Luthiers

Abigail

Cetus Guitars

Abigail is the co-founder and luthier of Cetus Guitars Atelier.

1 guitar in the collection

Gage Halland

Halland Guitars

Meet the Luthier: Gage Halland Gage Halland is the founder and master luthier behind Halland Guitars, based in Livingston, Montana. A lifelong musician, Gage transformed his early passion for playing the guitar into a relentless pursuit of bespoke acoustic craftsmanship. Driven by an obsessive, "always make it better" mentality, Halland actively sought out the highest levels of luthier education. His foundational years were shaped by observing legendary builder John Greven, followed by a life-changing, two-year master apprenticeship under Michael Greenfield in Montreal. Today, Halland builds instruments that represent the perfect marriage of world-class, traditional tutelage and modern acoustic innovation. By applying his own theories on sound production to correct the inherent deficiencies of traditional acoustic elements, he crafts instruments that are structurally flawless, acoustically superior, and possess a tone and design that are instantly recognizable as a Halland guitar.

No guitars in collection yet

Hanson Cai

Cetus Guitars

Hanson is one of the luthiers of Cetus Guitars Atelier.

No guitars in collection yet

Isaac Jang

Isaac Jang Guitars

No guitars in collection yet

Jeff Traugott

Jeff Traugott Guitars

Like many guitar enthusiasts, I picked up the instrument as a teenager and haven't been able to put it down since. While pursuing my Bachelor of Arts degree I made a dulcimer and then my first real instrument an F-5 Mandolin. From there I opened a small shop in a garage and began building my first guitar. Soon after I started a small music store selling used instruments and doing stringed instrument repair. During that time I also built about 6 guitars a year. My next move was working for Santa Cruz Guitar Company, where I honed my skills in all aspects of guitar production and repair. I left SCGC in the summer of 1991 to open my current shop, Jeff Traugott Guitars. My shop is located in an old industrial building in Santa Cruz, California, which houses a diverse community of artisans and craftspeople. I focus on tone, playability, and the highest quality craftsmanship. I build all the guitars myself allowing me to maintain a very personal relationship with my customers. To this day I haven't lost any of my excitement or enthusiasm for guitar building, if anything, it's grown more out of control! I've been motivated from the very beginning to be one of the best at my craft.

2 guitars in the collection

Judson Riviere

Riviere Guitars

Judson “Jud” Riviere is an American luthier whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the acoustic guitar and an uncompromising pursuit of craftsmanship. His journey began in adolescence, when an early fascination with guitar construction led him from building kits and performing his own setups to formal training at the Guitar Repair and Building Program in Red Wing, Minnesota. Following his studies, Jud spent three formative years working alongside Steve Mason in Lawrence, Kansas, where extensive repair work afforded him an intimate understanding of the structure, behavior, and voice of fretted instruments. In 2019, seeking to further refine his approach to guitar making, he began a multi-year apprenticeship with renowned luthier Jason Kostal, completing the program in 2022. The influence of these experiences remains central to Jud’s work today. Combining traditional lutherie with a deeply personal approach to voicing and design, he pursues instruments of exceptional tonal character, responsiveness, refinement, and lasting beauty.

2 guitars in the collection

Julian Gaffney

Gaffney Guitars

Julian Gaffney's craft is the inheritance of three of America's most distinguished names in lutherie. A lifelong obsession with the instrument took him first to the Galloup School of Lutherie for formal training, then to New York, where he spent seven and a half years at the bench of Roger Sadowsky — building, setting up, and repairing guitars for some of the world's most demanding players, and contributing to the first Sadowsky acoustic instruments in more than two decades. A subsequent apprenticeship with Ervin Somogyi — arguably the most revered name in modern steel-string lutherie — took him to California and gave him what he calls a new level of consideration for the acoustic guitar. He now works independently from a small shop in Beacon, New York, producing a modest number of instruments each year, each shaped by an unhurried devotion to workmanship, tone, and design.

