Who is your favorite builder?

[Orfeas]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

I'm with you brother. Santa Cruz is an awesome little company shop. Richard Hoover has trained many good luthiers. His guitars are amazing. I agree with his ideas and philosophies. I've never known anyone to sell a SC and not regret it. He tunes the guitar tops like a violin top is tuned. But his woods are amazing. My 00 12 fret Sitka/Hog has the most tightly grained consistent woods I've ever seen. I would have never believed I could get a guitar made with this quality of wood for the price I paid. I would have understood if they had wanted $10,000 for it. I bought a use SC guitar and that's all it took. I sold all my other guitars and bought a second SC. And I have been buying and selling high end guitars for 40 years so I knew what I was doing.

That is exactly what happen to me. I was searching for a custom OM for 2 years, and never had the chance to play any SCGC. When I've reached the point having that budget for customs builds, I tried lots of expensive guitars up to the point that the guys at Chicago Music Exchange brought to me that custom OM. Game was over. Another point is that I see a lot of videos with Richard Hoover and I get the feeling that he is an outstanding guy to talk guitars and hung out with!

[eshrager]

Depending on style/tone the following three are at the top of my list.

Froggy Bottom
Kevin Kopp (for those who like the Gibson woody tone)
Matt Eich (Mule) for those who want a great resonator

All three make great guitars with great tone, workmanship and play ability.
They all do customs and are a joy to work with.

[Chedeng88]

Factory:
Taylor

Mid boutique:
Goodall
Bourgeois
SCGC

Single-luther:
Wingert
Applegate
S. Kinnaird
Webber

[ShinyBeast]

Another big +1 for Huss and Dalton. I have a standard rosewood OM and an MJ Crossroads Deluxe. They are both absolutely perfect in construction, sound and feel. Below is a link to several interesting articles by Mark Dalton:

http://www.premierguitar.com/authors/284-mark-dalton

[Nort]

Factory: CF Martin for their Vintage models

Boutique: Santa Cruz and Collings

Luthier: Kirk Sand and Tim Laughlin

[1Charlie]

Originally Posted by ShinyBeast

Another big +1 for Huss and Dalton. I have a standard rosewood OM and an MJ Crossroads Deluxe. They are both absolutely perfect in construction, sound and feel. Below is a link to several interesting articles by Mark Dalton:

http://www.premierguitar.com/authors/284-mark-dalton

Make that +2 for H&D!

[Steve DeRosa]

Mark Campellone's line of hand-carved archtops - why pay 3-4 times the price for a factory-built Gibson, or more from other specialty builders...?

[Steel and wood]

Overall, it's Martin for me!

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Rmz76

...
Commitment to traditions
Even the $1300 Gibson J-15 uses hide-glue in the construction process. Gibson flat tops are tap-tuned. This is a painstaking manual process when the lutheir purposely uses inconsistent scalloping technique when carving the braces to get optimal tone out of the specific top he's carving. The rational is that no two pieces of wood are going to be identical. Their competitors either do not tap tune at all or they reserve it for special custom shop models.

...

Is that true? Gibson tap tunes? I thought there were no factory made guitars that are tap tuned except for maybe custom shop/built models maybe.

On the subject, I'd go with Goodall.

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by Rmz76

Gibson flat tops are tap-tuned.

The only possible source for this I can find is that someone once reported seeing Ren Ferguson tapping a top for a custom he was building.

What is your source for this information?

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

The only possible source for this I can find is that someone once reported seeing Ren Ferguson tapping a top for a custom he was building.

What is your source for this information?

That's what I was thinking. It would take a virtually impossible amount of time to tap tune that volume of guitars by hand.

[Acousticado]

I certainly admire Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Larrivee, Guild, etc., but my favorite builder these days who I greatly admire for their use of state-of-the-art materials, over-the-top innovation, incredible flexibility, and responsiveness to customer wants and desires, not to mention their great guitars is.....Alistair Hay of Emerald Guitars (carbon fiber), out of Donegal, Ireland.

[Goodallboy]

As a former owner of a few Martins, a very nice '66 J-45, and several fine Goodall's, I must give my appreciation and vote to a man in whose all too short lifetime, built the best acoustic guitar I've ever played, Mr. Lance McCollum.

[Nate the Skate]

Large(ish): Larrivee

Boutique: Froggy Bottom

Luthier: I have never played a guitar made by an independent luthier. If I were in the market for one, then I would come to this forum seeking advice.

[lweb10]

It might has something to do with living in the upper Midwest, but the last two guitar builders to rock my boat were David Flammang in Iowa and Charlie Hoffman in Minnesota. My 00 Flammang never ceases to amaze me, even 12 years in and the slope shoulder dred I played the last time I was at David's shop left me searching for superlatives (and dreds are far from my favorite shape for a guitar). A few years ago I played a koa and German spruce Hoffman 00 that I'm still kicking myself for not buying. True, I would have had to mortgage our cat . . .