Boutique Acoustics - 180 Years of Hand-Built American Guitars

The story of the handmade steel-string guitar and how it developed in America from the classical guitar of the 1830s. Tells the stories of builders famous and obscure, including C.F. Martin Sr., Orville Gibson, James Ashborn and Antonio Cerrito, and modern makers like Michael Gurian, Stuart Mossman, Ervin Somogyi, and others. Covers the birth of the steel-string, the rise of small factories, the advent of "one-man shops;" the history of body styles like dreadnought, OM, and jumbo; development of various top bracing patterns, use of different tonewoods, use of high-tech materials such as carbon fiber and Nomex, more. Other makers include Bohmann, Bruno, Guild, Tilton, Washburn, Gallagher, Klein, Taylor, Bourgeois, Tony Yamamoto, Zimnicki, and others. Also includes a selected directory of American luthiers, elements of a boutique guitar, more. 143 pp.