The Fairbanks Guitars founder talks about his journey from being a jazz trumpeter and guitarist with coffee-shop day jobs to becoming a master luthier.
The GM25 Guitar Master Stool isn’t just a seating solution; it’s an ergonomic design that doubles as a guitar stand and adds a touch of style to any space.
Adam Perlmutter November 3, 2024
Ask the Expert
Martin Keith is a luthier, repair and restoration expert, and working musician based in Woodstock, New York. He’s been answering your questions about guitars and gear for Acoustic Guitar since 2019.
In this review of the PRS Angelus SE A20E acoustic-electric guitar, we were impressed as much by its easy playability as its bright yet flexible tonal range.
Action (string height) plays a big role in how comfortable it is to play your guitar. High action could be due to a lot of different reasons—some are easy fixes.
Five promising young luthiers—Brian Itzkin, Oliver Marchant, Eve Meister, Max Spohn, and Olivia Elia—chat about their personal visions and approaches to the craft of building guitars.
Truss rod adjustments can make a big difference in an acoustic guitar's playability. However, even the most straightforward adjustments can have their pitfalls.
It can be frustrating when a brand new acoustic guitar isn't set up for optimum playability. Here are some reasons your new axe may need setup work right out of the box.
Our reviewer found that for a big guitar with a big sound, the Takamine CRN-TS1 also offers an intimate quality that rewards an uncluttered approach, where notes are given the time and space to linger.
Should you be concerned about string tension on parlor guitars from the early 1900s? Considering that very few of these instruments have truss rods, it's a valid worry.
Our reviewer found the Taylor 724ce to be an exceptionally comfortable instrument with an easy-playing neck and a resonant feel whether fingerpicked or flatpicked.
Celluloid rot, the degrading of the plastic used for the binding on vintage guitars, is a common occurrence. Here we take a look at why this deterioration happens.
Since his retirement in 2018, former C.F. Martin & Co. mainstay Dick Boak has continued hand-building instruments like this dreadnought-ukulele-small-bodied-guitar trio.
Touchup is one of the real dark arts of instrument repair, and one that exists in an almost entirely different universe from structural and functional repairs.
The Nux Stageman II AC-80 is an 80-watt combo amplifier that includes a Bluetooth app, among many other cool features geared towards gigging guitarists.
Rick Turner created many unique Compass Rose acoustics, but this one—regarded as among his finest—was the luthier’s personal guitar and a showcase of both his bold concepts and skilled execution.
Bob Taylor (Taylor Guitars), Richard Hoover (Santa Cruz Guitars), and Dana Bourgeois (Schoenberg, Bourgeois Guitars) reflect on 50 years of guitar making.
The Fender Paramount PR-180E is an affordable resonator that has a sweet sound and appeal for slide guitarists, fingerpickers, flatpickers, and strummers alike.
Classical guitar builder Joshia de Jonge talks about experimenting in her own shop after years of working alongside her father & other facets of a life of lutherie.
Alembic, Turner, The Dead's Wall of Sound—The late luthier Rick Turner, who died last April at 78, had such an illustrious career that to fully describe it, one would need to write a medium-size book.
When Paul Reed Smith first heard an 1800s acoustic guitar built by Antonio Torres, he knew his own steel-string guitar designs would borrow structural elements from Torres.
How do you choose which guitars to review? Our writers are guitar fanatics, just like you. They’re always on the lookout for new or updated offerings to recommend. We’re sometimes asked why we don’t publish negative or one-star reviews – there are so many great guitars being produced today that we’d rather share our balanced opinions on the instruments we do think you should consider.
Do companies pay for you to review their instruments? No. We are proud of the firm separation between advertising sales and editorial coverage that we’ve held strong since our founding in 1990. We only accept endemic advertising – meaning, you won’t see ads for products or services unrelated to making music with an acoustic guitar; inevitably that means we’ll review products made by companies who advertise with us, but you’ll see just as many reviews by companies who do not. We have never (and will never) take money or gifts in exchange for a favorable review.
What’s up with affiliate links? There is no billionaire owner or mega-corporation behind Acoustic Guitar – your support keeps us independent and in business. When you shop for gear using one of our affiliate links, a small percentage of your purchase gets shared with us (at no cost to you) for being the one that referred you. This is one way you can support our work (learn about more ways here.) We do not select products to review based on the availability of affiliate links.
