Barbarossa Guitars
Fine Hand-made Guitars
Current stock of Guitars:
5997 Turtle Lake Road
Shoreview, MN 55126
United States of America
651-766-8757
jwblilieno-spam@barbarossa-guitars.com
please remove the obvious "no-spam" part of my address
Please call me at 651-766-8757 if I can answer any questions.
Luthier: Jim Blilie
I love to make guitars. I am a fingerstyle player who plays many
different styles of music. I have only been playing guitar for about
five years; but I love it and I work hard at it. I can now play many
enjoyable pieces such as "Here Comes the Sun," Gymnopedie No. 1"
(Parkening arrangement), Charlie Byrd's solo guitar arrangement of the
largo (2nd) movement from Vivaldi's Concerto in D for lute, many
fingerstyle blues songs, etc. I love to play guitars. I learned to play
from Tony Beaulaurier, in Seattle.
I come from a background of engineering: I was a structural analysis
engineer for many years at Boeing and also worked for the FAA
and for a civil engineering firm. I now work for Guidant, making
heart pace-makers and implantable defibrillators. I am a fairly accomplished
amateur landscape photographer. I love visual arts and I have done plenty
of drawing and painting. I love good writing and I used to write
quite a bit of poetry (don't look for any examples here anytime soon!)
I bring a firm understanding of structure and design and a well
trained aesthetic eye and ear to guitar building. I love good tone.
This is a photo (c. 1880) of my great grandfather Jon Gundersen. He was a luthier too. He built violins as a hobby after working all day as both a farmer and a blacksmith. He did beautiful work: I have one of his violins from the turn of the century. He seems to have been a wood-scrounger too: he got some of his top wood, including that for the violin I have, from salvaged pews from the old Dom Kirke in Trondheim, Norway.
I guess lutherie and wood scrounging run in the family ...
Pictures of a guitar under construction:
Scenes from Our Life
For family and friends, here are photos of our home in Shoreview, our place in
White Salmon, Washington, and other fun things from our last few years:
MyViolins:
For those who are interested, here are some photos
of my first violin (click on the photo below):
Last Modified: Jan 31, 2009
