Benoit Lavoie Modern Archtop
 

I met Benoit Lavoie in 2016 at a Ottawa, Ontario luthier showcase. I was struck first by his passion and enthusiasm as well as his kindness. When I looked more carefully at his work, it became clear that his creativity and workmanship were at another level compared to many other talented guitar makers. His approach combining great lutherie with technology like spectral analysis makes for very interesting guitars.

I've run into Benoit two or three times a year since at different shows in the North East and just knew that I would eventually own one of his guitars.

Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to acquire one of his demo guitars, originally built for the 2015 Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase.

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Here are the specs:

Fully hollow 15" body
24.75" scale
White spruce top
Mun ebony back and sides
Maple neck with carbon fiber reinforcement
Stainless Steel frets
Waverly tuning keys with ebony buttons
Floating Kent Armstrong Handwound PAF Style 12 Pole Humbucker Pickup
Volume / Tone (pickguard mounted thumb wheel controls)

I'm not a (real) jazz guitarist although I love jazz and jazz guitar. This is a lot of guitar for my skill level but I won't have any excuse not to learn!

For anyone interested, here's a short video (in French, with English subtitles) on Benoit Lavoie and his work.



Also, a pretty awesome jazz version of Cindy Lauper's She Bops complete with looping and superb soloing by local pro Éric Savard on his own Benoit Lavoie 7-string archtop recorded at the Quebec City Guitar Show in 2017.

Beautiful guitar!

Yeah. There's really nothing more to say.

Not quite my style to be fair, but beautiful, and above all, interesting. Very interesting indeed.

This is a bit of a zombie thread, but I recently became acquainted with Benoit Lavoie and his wonderful guitars. Absolutely stunning voice he can produce with a beautiful low end that usually isn't present in archtop guitars. His flat tops are equally impressive. If you ever get a chance to play one, you will be amazed.

Not to mention, he is a super enthusiastic and nice person. This man has a gift!

Beautiful Guitar my friend. Love the shorter scale! That guitar will surely inspire some New Horizons for you. Congrats. Dennis

That is one stunning instrument!