Interview with Matt Artinger of Artinger Guitars
Interview by Ron of Boutique Guitar Resource
Boutique Guitar Resource: Who or what first got you interested in building guitars?
Matt Artinger: I was a prime example of a kid who gained his first bit of music consciousness through the explosion of MTV during the early 80′s. As embarrassing as it may be to admit now, I saw the hair-metal bands wielding BC Rich’s, Jacksons, and Ibanez’s with every shape and color on the planet, and immediately identified the electric guitar as the coolest thing I’d ever witnessed!!
Boutique Guitar Resource: Since you started building at such a young age, how did you get started and do you have any advice for people interested in guitar building?
Matt Artinger: It was actually an interestingly fluid start. I can remember making my first miniature popsicle stick guitars at about age 5 (sneaking my mom’s nail polish for the finishes 
), and by age 12, I got my first electric guitar—-which I systematically ripped apart to see what was inside—-needless to say, I had no clue how to put it back together, and got quite a scolding when we had to take it in to get completely reassembled and reset up. From there, I gradually started to ingest as much information on guitars as I could get my hands on, from magazines, to instructional books, etc, and built my first “real” guitar at age 15, which was a Martin acoustic kit. I continued to accumulate small bits of tools throughout high school, and comandeered a room in my parents’ basement where I’d either be fixing my friends’ guitars, or working on various projects. After high school, I attended Red Wing College’s musical instrument repair and building course in Minnesota, and came back home to PA after that to dive head first into business. I can’t express enough how lucky I was to be young, naive, full of energy, and not yet saddled with ‘adult responsibilities’ when I started. It’s not the easiest career to begin, and it took me many years of mostly supplementing my few guitar orders with repairs before Artinger Guitars got to the point that guitar sales could pay the bills alone.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Artinger Guitars feature unique carves, angles, and cutouts. For instance, many of your guitars have a unique carve pattern on the back and intricate designed soundholes cut into the sides of the guitar. Where did these ideas come from and what inspires the designs for your guitars?
Matt Artinger: I actually have several prominent influences that come through. First and foremost are the designs of Jimmy D’Aquisto, John Monteleone, Bill Comins, and several others. The archtop guitar was experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the mid 90′s when I got into the fold, and these guys were some of the first modern makers who basically treated traditional design as a tool and not gospel. These builders in the generation above mine created the path in the market for the hollow guitar to evolve, and fortunately, it was the first time that guitar buyers were on board to drop ties to brand recognition and traditionalism, and seek out something that was completely unique.
I’ve also been an artist and art history/architecture buff for most of my life, and some of the influential periods in art history shine through in my guitars. I’m very tied to the depth and geometry of art-deco and flowing classiness of art-nouveau.
Boutique Guitar Resource: I notice you like to do interesting inlay and design work on the fretboards, headstocks, and throughout your guitars. What are some of your favorite features that you have come up with for your guitars?
Matt Artinger: I just finished a guitar that I can safely say was the most fun and creatively free project I’ve ever worked on—-The GI JOE doubleneck. One side of the guitar features the forces of GI Joe, and the dark forces of Cobra….with some creative inlay on the boards by me and a fantastic graphic art scene on the body done by Paulo Teixiera, it came together to surpass all of our expectations, including the client, who’s one of the country’s foremost GI Joe collectors. We even topped it off with custom dogtag truss rod covers, and .50 caliber bullet shells for knobs……I’ve always been a BIG fan of theme related projects, and I always have a blast doing the research into these themes to pull the guitars together cohesively. Some other recent projects that I really enjoyed are a greyhound themed guitar with copper and silver greyhounds running across the board, and running through my logo, the Nub chopper, an aluminum bound, fiber optic lit solidbody flame painted by Nub of Orange County Choppers, and my 10th anniversary hollow, with soundholes that wrap from the top around to the sides of the guitar. I have the blessing and curse of never wanting to do the same thing twice, and with the brilliant ideas that my customers come up with, I have the opportunity to keep pushing my limits.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Do you have any favorite wood combinations? Do some combinations sound better than others to your ear?
Matt Artinger: One in particular—Mahogany—It’s a very underrated wood for hollow guitars (most are either maple and spruce, all maple, or pressed ply), yet it has a dynamicism and energy that I haven’t found in any other wood. When carved into a hollow instrument, it breathes wonderfully, it’s kinetic, and it blossoms and opens up noticeably as the guitar ages…. it may not be the prettiest wood on the planet, but it’s hands down my fave….after all, the most important element of any guitar is performance—aesthetics are important too, but a guitar ALWAYS has to feel and sound twice as good as it looks to be a success in my book!
Boutique Guitar Resource: Are there any other guitar builders that you admire in particular?
Matt Artinger: In addition to the guys mentioned above, I have a strong mutual admiration for Chris Martin, JD and Warrior guitars, Roger Sadowsky, and Kim Breedlove, and we’re fortunate enough to have a whole new generation of builders that started when I did. Guys like Victor Baker, David Thomas McNaught, Jason Schroeder, Jayson Bowerman at Breedlove are continuing to set the bar higher for all of us.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Take us through the building process for one of your handcrafted guitars?
Matt Artinger: My techniques, in contrast to my designs, are fairly old fashioned. I missed the boat when it came to computer savviness, so I’ve learned through using traditional tools such as chisels, planes and scrapers. I’ve gotten so efficient with using hand-tools that I’ve been too stubborn to make the full move to more automated, time-friendly tools. I have always felt an intimacy with each guitar as it’s being made, and I worry about that intimacy being lost if I changed my processes.
Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your favorite part of the building process?
Matt Artinger: I think I can speak for most of us in saying that the final assembly process is the most enjoyable. First–it’s a day when I can actually stay fairly clean and tidy (normal days can get pretty filthy!), and I can finally get the satisfaction of first seeing and hearing something that’s been months in the making.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Can you give us a run down of your current guitar lineup and describe them to us?
Matt Artinger: As much as I’ve tried to reel in my lineup focus over the years, I continue to offer more and more all of the time. I have 2 styles of chambered solidbodies, my double cutaway, and a newer single cutaway, 4 styles of semi-hollow, the double cutaway with one soundhole, double with 2 soundholes, and single with one, single with 2, doublenecks of any and all combos, 3 styles of hollow, a double cutaway, a venetian single cutaway, and a florentine single cutaway, 4, 5, and 6 string neck thru basses, a nylon stringed semi-hollow influenced by Roger Sadowsky’s nylon, OM styled acoustics, and have just recently started to experiment in the realm of lap steels and electric mandolins—–WHEW!!! Just reading that back gives me the urge to reel things back in, haa,haa!! In all honesty though, I really enjoy allowing some creative latitude with my clients, and I’m always on a quest to understand ALL stringed instruments, and what characteristics really make them shine…it continues to broaden my perspective on how these instruments can continue to evolve. One of the funniest and warm quotes I’ve recently read online about me called me the “decathalete of guitarmakers” I’ll wear that crown proudly
Boutique Guitar Resource: How long does it typically take you to build a guitar and how many guitars do you manage to put out a month?
Matt Artinger: Right now (knock on wood, due to our current economic uncertainties) I build between 30-35 guitars a year, and am usually working on between 3-5 at any given time.
Boutique Guitar Resource: What is your ordering process? Do customers order and work directly with you or do they work through dealers?
Matt Artinger: I’ve always shied away from dealers. The philosophy is based more on me than them. As I said above, as an inquisitive type of artist, I cringe at ever having to make a ‘standardized’ line of guitars for dealers, and I also place a huge amount of importance on the synergy and intimacy of working individually with my clients. It keeps me growing as a maker, and it gives my clients an opprtunity to be fully immersed in the creation of thier guitar…that type of intimacy can’t be found on a store rack!
Boutique Guitar Resource: Obviously, the wait time will vary based on how intricate the guitar is, but what is a typical wait time for a customer once he or she places and order?
Matt Artinger: I try to keep a pace of 22-24 weeks from the time of the order to the time of completion, although, as you mentioned Ron, it can vary depending on the amount of intricacy or level of any special requests.
Boutique Guitar Resource: How did the CF Martin OMC Artinger 1 come about?
Matt Artinger: Being a native of eastern PA, I grew up in the shadow of the mighty Martin. I was fortunate enough to get onto the radar of Chris Martin at a fairly young age, and I was their youngest accredited warranty repairman at age 19. In 2004, I met Tim Teel, the Director of Instrument Design at a guitar convention, and several months later, he approached me to ask if I’d be interested in submitting some drawings for potential new Martin designs. I was floored and flattered, and although I wondered if I was up to the task, I created a pile of potential new drawings—-they fell in love with the one that would eventually become the OMC Artinger 1, and 4 years later, it’s in production and I continue to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming or not! It’s been the most memorable experience of my life, and I’m honored that Martin has welcomed me into their close knit business family.
Boutique Guitar Resource: Well, Martin definitely picked a very talented and gifted builder/designer for that project! In closing, do you have any new designs in the works?
Matt Artinger: I can’t divulge ALL of my secrets Ron……you guys’ll have to stay tuned for that, but fear not, for every idea that I’ve carried out so far, there are two ideas in my head to take it’s place. Thank you SO much for the opportunity to answer these questions Ron, and to chat to all of YOU out there. It’s people like your readers that keep people like me moving forward.
Please feel free to drop me a note to say hi, or schedule a visit if you’re travelling through eastern PA!
I want to thank Matt Artinger from Artinger Guitars for taking the time to answer the questions in this interview. Please visit the Artinger Guitars website at Artinger Guitars.
Ron
Boutique Guitar Resource
Artinger Custom Guitars – Custom Handcrafted Hollow, Semi-Hollow, and Solidbodied Guitars from Matt Artinger
Artinger Custom Guitars provides handcrafted hollow, semi-hollow, and solidbodied guitars and basses.
Matt Artinger started experimenting with guitars at around age 12, and after apprenticing under local master-cabinetmaker, John Angelino, through high school, he emerged to start Artinger Custom Guitars in 1997 at age 19.
With the incredible support and trust of his first few clients (all of which have become close friends) word spread throughout the area, and eventually out of state. With demand steadily growing, Matt teamed up with Rick in 1999 to form Artinger Custom Guitars, LTD.
Although Rick spends only a small portion of his time in the shop helping with the construction of the instruments themselves, he’s the administrative backbone of the company, handling everything from the website to our marketing. “It’s been a fantastic partnership, and we’re both proud to be keeping the company to a grassroots level, getting to know each customer individually, and tailoring every instrument to that individual’s needs and desires.” Therefore, every Artinger is a unique and special adventure, and no two are identical.
“There is nothing that gives us more satisfaction than the bonds developed between our customers, their instruments, and ourselves. It’s a wonderful experience that can never be found on a rack in a store!”
View the Artinger Website at:
Artinger Custom Guitars, LTD
Artinger Chambered Solid Body Electric Guitar
Artinger Nylon String
Artinger Semi-Hollow Guitar
Artinger Hollow Body Electric Guitar
