Artists Using House Guitars

(from Steve Bell's blog entry)

"Josh House is a young luthier from Southern Ontario. He came to a concert of mine a few years back to show me a guitar he made. If it wasn’t his first one, it was one of his first instruments. It was a good guitar, not great, but you could tell he had talent and was well on his way to making great guitars. Over the next couple of years he showed up several times with new instruments, each a huge improvement over the last. Now he’s building first-class guitars. It’s been great fun to watch him refine and develop.

So now he’s building this one for me. It will be a Spruce top, Mahagony sides and back with a beveled bout (for comfort, plus it looks very cool) and sound holes cut into the top side (for the benefit and joy of the player). I had to sell a Spruce/Mahogany Perry guitar a few years back and so I am looking forward to this as a replacement – there is something about the particular Spruce/Mahogany combination I’ve always loved.

I’m quite eager to get it but I think it will be a few months yet before I do. Josh has been busy with new orders and also preparing to get married soon. I’ll post pictures and my thoughts on the guitar after I’ve had it awhile. It’s like waiting for a child to be born, wondering what unique features there might be… how will the guitar itself influence your playing… what sorts of songs it will inspire. We’ll see…"