Luthier Built Guitars

Further to the Duncan Africa Guitars I offer a variety of second hand Luthier-Built guitars for sale. These are refurbished (when necessary) then cleaned, fret polished, restrung, set up and sold with our 18 month ‘luthier-stamp guarantee’.

The ‘luthier stamp guarantee’ means that the instruments are:

• In excellent serviceable condition
• Playing and working well with a good action
• Clean and fresh
• Made exceptionally well in the first place by a professional luthier and from excellent materials
• Guaranteed for a full 18 months to assure players of the exceptional quality and reliability of each instrument. Buyers can be fully confident knowing that, if in the unlikely event of any problems arising from either the original construction of the guitar, or indeed any subsequent repair work, the instrument will be serviced and repaired without cost

Please note that I do not stock factory instruments, or amateur built guitars - I only stock luthier-built acoustic guitars made by professional individual luthiers, or small output workshops that are headed-up by exceptional luthiers (e.g. Lowden, Santa Cruz, Collings, Bourgeois and Atkin etc.) or ‘Custom Shop’ guitars from bigger brands such as C.F. Martin, and Gibson. 

Trade in – Luthier-Built provides the possibility for a client to part-exchanging a high-end guitar for a new or second hand instrument, as I can service, guarantee and sell-on their pre-loved instrument.

Buy in – If you have a luthier-built or custom shop acoustic guitar, and are looking to just sell rather than trade it in, I do at times buy instruments direct from clients. Please email me with a picture and short description of the guitar for me to asses and value. If the instrument fits our ethos I will either make an offer, or recommend that you submit it to us on a sale-or-return basis (see below). 

Sale or Return – I am also able to sell instruments purely on a sale-or-return commission basis, as long as they fulfil our Luthier-Built stock requirements outline above and are able to achieve the Davies luthier stamp guarantee. 

In such cases the guitar owner submits their instrument to us, signing a sale-or-return agreement and pays a one-off fee of £50 to cover a full clean, fret polish, restring, insurance and set up (if needed). Once the guitar is sold with our luthier guarantee the former owner will receive 80% of the price (i.e. our commission is 20% of the sale price). As the guarantee is with us, under no circumstances is there any come back on the original owner. Please note, VAT is not charged on either the commission fee or the sale price.

If a sale-or-return guitar needs more than a clean and set up to achieve the Davies luthier stamp guarantee we will need the client to agree a quotation for the necessary repair work as part of their sale-or-return agreement. This work is normally paid for by the client prior to the instrument being listed for sale.

In submitting your instrument to us sale-or-return we recommend that you give us a minimum of 3-4 months to sell. This is not binding as it is your instrument, however, expensive instruments do need time to find the right buyer and we state the time period to give a realistic expectation.   

Couriers and Returns – As our customers are geographically widespread, by prior agreement clients can send their instrument to us via a courier (if shipped in a suitably case and packaging). This is paid for by the client. If we are unable to sell your instrument within six months we will return it to you having fully serviced it with a new set of strings fitted, at our own cost.

Through Luthier-Built I really enjoy seeing some of the work of the finest luthiers over the last 100 years. It is a pleasure to work on masterpieces and restore value and dignity to guitars that thoroughly deserve a new owner and lease of life. 

Our Current Luthier-Built stock: 

Davies OM28, Old growth Sitka Spruce over dark Brazilian Rosewood, Honduras Mahogany neck, Indian ebony fretboard, French polish. Specifically voiced for fingerstyle this guitar was originally built in 1995 for David Forfar, a friend of John Renbourn’s - It is the guitar that John tried to buy multiple times and inspired John to commission his own Davies OM - £POA 

Santa Cruz Tony Rice Professional Dreadnaught 2001 - Brazilian Rosewood, Mint Condition with case - £8,495

Nicholas Jolliffe 2011 Steel String  - designed with and built for Bert Jansch - Pre-war ‘Modified Slope –shouldered Dreadnaught’ with slotted headstock and 14 fret OM spec wide neck) Sitka Spruce over Indian Rosewood. Refinished and restored by Casimi Guitars, Cape Town. Mint condition with Calton type Case - £4995

Pete Howlett Weissenborn Acoustic 1997 – Style 1 - Mahogany, B-Condition with case - £1195

Theunis Fick, Model 2 - 2020  - Only Fick in the UK, Mint Condition with case- £5,495 (SOLD). 

Fried Van Doorslaer 000-12 Fret - Alpine Spruce over English Walnut. Good condition, with case - £1295

Overwater Double Cut’ solid electric carve top - Mahogany, ebony fretboard, Restored condition – £1095