John Allison is an Austin, Texas luthier who builds acoustic, electric, and lap steel guitars out of a small shop with two of his sons and (currently) one other assistant. He began building his own guitars about 30 years ago in Chicago, but stopped producing his own after moving back home to Texas and going to work for Bill Collings. He set up his own shop about ten years ago and concentrates on making rather traditional acoustics, mostly in the Martin tradition. My guitar, however, will be built using the Gibson advanced jumbo body style, as John feels this works better with a short scale than the Martin square-shouldered dreadnaught.