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It was a pleasure to join faculty and students at Newark College for their 50th anniversary celebrations last week. I was invited to give a workshop with students of the Guitar Making School who impressed me with their ingenuity and…

Back to Hawaii now, and one of the most intriguing and inspiring guitars I have played recently. 

This is Steve Grimes’ elegant Freehand model with its asymmetrical body, double cutaways and elliptical sound hole. What a thing!

Then there’s the…

Another video from my life-affirming trip to Hawaii this year. I have lied Steve Grimes’ Jazz Laureate design since I played Steve’s contribution to The Blue Guitar Collection. 

This is a very modern and forward thinking archchtop - a…

Following on from the Grimes Beamer model I showed you last time, here is another beautiful guitar design - the Grimes Freehand Parlor. This one is made from Brazilian Kingwood and Cedar. 

This asymmetrical body with a 14-fret neck makes…

What a way to start my time in Hawaii. The Grimes Beamer model is a twin-soundhole full-voiced instrument originally based on a guitar that Steve Grimes repaired for Hawaiian slack key legend Keola Beamer in the 1980s. 

The Beamer is…

If there was the slighted question mark in my mind about this guitar it was the use of Tasmanian Blackwood on the back and sides. I’ve had limited joy with guitars made of this wood in the past but this…

During my recent visit to Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival I got the chance to spend time with one of my favourite guitar builders - and people - Michael Bashkin. Next week will bring the premiere of the…

My Casimi Guitar is taking shape! Thank you to everyone who has been in touch to ask for more details of my incoming instrument - This African Blackwood and Swiss Moon Spruce masterpiece has been much on my mind and…

Michael Greenfield is an extraordinary human being who creates extraordinary guitars. A dear friend since our first meeting at the Montreal Guitar Show in 2009 Michael has been a guide and confidante in the fascinating and often bewildering world of…

In amongst The Blue Guitars I found a trio of exceptional brown guitars and in a relatively quiet moment in amongst the azure mayhem I managed to film them.

Just look at them!

Here is the first, a sumptuous Casimi…

Do you have a love/hate relationship with certain tone woods? I have to admit that I do, and in particular the more vitreous members of the rosewood family can be hard work for me. 

If there is one wood that…

The name Ciaran McNally may be a new one to many of you but this young luthier based in Armagh Northern Ireland already has a huge amount of experience as an acoustic guitar maker having worked for both Lowden and…

Right - we should be back on track after a few weeks deep in other beautiful things (not complaining - it's a wonderful problem to have!) and here is the news as regards my incoming instrument from Casimi Guitars!

As…

I am regularly asked for my thoughts on the differences between acoustic guitars from the USA and the UK and rather than get bogged down in minutiae I find that a direct comparison is often the most useful way to…

Since I played my first notes on a Casimi acoustic guitar back in 2014 I have been inspired, awestruck and not a little obsessed with the sound that Mattias Roux and Matthew Rice of Casimi Guitars manage to pull out…

Recently I've had a lot of emails asking what happened to the Clara Archtop that Luthier Thierry André and I had been working on for the 2020 Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. 

80 Year Old Sinker Cedar anybody?

How…

I have been very fortunate, over the past couple of decades I have been left unsupervised with some truly stellar instruments made with love by many of the world's most talented luthiers. 

This sort of thing being a case in…

While trawling my archive of hours of raw footage from the first season of Luthier Stories I came across this clip where legendary guitar builder Ervin Somogyi talks about the creation of an unusual instrument made with decayed woods and…

Maple is a wood that divides opinion amongst acoustic guitarists with almost surgical precision. "It's too bright, There's no bass, it's too trebly, it's sterile" etc are accusations often levelled at this superb wood. 

Cheerfully I say unto you "Bollocks". 

…

I have made no secret of my admiration for the work of luthier Michihiro Matsuda (Oakland CA). Since first meeting him in 2009 I have been regularly left dumbfounded by the extraordinary elegance and startling lines of his instruments. As…

Ok here we go! Quilted Mahogany from The Tree is the rarest and most expensive tone wood in the world. Its striking figure and rich colour makes The Tree immediately identifiable but what is it like to own a guitar…

African Blackwood! Heavy, powerful, rare, eye-wateringly expensive and deeply elegant but surely there is more to this exotic tone wood than just a Brazilian Rosewood substitute? 

Delicious...

With a ferocious Casimi C3 Signature fan fret in hand I explore some…

British guitarist Martin Simpson is more than just an award-winning internationally successful musician. He is, to my mind, pretty much the epicentre of the modern luthier-built acoustic guitar scene on both sides of the Atlantic.

In fact, I'll go one…

Since I uploaded the latest video in my Michael Watts Plays... series I have received several messages asking for more details about Bog Oak (and its many other names).

A Bog Oak guitar yesterday

In this latest episode of my…

I have spent an enjoyable couple of days in the company of this OMC model by British luthier Jamie Swannell. 

That's quite fetching isn't it?

This is the first example of Jamie's work that I've played and I'm grateful…