Fairbanks Guitars, probably one of the most exciting new arrivals on the European market for high quality boutique acoustic guitars is on its way to us and will soon be available at Munich Guitar Company! Finest woods, highest quality craftsmanship and irresistible vintage tone and charm of the 30s!

About the builder, Dale Fairbanks:
Dale Fairbanks is a luthier from Connecticut whose path to instrument making initially led through music itself. In 1993, he studied trumpet at Berklee College of Music on a scholarship and played in jazz and Latin bands throughout New England, USA. It was a friend’s fingerpicking lessons and a house concert with ragtime guitarist Paul Geremia that turned his passion to the guitar – and eventually to building it.

Around 1998, while working shifts at Starbucks between gigs, Fairbanks acquired a mid-1930s Gibson L-00. That guitar changed everything. He read William Cumpiano’s work *Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology* cover to cover more than a dozen times, dragged a bench drill and bandsaw out onto the six-foot-by-three-foot balcony of his Brighton, Massachusetts, apartment, and started building. It took him several years to complete his first instrument – a twelve-string baritone guitar with hand-scraped Brazilian rosewood sides and back. He has never looked back since.

In 2008, the company officially opened for business under the name “Fairbanks Guitars”; the workshop was located in a converted garage in West Hartford and featured a spray booth with exhaust vented through a homemade roof lantern. In 2019, Dale moved to Burlington, Vermont to join forces with luthiery owner and entrepreneur Adam Buchwald (Circle Strings, Iris Guitars, Allied Lutherie). Since then, Fairbanks Guitars has become a defining voice within one of the most respected independent luthiery communities in the United States.

Philosophy & craftsmanship
Fairbanks builds in what he calls “the classic American tradition”: the aesthetics of pre-war Gibson and Recording King models – reinterpreted with modern expertise. His guiding principle is simple: “If the problem is old, the solution is old too.” This means dovetail joints on the neck, hot hideglue and shellac and nitrocellulose lacquer finishes – the very methods that gave vintage instruments their characteristic richness of sound and response.

The decisive factor here is that Fairbanks does not merely reproduce old designs; he perfects them. The industrially manufactured instruments that served as inspiration for his work were once built under the dictates of a fixed price range. His instruments, however, are not. He pays the utmost attention to top thickness, bracing stiffness and the use of double action truss rods – and he deliberately avoids the design compromises (such as uneven top arching or poorly pressed backs) that plagued many original pre-war Gibsons.
Fairbanks guitars embody the soul and aesthetics of a vintage American instrument from the pre-war era – crafted with the structural solidity and playability that modern musicians expect today. They appeal particularly to fingerstyle guitarists, blues and roots enthusiasts, collectors and anyone who has fallen in love with the look and sound of a 1930s master guitar but wants an instrument that will last a lifetime – without the fragility (or price) of an original.

Dale’s background as a musician – and not just as a craftsman – is the central reason for his great appeal. He built these guitars because he wanted to play them himself. And you can feel that in every single instrument.
We are very pleased to present Fairbanks Guitars with the first 3 exciting models soon!

For further information please contact us at any time!