Barbarossa Guitars
Fine Hand-made Guitars
My acoustic guitars are all handmade from
the finest solid woods.
I build steel string guitars, with an emphasis on fingerstyle playing, and classical guitars.
NEWS September 2020: I have stopped taking new guitar orders.
As I slouch towards full retirement, I am no longer taking new guitar orders.
If you are a previous custom guitar customer, contact me by telephone or email.
You can still buy a Barbarossa Guitar from my Specials Page
Me, enjoying a B00 on the shores of Lake
Superior
I have a passion for building (and playing!) guitars that look, feel, play, and sound great.
If you check my
testimonials page, I think you'll find that my customers
agree that I achieve those goals.
You can also listen to my
guitars at the
sound
clips page.
Having a custom guitar built for you is probably one of your dreams. I can make that dream come
true.
Please check
HERE for my
Specials Page,
where I display complete
instruments that are ready to ship
(after a final check of the
setup).
Please
click here for a gallery of my guitars and data on their
sizes, here for wood choices, and
here to contact me.
Each size/style of guitar can be viewed here:
Size 1
|
B0 |
B00
|
B000 / OM |
GA
|
Dreadnought |
Resonators
Hear what they sound like (click on this link)
My Published Articles:
My article, The Guitar As a Structure, was published in January 2009 in American Lutherie #100,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, Wood Stiffness: An Analysis of a Substantial Sample of Woods of Interest to Guitar Makers,
written with fellow luthier Alan Carruth, was published in March 2016 in American Lutherie #125,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, Proposed Standard Glue Strength Testing Method, was published in June 2016 in American Lutherie #126,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, A Large New Set of Stiffness Data for Lutherie Woods and a Proposed Standard Test Method,
was published in December 2016 in American Lutherie #128, the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, More Glue Strength Testing Data, was published in October 2017 in American Lutherie #131,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
Guitar Construction Information (how I build guitars):
If you want to see some of how I build guitars, please click on one of these links:
Steel String Guitar Construction
These may also be of interest:
Violin construction
Major Modifications
I am a GAL Member:
I accept PayPal
Site Map:
Your Custom Guitar |
Copyright 2017, James W. Blilie, Barbarossa Guitars 5997 Turtle Lake Road, Shoreview, MN 55126 This page was last updated: 2-Feb-2021