Exotic Woods
Manfred Gleissner is a part of Gleissner tonewoods, which is known for supplying high quality tonewood to luthiers around the world. Grandfather Anton Gleissner founded the company with his brother in 1905 sourcing the wood form Bosnia and the Carpathian Mountains. After 1945 the family resettled...
Dana Bourgeois formed Bourgeois Guitars in 1993, having already worked as a luthier on several projects including those with Paul Reed Smith and Eric Schoenberg. His passion for guitar building began in college when he read Classic Guitar Construction by Irving Stone. His first repair shop was...
Ervin Somogyi began his career as a instrument repairman, which is how he learned the important elements of a guitar. He studied what went wrong with guitars, their weaknesses, and what he could do in designing and building his own guitars that would make them unique and stronger. He developed his...
Bogdan Tesla is related to the physicist Nikola Tesla, who was born in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire (today that area is part of Croatia). Bogdan was in the military, but found that during the civil war he was being asked to fight against his own family. He left the service and...
Marinko Tesla expressed a deep sense of pride in the fact that he works alongside his father, Bogdan, who established Tesla Tonewood Serbia in 1991. The father-son team work long and hard to produce the highest level of quality as well as strong customer support to the luthiers and instrument...
Manuel Delgado is proudly following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a luthier of musical instruments. His grandfather began making classical guitars in 1928 and since that time the family has been involved with making over 40 different stringed instruments. Manuel builds several...
Marty Lanham first moved to Nashville in the early 1970s from San Francisco and soon set up his first workshop. He worked for Gruhn Guitars as a repairman for eight years while fine-turning his skills as a luthier. Country stars John Anderson and Marty Stuart are among those Marty has built and...
Andy Allen established the custom shop within the Maton Guitar Company in Melbourne, Australia. The company was created by Bill May back in 1946 along with the help of his brother Reg. Since that time, the company has built a respected reputation around the world for acoustic and electric guitars. ...
John Monteleone grew up on Long Island, New York - the perfect spot for absorbing the rich history of the arch-top guitar. He studied the instrument and became a well-respected and sought-after luthier. John has created several innovations in the design and processes of building an acoustic guitar...
Roman Zajicek was born in Kolin in the Czech Republic, where for several decades the government made it difficult to do business as an independent luthier. In 2003, when he had the opportunity to open his own guitar shop he did. Based on his first name and his favorite wood to use for guitar...