Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

Montreal Guitar Show 2010

Montreal Guitar Show 2010

The works of master luthiers on display at the 2010 Montreal Guitar Show



The best guitar makers in the world can walk down the street unnoticed. In some cases, they are unknown even to the faithful who play their instruments. Heck, the word “luthier” isn’t even in most dictionaries. This is fitting, actually. Most luthiers are happy to fly under the radar and quietly work on their craft. Avoiding the spotlight seems to be part of the job description. You might have a different opinion, however, after taking a stroll across the Montreal Guitar Show floor.

The MGS is like an all-star game for luthiers. More than 130 of the best guitar makers in the world were at the fourth iteration of the event showing off their stuff, sharing their design philosophies, and soaking up a high level of appreciation from A-list artists, fellow gear makers, and fans of stringed instruments. Some of the luthiers’ reputations preceded them. Some were relative newcomers whose innovative work got them an invitation to exhibit.

For attendees in the market for a handcrafted instrument as well as those just curious to see and hear some cool stuff, the MGS was the proverbial candy store for wide-eyed, eager kids. More than 60 mini concerts took place, pairing notable musicians with guitars right off the show floor. There were workshops. There were lectures. Oh, and the world-famous Montreal Jazz Festival was going on right outside the door.

It’s impossible to crystallize the event in a few magazine pages, but here’s a taste of what we encountered this year.


The Papaléocada by Jean-Yves Alquier (alquier-guitar.com) is a lap steel made of a stainless steel exoskeleton and 115 pieces of grain-matched curly maple. The matching KT66-driven amp was made by Christophe Jégou (guitares.jegou.free.fr/web).

LEFT: Michael McCarthy specializes in acoustic archtops that he builds using a CNC machine to carve self-bracing tops. mccarthystringedinstruments.com
RIGHT: Prairiewood Guitars’ Midwesterner (left) features a butternut body, while the Hardtop (right) has an Eastern maple body. prairiewoodguitars.com


LEFT: Ken Bonfield demonstrates Alan Carruth’s latest creation, a harp guitar with a separate soundboard for the bass strings. Carruth built it as part of a competition in which luthiers create instruments from materials that cost less than $100. alcarruthluthier.com
RIGHT: Tom Ribbecke’s fan-fret Halfling is so-named because it combines a bass side that’s flat like a steel-string acoustic with a treble side that’s carved like an archtop. ribbecke.com


The Cherry Seven guitars by (left to right): Randy Muth (rsmuthguitars.com), Joseph Hart (hartguitars.ca), Jeremy Anderson (legatolutherie.com), Marc Saumier (archtop, saumierguitars.com), Alan Carruth (alcarruthlithier.com), Marc Saumier (classical), and Joshua House (houseguitars.com).

In 2009, Marc Saumier, a Canadian luthier who builds guitars exclusively from woods he cuts in nearby forests in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, had a bold idea: invite a group of luthiers to each build an instrument using wood from the same trees. In addition to Saumier, five other luthiers took part in the project—Randy Muth, Joshua House, Alan Carruth, Jeremy Anderson, and Joseph Hart. These six builders created seven instruments (Saumier contributed two) from red spruce, black cherry, and Eastern hop hornbean that Saumier sawed himself and provided to his fellow builders. Because each guitar features a cherrywood back and sides, the endeavor quickly became known as the Cherry Seven Project.

Exhibited as a collection at this year’s show, the seven guitars attracted a lot of attention for their sonic appeal and visual beauty. Though the woods used in these acoustics came from the same logs, each guitar emerged from its respective workshop with a unique look and sound, proving it’s a luthier’s hands—not the materials he uses—that ultimately determines an instrument’s character.

With his Cherry Seven Project, Saumier wanted to prove a point. “I make my instruments entirely from local woods, including cherry, maple, butternut, red spruce, hornbean, poplar, basswood, blue beech, Eastern hemlock, Eastern white cedar, willow, and apple,” he said. “Though our native hardwoods are not as dense as some of the more exotic woods from the rain forests or Africa, it is certainly possible to make master-grade instruments from local materials.”

