Tip House Guitars

A lot of steel string players don't know what Mahogany actually looks like because of the stained Mahogany necks found on the guitars of Martin,and other American manufacturers.. Natural Mahogany is much a lighter golden brown color that looks almost orange under a clear finish.. This is familiar to classical guitarists because staining is not done...

Lining up the parts of the next batch of guitars is the first step of the building process for me, and it's an enjoyable time. I always start by choosing the back, side, and top pieces, which gets me started visualizing how the instrument is going to turn out and imagining how it will sound. It also gives me...

This is the final fitting of a deluxe case to the guitar.
Even though all of my dreadnoughts are theoretically the same size and shape, I always end up tweaking things a little bit in search of the perfect fit.

I am just finishing up a D18-style build with Rosewood details at the buyer's request (binding, fingerboard, head stock, pick guard, bridge etc.). Normally these details would all be ebony, which looks great, but I am really liking how the Rosewood complements the Mahogany on this instrument. This is the first time I have used UV light to darken...

Luthiers Mercantile International is closing their doors and selling off their inventory after over 25 years in business. They have been supplying instrument builders throughout the US and Canada for as long I've been building guitars. I am really sorry to see them go, but really happy to acquire these 20 sets of beautiful Indian Rosewood....

I have been making cases for about ten years now, but I've only recently developed a method that I like a lot. My earlier approaches either took way too much time, or were too heavy, or I wasn't satisfied with the finished product. Here a few of the hard things in case making.

I love it when the postman brings wood to my door, especially when it's Indian Rosewood. It's a little bit of a crap shoot buying instrument wood sight-unseen, but I have had good luck with several suppliers, and this time is no exception.

The X-bracing system is a fundamental component of the modern acoustic guitar, and it is always made from two pieces of wood notched where they cross, then patched in some way to repair the notching. I have developed what I think is a better way to execute the X brace in which there is no notch and therefore nothing to repair. ...

Although it's easy to buy already-made herringbone these days, I prefer to make my own from scratch. The main reason is that is just fun, but it also allows me to do things like this - make a circular herringbone for inlay as the center stripe around a dreadnought's sound hole..

Check out this demo by Hayes Griffin of my most recent Herringbone D28-style dreadnought build: