Talking Guitar

An inspiring and virtuosic fingerstyle player, Matt Thomas is also deeply knowledgeable and passionate about the world of boutique luthier-built guitars. He may even be considering a move into building himself! All told, he's the perfect non-luthier guest for this luthier series, able to nerd out about music and guitar craft in equal measure.

In our chat, he shares his musical history and inspirations, from his wins at the Walnut Valley International Fingerstyle and Home of the Legends International Thumbpicking competitions; his long-running musical partnership with Dustin Furlow; to sharing the stage with legends like Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Kelsey, Stephen Bennett, among others. Through our discussion of his collaboration with Jeff Jewitt for his signature OM-C, we explore how our relationship to the instruments we play shapes our musical experience, and discuss the value of partnering with a great luthier to create your perfect guitar.

Learn more about Matt: https://themattthomas.com/home

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Matt's videos on YouTube

Matt plays his arrangement of "Ashokan Farewell" on his custom Jewitt OM-C Cocobolo, and his original "Sky's Eyes" on a Skytop Grand Concert Maple.

Jewitt Guitars at CVE

Kansas luthier Leo Posch is one of those builders who proves the incredible value of repair work in shaping one’s guitar building skills. He may say he does the “ordinary” things when it comes to guitar construction, but having seen countless instruments come through Mass Street Music with every problem under the sun, he simply knows what works. The excellent tone and feel of his guitars speak for themselves!

Leo shares his journey from folk-obsessed banjo player to builder of flattop acoustics, mandolin family instruments, archtops, and banjos (not to mention all his other DIY projects!). While he may be in many ways a very traditional-inspired builder, as you'll hear and see from his wide-ranging selection of instruments, Leo loves customizing to player requests, incorporating modern concepts like soundports, bevels and fan frets, as well as personalized inlays into his timeless guitars.

Learn more about Posch Guitars: https://leoposch.com/

Follow Leo on Instagram

Subscribe to Leo's YouTube channel

Available Posch Guitars at CVE:

Advanced Jumbo Hormigo

GA Indian Rosewood

AJ Indian Rosewood

Dreadnought Brazilian Rosewood

00-13 Mahogany

Intro and outro music by Carl Miner, both played on previously sold Posch guitars.

The team at Preston Thompson Guitars in Sisters, Oregon have set out to create a series of masterpiece instruments, showing off what's possible not only in tone and playability but also in inlay and appointments. Just in time to get the first of three North American Wildlife Series guitars, we chat with inlay artist Simon Haycraft about the inspiration, design, and execution of a guitar that won't be for the faint of heart: a Brazilian rosewood OM dedicated to the rattlesnake!

Learn more about Thompson Guitars: https://pktguitars.com/

Follow Simon on Instagram

Follow Thompson Guitars on Instagram

Available PKT Guitars at CVE:

0000 Indian Rosewood/Adirondack Spruce

Size 2 Parlor Brazilian Rosewood

Intro and outro music by Carl Miner, both played on previously sold Preston Thompson guitars.

No one works in a vacuum, but Frank Schley IV of Silvan Guitars really proves the value of building your business with a collaborative community. Frank developed his skills under the tutelage of Scott Baxendale, well-known for his Harmony conversions and restorations. No surprise, then, that Frank has a deep understanding and appreciation for vintage, something that’s apparent in his modern takes on the Tele and Strat-style electrics, and in the classic ‘bursts and shapes of his acoustics. But he’s certainly not one to shy away from trying something new in his own guitars, whether that be reworking a body shape, utilizing an uncommon tonewood or inlay material, or going above and beyond to customize to a player’s requests. Every Silvan guitar has a flair to it that’ll catch your eye in a crowded shop, but it’s their excellent tone and playability that’ll make you take one home.

Frank chose Silvan for his shop name because it means of the woods or of trees. Not just clever branding, it’s made even more meaningful by the fact that he often uses domestic woods from his family’s forestry lands in building his guitars. Frank is also passionate about fostering a collaborative, creative scene in his home base of Athens, GA, calling on talented local friends to demo his guitars and opening up his picturesque workshop to live concerts. He’s also partnered with electric specialist Georgia Quarter Guitars and continues to offer repair services. If ever there were a template for the modern luthier, we think Frank’s got it.

Learn more about Silvan Guitars: https://www.silvanguitars.com/

Follow Silvan Guitars on Instagram

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Available Silvan Guitars at CVE

Featured instruments:

Silvan 12-Fret Parlor Koa/Redwood

Silvan OM Mango/Cedar

Featured musicians: Lindsay Straw

“I’ve always operated under the principle that if you can build a guitar, you can do anything.”

Jeff Jewitt is the perfect representative of the collaborative spirit that now defines the guitar-making world. Likely a familiar face to fellow builders, Jeff’s tints, stains and dyes company has supplied names big and small in the guitar world for decades. Fans of guitar-making content may have seen his StewMac collaborations, ending up on his channels where he gives a glimpse of the build process and demos his freshly completed guitars.

Self-taught to start but influenced by his contemporaries, Jeff’s guitars are a perfect mix of classic design with modern appointments, tone and style. Because he’s always learning and pushing himself, he happily takes on challenging custom builds for folks like fingerstyle virtuoso Matt Thomas, expanding the bounds of what a Jewitt Guitar can be in the process.

In the spirit of sharing, we discuss some of Jeff’s advice for newer luthiers on the value of apprenticeship and self-promotion. He will be showcasing at Artisan in Harrisburg, PA next month on April 14-16, and teaching with fellow luthier Robbie O’Brien at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in July 2023.