LEFT: C.P. Thornton’s HTL model honors the classic Fender Strat but features a 4.5-degree neck angle meant to make the 25"-scale guitar immediately comfortable for players used to a Les Paul. cpthorntonguitars.com
RIGHT: Edward Klein has developed a reputation for bringing head-turning designs to Montreal every year. This year he brought two guitars with metal sides that were bolted to the top and back. edwardkleinguitars.com


LEFT: Michael Potvin’s Mercury GT features a black-walnut body with a maple top, while the Ranchero Grande Thinline has a flamed, spalted maple top and back with a mahogany core. potvinguitars.com
MIDDLE: This custom archtop by Claudio Pagelli reflects his philosophy that “Jazz is not symmetrical.” pagelli.com
RIGHT: Kenji Sugita guitars are known for their small neck joints and elegant touches. sugitakenji.com


LEFT: Dimitri M. Tenev custom archtops feature a 25.5" scale length and Florentine or Venetian cutaways. dmtguitars.com
MIDDLE: These jazz guitars were built by Sigmund Johannessen, a senior luthier and instructor at the Summit School for Guitar Building and Repair. summitguitars.com
RIGHT: Dean Campbell made this UK-1 for Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski of the Screaming Headless Torsos and the Jack DeJohnette Group. campbellamerican.com


Dutch guitarist Teye, who is known for his flamenco playing and his work with Joe Ely, incorporates classical and flamenco guitar construction techniques into his striking A-, S-, and T-Series lines of guitars. teye-guitars.com


Michael Greenfield’s guitars are all unique and handcrafted to the tastes and playing styles of his clients. He makes about 15 instruments a year. The harp guitar in the center was delivered to Andy McKee during the show. greenfieldguitars.com

Stompboxtober is finally here! Enter below for your chance to WIN today's featured pedal from Diamond Pedals! Come back each day during the month of October for more chances to win!

Read MoreShow less

Wonderful array of weird and thrilling sounds can be instantly conjured. All three core settings are colorful, and simply twisting the time, span, and filter dials yields pleasing, controllable chaos. Low learning curve.

Not for the faint-hearted or unimaginative. Mode II is not as characterful as DBA and EQD settings.

$199

EarthQuaker Devices/Death By Audio Time Shadows
earthquakerdevices.com

5
5
4
4

This joyful noisemaker can quickly make you the ringmaster of your own psychedelic circus, via creative delays, raucous filtering, and easy-to-use, highly responsive controls.

Read MoreShow less

This little pedal offers three voices—analog, tape, and digital—and faithfully replicates the highlights of all three, with minimal drawbacks.

Faithful replications of analog and tape delays. Straightforward design.

Digital voice can feel sterile.

$119

Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay
fishman.com

4
4
4
4.5

As someone who was primarily an acoustic guitarist for the first 16 out of 17 years that I’ve been playing, I’m relatively new to the pedal game. That’s not saying I’m new to effects—I’ve employed a squadron of them generously on acoustic tracks in post-production, but rarely in performance. But I’m discovering that a pedalboard, particularly for my acoustic, offers the amenities and comforts of the hobbit hole I dream of architecting for myself one day in the distant future.

Read MoreShow less

A silicon Fuzz Face-inspired scorcher.

Hot silicon Fuzz Face tones with dimension and character. Sturdy build. Better clean tones than many silicon Fuzz Face clones.

Like all silicon Fuzz Faces, lacks dynamic potential relative to germanium versions.

$229

JAM Fuzz Phrase Si
jampedals.com

4.5
4.5
5
4

Everyone has records and artists they indelibly associate with a specific stompbox. But if the subject is the silicon Fuzz Face, my first thought is always of David Gilmour and the Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii film. What you hear in Live at Pompeii is probably shaped by a little studio sweetening. Even still, the fuzz you hear in “Echoes” and “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”—well, that is how a fuzz blaring through a wall of WEM cabinets in an ancient amphitheater should sound, like the sky shredded by the wail of banshees. I don’t go for sounds of such epic scale much lately, but the sound of Gilmour shaking those Roman columns remains my gold standard for hugeness.

Read MoreShow less