California company that offers specialized tools, materials, and instruction for guitar makers. The company’s connection to this rapidly growing segment of the acoustic guitar market was strengthened by the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, first held in 1996 with help from the Guild of American Luthiers (GAL) and Acoustic Guitar. Luthiers’ organizations, namely GAL and ASIA (Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans), had long offered small exhibits of their members’ instruments as part of their annual conventions, but the Healdsburg show was a highly publicized event dedicated to bringing guitar players and builders face to face. It soon drew international attention, and some owners of specialty guitar shops used the Healdsburg Guitar Festival to place orders for instruments to sell in their stores, while other buyers represented the new phenomenon of website-only guitar shops.

As a result of this new exposure, the growing cadre of independent solo guitar makers was able to compete far more successfully with long-established music industry stalwarts than in the past. New exhibitions followed in the wake of the Healdsburg Guitar Festival’s success, including the Montreal Guitar Show, founded in 2007, and the Newport Guitar Festival, founded by luthier Julius Borges in 2004 and subsequently moved from Newport, Rhode Island, to Miami, Florida. The shapes, sizes, and decorative themes that arose as luthiers struggled to be recognizably different in this burgeoning and highly competitive market would have left guitar shoppers from two decades earlier shaking their heads in bewilderment.

Luthiers Go to School

As the number of guitars made in North America continued to grow, so did demand for the skilled labor needed to both construct and repair them. With opportunities for training in the manual arts declining in public schools, specialized instruction centers sprang up to fill the gap. Some students enrolled in the Roberto-Venn school in Arizona or the Galloup School of Lutherie in Michigan to learn how to build guitars, while other students used such specialized education to get a foothold in the larger guitar industry, repairing guitars in retail shops or working for established guitar manufacturers.

Specialty Craftspeople

The success of solo luthiers fostered a growing supply network, including inlay artists and finishers, along with wood brokers and specialty-tool manufacturers. It was not uncommon to find numerous luthiers using the same specialists to ensure a quality level far above what most builders had been able to offer a few decades earlier. Finishing expert Addam Stark and inlay artist Larry Robinson, both from California, are but two examples of this trend. At the same time, wood brokers like LMI and Allied Lutherie quickly expanded the traditional rosewood, maple, mahogany, and koa palette of wood choices to include exotic species like bubinga and ziricote, as well as domestic hardwoods like walnut and myrtle, to name a few. While the new luthiers have borrowed body shapes from long-established name brands, the influence flowed both ways as major manufacturers began incorporating unusual woods in their limited editions, resulting in familiar models made from trees previously unknown to most guitarists.

From the Acoustic Guitar archives: December 1996
The big draw for the public [at the first Healdsburg Guitar Festival], was the Gallery of Guitars, where aficionados could get up close and personal with the 65 guitar makers in attendance. Visitors examined, played, or just gazed longingly at an abundance of handcrafted classical, flattop, archtop, resonator, and bass guitars, as well as Hawaiian lap-style instruments and ukuleles, by such makers as Ervin Somogyi, Steve Klein, and Linda Manzer. It was hog heaven for the guitar lover looking for the chance to try out instruments often unavailable through retail stores and to make contact with guitar makers who were eager to communicate their own personal spin on the state of the luthier’s art. “This was definitely the place to see the best of what’s happening with the guitar,” said luthier Harry Fleishman. “It was great to see someone like Roberto Gomes, who builds wonderful, pristine classical guitars, standing next to Fred Carlson, who makes fantastic instruments that look like they were built by aliens. —Bronwen Morgan

The New Vintage Guitar

But not all acoustic guitar buyers yearned for something different—some just wanted a new version of a traditional design. By the late ’90s, Gibson and Martin were producing increasingly accurate reissues of their most famous vintage models to help satisfy demand. Few potential customers for an early dreadnought, jumbo, or OM could find, much less afford, the real thing, but they could afford accurate recreations of the old guitars they longed for, and the more comfortable necks, better intonation, and easier string action of the reissues made these instruments even more appealing. In addition, a growing awareness of iconic vintage guitar models among those shopping for new guitars has prompted competition from other manufacturers and solo builders alike. As a result, sunburst slope-shoulder dreadnoughts and petite herringbone-trimmed parlor guitars have begun appearing from companies that are barely older than the iPod.

All About Choice

As the first decade of the new millennium draws to a close, it’s obvious that there are far more choices in acoustic guitars than ever, both in the instruments themselves and in who makes them. Much of the variety and innovation of the last 20 years has come from independent guitar makers, and the number of solo luthiers continues to expand. Whether it’s a highly personalized custom guitar or an exact re-creation of a 100-year-old design, guitar buyers will continue to see more and better options in the years to come.

From the Acoustic Guitar archives: July 1995
Today there is a new breed of guitar maker at work who builds instruments a few at a time. Today’s builder has many more specific tools for instrument making than his or her counterpart of 20 years ago. Of course you can still build a guitar after an expensive trip to a well-equipped hardware store, but one is probably all you’ll build unless you become a skilled toolmaker. In the last several years, a vast array of specialized, accurate tools and knowledge have become available; and when these new resources are combined with human experience and skill, guitarists get the benefit of both the measured world of precise production and the imaginative realm of the individual craftsperson. —Richard Johnston