Don’t Fret McPherson Guitars Is In Tune With The Details

Why play a McPherson guitar? The answer could be the company’s breakthrough designs, the skillful builders who approach every project with expertise and creativity, or McPherson’s dedication to crafting every guitar in the spirit of excellence. Producing roughly 150 handcrafted pieces every year, McPherson Guitars is founded on the principles of ultimate sound quality, top-notch artistry and finding the 100% perfect-fit custom guitar for every enthusiast.

With an average build time of six months per guitar, it should come as no surprise that McPherson prides itself on perfection. The company goes so far as to hand-sand the interior of every instrument with a 240 grit Scotchbrite pad to eliminate glue and scratches that might cause sound interference. If it’s not perfect, it doesn’t leave the studio.

Have a look at three of McPherson’s most outstanding creations:

The Picasso is no exception to McPherson’s promise of excellence. This one-of-a-kind guitar, which cost $35,000, features Brazilian rosewood, Italian spruce, and an oval mosaic inspired by Picasso’s Guitar. The 74 hours of inlay and the 425+ segments of exotic wood that went into this piece are a testament to McPherson’s artistry.

The 1776, named in commemoration of July 4, 1776, was crafted from materials sourced entirely in America. The $100,000 flamed cherry/maple and Adirondack red spruce showpiece features a fossilized woolly mammoth tusk flown in from Anchorage, Alaska. The tusk underwent extensive scrimshaw work by master scrimshaw artist Bob Hergert to create the guitar’s one-of-a-kind headstock. When asked for the reason behind McPherson’s use of this extraordinary material for the nut and saddle instead of the classic cattle bone, they answered simply, “Why not? We wanted to try something totally different.”

Finally, we have a look at the Four Seasons Custom Series, which sold for $100,000 to a San Francisco collector. This series of four guitars was, as the name indicates, inspired by nature. With elements of a single tree spanning across all pieces, the collection’s frontrunner is undoubtedly the fall guitar, which boasts an inlay of 500 hand-placed leaves.

That kind of attention to detail does not come easy, but rather from hours of effort. “Our guys are coming in early to work and play around…they love what they do so much that they work off the clock just for fun,” Larry Klenc, the General Manager of McPherson, told us. While there are few secrets to building a guitar, one thing is certain: McPherson has gone far beyond standard and all the way to perfection.