Acoustic Guitar: Moonstone Guitars

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Moonstone Guitars
A veteran of California lutherie, Steve Helgeson has been building acoustic and electric guitars since the early 1970s. Although he once ran a small factory, he now focuses on making his Moonstone guitars one at a time—and creating his best work ever.

By Simone Solondz

Photo Courtesy of Moonstone Guitars

Steve Helgeson named his company, Moonstone Guitars, after rural northern California’s Moonstone Heights (not far from his current location in Eureka), where he built his first shop in the ’70s. It was an appropriate choice for a guy who trained in conservation and falconry in his youth. Helgeson changed career paths, leaving behind birds of prey in favor of guitar construction, after building his first instrument, an acoustic bass. “I grew up in the [San Francisco] Bay Area and went to all the gigs at Winterland, the Avalon Ballroom, and Fillmore West,” he says. “I wanted an acoustic bass so I could jam in the meadow in Yosemite, because there were, like, 50 guitar players and no bass players.”

Lutherie schools were virtually nonexistent when Helgeson got started in 1972, so he learned the hard way: by studying Irving Sloane’s Classic Guitar Construction (Bold Strummer, 1989) and through trial and error. He also began repairing guitars, which allowed him to study designs from Martin, Gibson, and other great shops. But it didn’t take him long to start developing designs of his own.

Working on these classic American instruments taught Helgeson that creating new designs can be more about refining the classics than about reinventing the wheel. “There’s not a lot you can do to improve on the 000 design other than to build light,” Helgeson notes. “I’ve been developing voicing and building thinner and thinner. I select really good red spruce for the tops. I used to reinforce my braces with graphite, but if you get them too stiff, the guitar gets too much high end, and the sound is not as rich and full.”

Helgeson produces approximately 25 guitars per year, about half acoustic and half electric, as well as an acoustic bass or two for good measure. In the ’80s, when his electric guitars (like the Vulcan Deluxe, a double-cutaway Les Paul–style model), were sold by 90-some dealers and shops across the country and in Europe, Helgeson found himself overseeing a high-output production team and spending a lot of time on the phone making sales. An arson fire in his shop shut Moonstone down for a while, but Helgeson is now glad to be back at the workbench instead of behind a desk.

“I’m happier working on a smaller scale,” he explains. “It’s way more hands-on, and there’s a lot less tension. I’m trying to keep it low-key. I don’t want to expand and use CNC (computer numerical control) machinery. The only computer here is in my office. Everything is handmade; I have about ten different acoustic molds with bending forms for each, and I have lots of templates and jigs for electrics around.”

Helgeson works on several instruments at a time, and does all his own inlay work. His most popular acoustic models are his J-90 small jumbo and the J-99. The J-90 is the size of a Guild D-50, and the J-99 is a 17-inch-wide acoustic 12-fret. “It’s basically a blown-up 12-fret 000 design,” he explains. “It’s really boomy—a good rhythm guitar.”

Early on, Helgeson favored Pacific Northwest tonewoods, such as quilted maple and Pacific Western maple, for both acoustic and electric guitars. In fact, his Eagle electric guitars were among the first quilted-maple instruments to appear at a NAMM trade show in the late ’70s. “People used to make fun of them,” he recalls, “like they were burl coffeetable guitars. Back then you wanted a lot of sustain, so you wanted a lot of mass. The maple burl will give you that.”

About ten years ago, however, a customer insisted that Helgeson track down some high-quality Brazilian rosewood for his guitar, and the experience made a convert out of him. “I thought Brazilian was way overpriced until I got ahold of some,” he says. “I got some 50-year-old Brazilian and built a 000-45. I realized why it’s the favorite tonewood. Now I have about 30 sets in-house.”

Helgeson’s waiting list is approximately three months long. He currently offers about 20 models, ranging in base price from $4,000 to $5,200. For a complete list of specs and options, check out his website at www.moonstoneguitars.com.

Moonstone Guitars
PO Box 757
Eureka, CA 95502
(707) 445-9045
www.moonstoneguitars.com

This article also appears in Acoustic Guitar, September 2006

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