The Nashville Guitar Co.
Marty Lanham is The Nashville Guitar Co.
Marty Lanham makes his home in a quiet suburban neighborhood of Nashville:
His house is set back from the road behind a croquet-ready front lawn. That building on the left is his shop, the home of the Nashville Guitar Company.
It's a pretty small company, really:
It's mostly just Marty.
A quick look around the main shop room reveals a plethora of regular woodworking tools, and instruments in progress:
Marty has a number of workbenches, each set up for the various operations in the building process.
Over on the setup bench, here's a pearl bordered dreadnought:
Marty is building this one for Steve Swan Guitars in Kensington, California.
Steve, if you're reading this, let me tell you this guitar looks GREAT!
The Nashville Guitar Company Logo:
This is the headstock of a 12-fret fingerstyle guitar halfway through the finishing process.
Marty has some really cool unique inlay marquetry, such as this backstrip on a Brazilian rosewood dreadnought:
He couldn't resist showing off his latest "find," a big board of old Brazilian rosewood:
This is some of the most wildly figured Brazilian I've seen. I'd be showing it off, too!
Marty Lanham takes a lot of pride in his work, and generally does most every operation with a minimum of tooling. He believes he has more control of the building process by concentrating on hand work and on the details of each guitar as an individual.
Having heard a number of his instruments, I'd say his approach is working nicely.
I asked him to show off some of his favorite tools, and he immediately reached for this collection of precision layout equipment:
Marty really likes fine measuring tools; he's particularly fond of the Bridge City Tool Works. Layout, and measurement is especially important for a hand builder who wants to make a changing variety of instruments, says Marty.
In the not-so-precision department, Marty has a collection of modified tools, such as this bent chisel for bridge plate removal:
In another room, he has a fine little old South Bend lathe for those tricky tooling jobs:
Here are a couple of banjo necks in progress:
Hmm, that's a familiar name on the upper one. . .
As a parting shot, Marty reached into his spray area to show another Brazilian rosewood guitar body in progress:
A fine piece of Adirondack spruce on the top:
Marty builds in a strictly traditional manner, including the dovetail neck joint.
Visit Marty Lanham's Nashville Guitar Company website!