No guitars in collection yet

MATTHEW RICE

Casimi Guitars

With a formal education in woodworking, fine art, and metallurgy - Matthew Rice is the designer behind the bold lines of each Casimi guitar. Matthew also explores complex aesthetic themes through the use of precious metals such as gold and silver, alloys such as bronze, and more traditional materials such as mother of pearl and abalone. He regularly uses exotic figured woods such as Mahogany from The Tree, Hawaiian koa and painted maple. Each rosette, backstrip and headstock inlay is made entirely by hand. Casimi Guitars use natural materials exclusively and do not use CNC technology at any point in the creation of their instruments.

No guitars in collection yet

MATTHIAS ROUX

Casimi Guitars

Matthias Roux is responsible for the unique voice of every Casimi guitar. Matthias uses the finest woods such as Quilted Mahogany from The Tree, African Blackwood and Hawaiian Koa with inner sides of African wengé for the body of the instrument. The soundboards of Casimi guitars are made from Alpine spruce that was harvested at the point in the lunar cycle where the sap is at its lowest. This is a European woodworking tradition that has been used in classical violins for centuries. Matthias also hand-carves the neck of every Casimi instrument - for this he uses aged Central American mahogany exclusively.

No guitars in collection yet

Michihiro Matsuda

Matsuda Guitars

Michihiro “Michi” Matsuda is the founder of Matsuda Guitars, widely recognized for his sculptural approach to contemporary acoustic guitar making. After beginning his craft in Japan, he moved to the United States, studied at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, and later apprenticed with master guitar maker Ervin Somogyi in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Matsuda’s instruments are celebrated for their daring visual language, refined craftsmanship, and deeply responsive musical voice.

No guitars in collection yet

Mitsuhiro Uchida

Uchida Guitars

Photograph: Isaac Jang Mitsuhiro Uchida is a Japanese master luthier and the founder of Uchida Guitars, known for his highly individual approach to acoustic guitar making. Born in Tokyo in 1952, Uchida began studying classical guitar construction in the early 1970s under Toshihiko Nakade, later expanding his craft through work with Japanese guitar companies, repair work in Germany, and time at Lowden Guitars. His instruments reflect a rare synthesis of Japanese precision, European lutherie experience, and a deeply personal design language.

No guitars in collection yet

Pengcheng Zhang

Z Guitars

Pengcheng Zhang is a Chinese independent luthier and the founder of Z Guitars, whose work brings together spatial imagination refined sensitivity to form, proportion, and space. Before turning to lutherie, he worked as a Portuguese translator in Africa, a game designer, and a garden designer. Moving through languages, virtual worlds, and designed landscapes, he developed an unusually wide visual and intellectual vocabulary. These experiences allowed him to draw from many disciplines to express Chinese culture visually and materially. Rather than treating tradition as ornament, he approaches his work as a system of thought: the balance between fullness and emptiness, the tension between discipline and spontaneity and the rhythm of linear design. Echoes of classical gardens, scholar’s objects, calligraphy, architecture, and traditional craftsmanship can be interpreted in his unique design and three-dimensional composition. In his instruments, ancient cultural sensibilities are not reproduced literally, but transformed into a contemporary design language. The curves, volumes, tactile details, and overall presence of each instrument reveal an effort to let sound, aesthetic, and cultural memory coexist.

1 guitar in the collection

Tan

Cetus Guitars

Tan is the co-founder and luthier of Cetus Guitars Atelier.

No guitars in collection yet

Yasunori Hiramitsu

Hiramitsu Guitars

Yasunori Hiramitsu is a Japanese luthier based in Aichi, Japan, and the founder of Hiramitsu Guitars. Trained under classical guitar maker Kazuo Ichiyanagi, Hiramitsu developed a refined foundation in traditional guitar construction before establishing his own independent workshop in 1998. His work brings together classical discipline, acoustic sensitivity, and a distinctly personal approach to handmade steel-string guitars.

No guitars in collection yet

Zhicheng Qin

Qin Guitars

No guitars in collection yet