From Tree to Guitar

Deerhead Guitars are desired and appreciated because of their sound quality, excellent playability, accuracy and beauty. The combination of superior woods and superb craftsmanship makes each Deerhead Guitar highly valuable. Although they are often compared to instruments priced many times higher, Deerhead Guitars are priced surprisingly competitive in the marketplace.

Each instrument is made to order, with careful consideration to the guitarist's needs and preferences. While the overall quality of the instrument is dependent on the maker, the customer is encouraged to make aesthetic choices of woods and string length. Additionally, selection can be made from a variety of unique and original rosettes and bindings custom made in the Deerhead workshop.

Different luthiers specialize in certain aspects of guitar making. This guitar maker particularly enjoys locating his woods in their natural, pre-milled log form, then transforming them to guitar dimensions. Harvesting large logs and refining them to instrument wood is work usually not undertaken by most guitar makers. This labor of love requires a fully equipped woodworking shop with very specialized tools.

Breslin has collected, treated, and stored a substantial quantity of rare, expensive, and highly desirable woods. Among these are old growth Brazilian rosewood (the choice wood for classical guitars) acquired decades ago, and Engleman spruce from the forests of northern Colorado.

Of particular interest is the Engleman, which came from the largest tree felled by its timber yard in 50 years. The log was next hand-split, dried, and stored, then later cut into hundreds of sets, featuring the rare and exquisite bear claw pattern for which Engleman spruce is renown.

Cuban cedar, often used for cigar boxes, was acquired in large quantities from Cuban cigar makers in Key West, Florida to be crafted into necks and bracing on future classical and flamenco Deerhead Guitars.

Spanish cypress, reserved for flamenco guitars, was acquired when Breslin visited Granada, Spain. He was told it would be the last cypress tree cut at the Alhambra.

These are but a few of the woods gathered over the years and available at the Deerhead workshop. Some have been stored and air-dried for over 30 years. Others are fairly recent acquisitions like the old growth redwood discovered in northern California. In the near future, a trip to South Africa will hopefully yield high quality ebony, which will be used for fingerboards.

Remarkably, very little if any wood used in a Deerhead Guitar is ordered though instrument makers' catalogs.