Lashing Guitars Mantra:

Lashing Guitars is a (primarily) one man operation in Ontario, Canada. I make guitars to an extreme detail replicating classics and on a case by case basis will repair/restore vintage Gibson and Fender pieces. Years of study, tooling and practice have gone into Lashing Guitars. If you need a Celluloid (Nitrate) Pickguard, a Slab neck replicated, an Exact '59 LP Burst, a '61 Strat built from scratch to the highest detail ... this is what I do.

I do not produce a great number of guitars. I do not build because I have to. I build because I want to. This is my semi retirement business.  My motto is to enjoy each day and if someone wants something I don't want to do, I just say so. Email is the best way to contact me as I can answers questions at my leisure, whatever the hour.

Background:

Starting guitar at 13, I immediately took to dissecting my guitars and amps (often to dire results). Later, as a teenager, I had the good fortune to work in a vintage shop with 2 fantastic repairmen. I didn't realize it at the time, but that job provided an excellent knowledge base which I continued for many years, traveling, playing, selling and repairing.

Mid to late 90's I decided to settle down and learn a "real skill" with computers. The timing was right and I had a great success in the dot com boom. During this time my involvement with guitars was primarily as a broker. I discovered opportunity the movement towards big box stores provided. Ever increasing politics and buyer requirements allowed me to help little stores have big buying power. Trading stock amongst dealers was a nice sideline to the computer business and many shops got items they otherwise would not have been able to ... met quotas they otherwise may have missed. This process opened my eyes to just how generic 99% of guitar product really is. 1000's of brand name new (and lots of vintage) guitars have passed thru my hands and the corners cut often amaze. The imports had gotten consistently better as domestic producers struggled.  Quality has not only taken a backseat to quantity - its not even on the same bus! Consumers by and large move away from utility and concentrate on image and price. Thus that void is the most filled.

Upon retiring from the computer biz I decided to dedicate myself to building the guitars I'd always loved. I still had many connections and soon was making reproductions for those who didn't want to take their prized pieces out on the road. The distressed guitar craze fueled public interest to the point where I decided to offer a limited line of my work. Orders quickly became many and today I pick and choose projects. Its not the dot com paycheck by any stretch but its much more fun. I prefer my workbench to the keyboard. Thanks to the big companies who left the void for quality wide open.

My customers get the type of instrument that could have been expected from the Classic 50's innovators. The values of these now vintage guitars demonstrates the disconnect of yesterdays pride to today's numbers. While there is a great deal of hype regarding vintage guitars, the old days did offer a proud level of workmanship. Vintage prices are way out of reach for most and big name reissues utilize methods and materials totally unlike the originals. What a great opportunity for builders like myself and their educated customers.

Lashing guitars are made to the specs of yesteryear. Experts have been unable to tell my guitars from the vintage models they resemble. Every tool marking is true, every detail on the money. Adjusted for inflation my guitars today cost no more than the classics did the year they were originally made.

Price is something that people ask all the time. Each project is unique. All my hand made and unique projects will be into several thousand dollars.