It has been said over and over again that we are in a 'golden age of lutherie,' and that acoustic guitars built by hand builders today are as good as they have ever been. This is undoubtedly true and the works of art being built by today's best luthiers are striking both sonically and visually; however, the price of entry for a hand made guitar with custom features such as light stiff bracing, an armrest bevel, or a wedge shaped body usually starts from $3000-5000 for new builders and only goes up from there. The perfection demanded of these guitars requires extraordinary patience and tedious work, and effectively puts them out of the reach of working musicians on a budget. On the other side of the acoustic guitar market, factory built guitars are as good as they've ever been. The fit and finish is excellent at every price point, and standard designs are built to tight tolerances that factories could only dream of a decade ago. But alas, these guitars are built for durability and warranty concerns by factory workers who have no clue how to voice an instrument to make it sound its best.

Shabby Chic Guitars was formed to bridge these two worlds together; to apply the finely honed skills of a master craftsman and luthier to mostly factory-made acoustic guitars. We are here to serve discerning musicians with more passion than disposable income. We understand that there are parts of a guitar that can be made just as well or better by a factory rather than one at a time by a skilled craftsman. Why pay a luthier $300 to bend and fit a set of sides when a factory can do it for $30 with no negative effect on the final product? Where there can be an improvement in tone, playability, or comfort, we use a skilled hand. Otherwise, we use mass produced parts. This keeps costs at a minimum and frees up our luthier to focus on where the guitar truly benefits from his skills. Using this simple concept we are able to produce instruments with superior tone, playability, and ergonomic features for a fraction of the cost of even mainstream US made factory instruments.