My guitars are individually handcrafted to sound beautiful and harmonically rich.

Traditional guitar design, tonal qualities, with  the clarity and power of the orchestral classical instruments have influenced the direction of my tonal fingerprint.

The process of making, evaluating and re adjusting each component by hand to its ideal dimension ensures that each guitar created has a voice possesing exceptional sustain, balance clarity dynamic range and the sensitivity to a musicians touch.

I am assisted by utilising tonewoods that are critically selected and processed to obtain optimum charecteristics in strength, weight, stability and musical response.

Mastergrade air dried Sitka Spruce circa 1940s, 1970s German Spruce or Cedar for soundboards and CITES certified Brazilian Rosewood from 1962 for back and sides are some of the special materials I have been utilising on my custom orders.

Each guitar is additionally set up to be very easy and even to play, to intonate accurately over the entire fretboards musical register, making each guitar a responsive instrument for all individual playing styles.

All the care and time is taken to do so with an artisan approach from the outset.

Feel free to listen to the audio samples below and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely

Jim Matheas

The current models available are

• D Style Acoustic
• Jumbo Style Acoustic 
• Concert Classical Guitar

SOUND SAMPLES

Matheas Jumbo Acoustic Guitar,  Sitka Spruce/African Mahogany

Improvisation in G tuning by Matt Walker

Matheas Classical Guitar, Cedar/Brazilian Rosewood

played by Sergio Ercole , Asturias(Leyenda) by Isaac Albeniz

Matheas D Style Acoustic Guitar, Sitka Spruce/Brazilian Rosewood

Luthiers improvisation in E minor by Jim Matheas

Matheas D Style Acoustic Guitar, Sitka Spruce/Brazilian Rosewood

played by Stephen Magnusson , Tea in the Sahara (The Police)

Traditional methods and materials are employed is making your guitar,in the spirit of the master guitars of the American golden period (1930s and 40s) as well as the Spanish artisan workshops featuring;

• Aged Master grade tone woods like Brazilian Rosewood, Spruce, Cedar, Mahogany and Ebony
• Accurate joinery using hot hide glue, on all strutting and bridge
• Light weight resonant and  tuned sound box
• Precise hand fit dovetail joint or Spanish neck construction
• Thin hand rubbed nitrocellulose lacquer or French polished finish

Modern improvements included in my construction methods are;

• Accurately set intonation over the entire fretboard
• Light 2 way titanium truss rod for fine settings
• Customised neck shape and profile
• High tolerance fretwork using hard temper fretwire
• Personalised setup to suit your individual playing style
• Reinforced Mahogany or Cedar  neck and headstock
• Venetian Cutaway for upper register access
• Pinless Bridge for easy string installation
• Individually handcrafted rosette from natural veneers

Tonal characteristics;

• Clear and balanced tone over the entire musical register
• Play evenly in tune over entire musical range
• Reverberant long sustain
• Crystal clear bass register
• Punchy Mids
• Harmonically rich with chimey top end
• Responsive and alive with wide dynamic range and tonal palette