Learn more about Jewitt Guitars: https://jewittguitars.com/

Follow Jeff on Instagram

All available Jewitt Guitars at CVE

Featured instruments:

Jewitt OM-C Cedar/Cocobolo

Jewitt 00-C Redwood/Walnut

Jewitt 000-12 White Oak/Adirondack

Featured musicians: Carl Miner, Lindsay Straw​

John Slobod proves that even building within the parameters of what's known to work (in his case, pre-war Martin style guitars), there's still plenty to discover, and endless ways to adapt and innovate.

In the early 90s when his wife suggested he combine his passion for making things with his love of neo-traditional bluegrass, it only made sense. John spent years refining his skills in the production line at Dana Bourgeois' workshop, then later alongside Julius Borges building Schoenberg guitars. By the time he put out his own shingle as the aptly named Circa Guitars, he had nearly two decades and thousands of guitars worth of experience under his belt to inform his own timeless style.

Just as we were about to receive a brand new D-18 in beeswing mahogany, we sat down to chat about his history, his wood hoarding habit, and how he creates some of the best pre-war inspired guitars, while keeping their own unique Circa sound and feel.

Learn more about Circa Guitars: http://www.circaguitars.com/ Follow John on Instagram

Just arrived: Circa D-18 Beeswing Mahogany

More Circa guitars at CVE

Featured musicians: Carl Miner, Bill Cooley, Stuart Ryan

TNAG/CVE's Kim Sherman considers John Baxendale one of the best kept secrets of the guitar world. Not that she's trying to keep him a secret, mind you. We just can never keep his guitars around long enough to promote them, and it's rare for them to come up on the used market!

John got started working on guitars young, first working for his father, noted luthier Scott Baxendale, before striking out on his own and gaining loads of valuable experience through repair and restoration work. He holds a deep respect and passion for the Larson Brothers' and Martin guitars of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and he cites Norman Blake and Tony Rice as primary musical inspirations. From Size 2 to dreadnought, we think he crafts some of the best handmade traditional guitars around. We discuss the ethereal, hard to pin down aspects of guitar tone and sound, what he’s got planned for guitar No. 100 (we have dibs!), as well as his plans for an L-00 model.

Learn more about J.C. Baxendale Guitars: http://www.coguitar.com/

Follow John on Instagram

J.C. Baxendale Guitars on CVE

Available now: J.C. Baxendale D-42 Lefty

Reach out to Kim to discuss a custom J.C. Baxendale: [email protected]

Featured musicians: Carl Miner, Bill Cooley

“My niche now in the professional world is tailoring tones to the player.”

Kevin Muiderman combines musical passion with a dogged scientific approach that not only refines through prototype after prototype, but boldly eschews some of the conventional lore and wisdom about tonewoods. He’s always worked closely with musicians, especially professional fingerstyle players, to refine guitars for their style, needs and unique demands. And you can trust he’s been getting good feedback, considering the list of guitarists who play his guitars includes Leo Kottke, John Doyle, Martin Simpson, and plenty more! An accomplished fingerstylist himself, the music he plays, the players he builds for, and the community he nurtures through his house concert series are all a part of a cohesive picture. This year, as he continues to build for others, you’ll find Kevin out playing his own music, on his own guitars.

Learn more about Muiderman Guitars: http://www.muidermanguitars.com/

Follow Kevin on Instagram

Muiderman Guitars on CVE

Muiderman OM Ziricote at CVE

Kevin’s music on Spotify

Michael Chapdelaine discusses his Muiderman guitars

Featured musicians: Michael Chapdelaine, John Doyle, Don Alder, Kevin Muiderman

“With acoustics, I find there's a lot more levels to it, a lot more different details you can refine and tweak...it's all down to you, really, to get the best out of a piece."

Jake Menear took the formal and studious approach to guitar making, going from a three-year university guitar making program in London on to a masters, which allowed him to explore some of the outer reaches of guitar design with Fred Carlson's Sympitar. Following that, he found himself in George Lowden's workshop in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, where he honed his production skills, learned from fellow builders, and refined his own style during his seven-year stint. With so much experience under his belt by the time the pandemic hit, he was ready to pivot and launch JKM Guitars! Since then, he's found a receptive audience for his beautifully crafted acoustics and electrics, putting them in the hands of gigging players, collectors, and passionate amateurs alike.

Learn more about JKM Guitars: https://jkmguitars.com

Available guitars: 485w Adirondack Spruce & Honduras Rosewood, 485w Adirondack Spruce & Brazilian Mahogany

Featured musician: Gary Lutton

“I always thought that making guitars and listening to them, having the guitar experience, is multi-sensory." Michel Aboudib's approach to guitar-making feels almost synesthetic. Rather than using the usual descriptors for tone, he may use a word like “buttery”, and he is careful to curate the entire sensory experience of his instruments. With a past life that includes work as a director of photography and in the wine trade, academic math studies, and a childhood surrounded by creative and crafty family members, it’s no surprise that he comes at it from such a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary angle. We discuss the powerful influences of fellow luthiers Chris Morimoto, Jeff Traugott, and Ervin Somogyi (he’s one of his latest apprentices!). We dig into his build philosophy, and touch on the value of a musical friendship like the one he has with Antoine Aubry (featured), who provides constant valuable feedback in addition to playing and photographing Michel’s finished guitars.

Learn more about Aboudib Guitars: https://aboudibguitars.com/

Available guitars: Mod-D "Moon Trout" Cocobolo