What’s the most affordable boutique guitar?

[Skip Ellis]

You could probably find a used Brook Torridge in the $2-$3000 range. Even new they're a good value compared to a lot of other things out there. What gets nasty is having to pay Uncle Sam the 8.7% import duty on a new (or even used one) coming from England.

[mcmars]

Check out House guitars, Josh makes beautiful guitars in small batches out of Canada

[Goat Mick]

I would look here http://www.crossguitars.com. He's a great guy that builds some awesome guitars. He's been putting my old Gibsons back together for about 25 years and he knows his stuff.

[packmule]

If Waterloo is in the mix as a boutique guitar then another one to consider would be Iris guitars, which get a lot of love on the forum and would fall within your price range.

[scotchnspeed]

I consider many already mentioned: Brook, Northwood, Webber, but also respectfully and controversially add - Larrivee. Family owned (and built), smaller output, massive tone/materials to price ratio.

[Scolaguitar]

Another vote for Northwood.

[Oldguy64]

There is a local luthier here.
Kent Rathjen, Indian head guitars.
He incorporates an Indian head coin into every guitar.
They retail in the $2000 area.
But I’ve been told he’ll take reasonable offers.
I have been able to play a few of them. Very nice guitars.

[generalliamsayn]

Originally Posted by llew

Huss & Dalton used might be in that ball park...

Used H&D's are often quite the bargain, IMHO, only because their name isn't as well known, especially west of the Mississippi.

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by scotchnspeed

I consider many already mentioned: Brook, Northwood, Webber, but also respectfully and controversially add - Larrivee. Family owned (and built), smaller output, massive tone/materials to price ratio.

It comes down a bit to how we define what qualifies as boutique. Larrivee are certainly factory made instruments... but, then again, so are Collings. I don't disagree that Larrivee are good guitars, but in my mind, their production numbers put them a bit too high to count as boutique. One google search turned up an AGF post which cites 30-40k per year, but that seems on the high side to me.

[Aspiring]

My first foray into something not mainstream was a Kronbauer guitar. Like Webber and Ted Thompson his guitars seem to come up at a relatively reasonable price and they are lovely.

[buddyhu]

I love my Webber small Jumbo, and it is rare for a used Webber to sell for more than $2300. A Webber would be my number one recommendation.

I liked the tone of the Waterloo I tried, but didn’t like the neck.

Huss and Dalton make fine guitars, and used ones are often less than $3K.

Once in a great while, I’ll see a player’s grade Collings for less than $3K, and that would be a great choice.

[s2y]

Check the classifieds here?

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

It comes down a bit to how we define what qualifies as boutique. Larrivee are certainly factory made instruments... but, then again, so are Collings. I don't disagree that Larrivee are good guitars, but in my mind, their production numbers put them a bit too high to count as boutique. One google search turned up an AGF post which cites 30-40k per year, but that seems on the high side to me.

I have taken Larrivee Factory tour in Oxnard, California. This article(April, 2020) coincides with what I heard on that tour;
https://acousticguitar.com/larrivee-guitars/

"At one point, the shop produced as many as 72 guitars per day, but today, its output hovers at about 26 instruments. "

Actually at the time I took the tour, probably 2016 or so, it was even less.
But going off the 26 instruments a day at 261 work days a year, that is around 6,786 guitars a year.

I do understand that this puts Larrivee out of our definition of the Boutique category. However, I think that Larrivee does stand in a category that is unique unto itself for many reasons.
Number one is they harvest their own spruce;

"Larrivée has helicoptered into Canadian rainforests to harvest fallen Sitka spruce trees, trekked through rosewood forests in southern India, climbed up Hawaiian slopes in search of koa, and often hand-selects woods directly at wholesalers in Europe and the United States. If necessary, he’ll even wield a chainsaw himself, literally starting the hands-on process of building a guitar at the source of the primary material.

Running his own sawmill in Vancouver, Larrivée not only processes all of his own spruce,"

There are some magnificent Boutique builders. While Larrivee lies outside the Boutique builder definition, the quality and sound they produce is also quite lovely. Many on this forum have compared their Larrivee's to high end guitars in sound quality. I be one of those.

[mercy]

Of the actually boutique, which I dont consider collings or santa cruz to be, Kronbaur's are extremely beautiful and on the low side of boutique guitars price. There was one recently on the classifieds. If its not too big, I would recommend his small jumbo as the best sounding but his smaller guitars are very personal.

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

I do understand that this puts Larrivee out of our definition of the Boutique category. However, I think that Larrivee does stand in a category that is unique unto itself for many reasons.

This is a sentiment that I agree with entirely. They do hover in the in-between space between obviously boutique, and obviously mass produced.

And it also depends on which era of Larrivee we're talking about. 25 years ago, before they moved to Cali, it's an easier answer.