Frequently Asked Questions
What models of guitar do you make?
1) Double Top. Has recently become my most sought after model. 650, 640, or 630 scale. Standard or smaller body
2) Hybrid Lattice Model -650, 640, or 630 scale. Standard or smaller body.
3) Traditional Concert Classical. Solid top w/ fan bracing. Standard or smaller body size.650, 640, or 630 scale. Various Wood options
4) Brazilian Rosewood/ Spruce Model
5) Other. Flamenco guitars, Steel-string acoustics, 19th century guitars, Ouds, and other things.
What is your pricing?
Please contact me for the current prices for commissioned guitars. Prices vary depending on the model, the woods, and the features used for each particular instrument. The price range is $8000 to $12000.
At the cheap end of the spectrum is a flamenca blanca made with cypress. At the expensive end is a double top classical with premo grade brazilian rosewood with all the features. For $8500 to 9000 CAD I can build a standard double top classical guitar using great spruce or cedar, and Indian Rosewood, with all the features you probably need.
Rare quality woods, such as Brazilian Rosewood, very Old spruce, Bear Claw Spruce, premo grade Lutz spruce, or some other back and side wood like ziricote with high figure, will add to the price. Each one of these instruments is priced on an individual basis. So if we work out all the specs I can give you a price...
Prices for my current stock inventory are posted on the FOR SALE PAGE, next to each available instrument.
Please see the models page for a detailed description of each one. Optional modifications can be found on the upgrades page.
How long is your waiting list?
My wait list for commissioned guitars is currently 1.5 years.
If you do not want to wait at all, see my For Sale page. I sometimes have a guitar available for immediate purchase. These stock guitars have a one week trial period. If it proves unsuitable I will give you a full refund upon safe return of the guitar. See the Sales page for more details on this policy.
Do you do repairs and restorations?
Yes, but not as much as I used to since I'm currently so busy building new guitars. From 1998 to 2003, I worked in a specialty repair shop, so I have a background in this work. For more details you can go to the "Repair and Restoration" page of this site. If you have an instrument that needs a repair contact me.
Why are you not on social media?
Well I'm getting this question a lot lately. I do have a couple Facebook pages, and a youtube video account, although I never really got into using them. I started building guitars back in 1996 or 97, and there was no real social media back then. Selling guitars meant meeting professional musicians, teachers, going to guitar shows and luthier events in person. I sold some guitars through dealers as well. I started to get known internationally on the Delcamp Classical Guitar forum, back in 2006 or 2007. I posted a lot on there for 7 or 8 years, and I still go on there once in a while. I still go to guitar shows too, but in any case, that's how I started and got known. And getting a bunch of guitars out in the world help too. Some get seen and heard, and generate more work for me. The people who play my guitars professionally do most of the advertising.
I'd rather be a luthier than a video maker. In order to make good videos that are popular, you have to be that kind of personality. You need to put on a show, be a character. I do not want to start obsessing over how many clicks, likes, or subscribers I get. I could do it, but it would require me to throw a huge chunk of my life into it, and I do not want to. I value my time and my privacy. I just want to focus my energy on building guitars for my clients. That's where my energy goes. If you want me to make you laugh, I might be able to do that, but you'll have to meet me in person...if you're ever out this way...
Why do you use expensive, rare woods for your guitars? Could you not make your guitars cheaper with less expensive woods?
I could make you a great sounding guitar from a pallet, an old wooden orange crate, or a coffee table. In fact, I have cut up an old Brazilian Rosewood table for this purpose.....but even salvaged Brazilian rosewood is like gold, not cheap.
In this day and age, about 85% of the cost of a guitar is labor; 15% is materials. You might as well use the best materials you can find - the finest quarter sawn spruce, cedar, rosewood, mahogany, maple,and spanish cedar, etc. You're saving very little money by using cheap materials, but it was not always this way...
Back in the 19th century, before industrial scale logging, wood milling, and efficient global transport networks existed, exotic woods were rare and expensive. This 85 : 15 ratio (labor to materials) was reversed. Labor was cheap, materials were expensive. In Spain, if you wanted an ebony fingerboard it essentially doubled the cost of the finished guitar. Some guy probably hauled the ebony back to Spain from the Congo on his mule! Today, a good ebony fingerboard is about $40. If you went to Antonio de Torres and asked him to make you a cheaper guitar, he could easily substitute cypress for rosewood and save you a lot of money. Cypress was local and cheap. rosewood came from Brazil, on merchant ships.
Nowadays I can actually get premo grade East Indian rosewood for less money than mediterranean cypress. Indian rosewood is also cheaper than claro walnut from Oregon, which is very close to where I live. So due to this labor/ materials ratio being what it is, I use the best wood I can get. These woods are structurally reliable, and give me a predictable sound.
Using cheap woods to make a guitar is something youtubers often do for attention, or maybe people they do it to convince you that you are wasting your money by ordering a guitar made with expensive woods. That's great, and I like to watch them do this kind of thing, but it's not what I do.