Kronbauer MJ

Kronbauer Guitars are handbuilt by Canadian luthier Trevor Kronbauer. Only established in 2001, his guitars have developed quite a following among the acoustic community by offering quality custom built guitars at very reasonable prices. The MJ(mini jumbo) is his proprietary and most popular design.

This MJ has a solid spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, wood binding, wood rosette and one piece mahogany neck. All of the woods are of exceptional quality as is the craftmanship. This particular guitar is a base model with no extras at all, it has very little in the way of adornament, with the exception of flame maple binding and a koa rosette. I personally prefer a guitar where the beauty of the wood speaks for itself. Of course because Kronbauers are custom built you can work with the builder on any inlays, features, wood combinations etc, you may want. Kronbauers guitars have a modern, shallow neck profile; which has a flat feel to it and though it takes a while to get used to, it allows your fretting hand to fly across the fingerboard with ease. The guitar has a 1 3/4 nut width and 2 1/4 string spacing at the saddle, perfect for fingerstyle.The mini jumbo is a very comfortable and versatile body shape; though it is a fairly large guitar it's curvacious shape allows it to sit comfortably in your lap. The body size is great for fingerstyle playing; it has amazing balance, sustain and depth, yet you can strum away on it quite happily. The classic combination of rosewood and Spruce make it a great rythm guitar to, with a huge bottom end when driven hard. Kronbauers base model prices have increased since his popularity has grown, however they are still very reasonable and compare with many factory built guitar prices. If you cannot find the sound your looking for in a factory built guitar Kronbauers are worth a look, but there are also many other small builders out there.

Ordering a handbuilt guitar can be a fun and enjoyable process and allows you to work one on one with a luthier. You can select your wood combinations, tinker with sound, your favourite neck profile, adornaments, inlays etc. You also have access to better quality woods and hands on craftmanship, a luthier can build a guitar which suits you and your playing style. Though it's worth mentioning a couple of things; you cannot try before you buy, so in a way you are taking a risk that you won't like the guitar. Many luthiers also have long waiting lists, so if your impatient it might not be for you. You can however find great deals on used handbuilt guitars. Don't have a guitar built thinking it's an investment, they don't tend to hold their value as well as a established factory built guitar brands, of course there a few builders who are an exception to this, but they are few and far between.