I first met Colin Keefe towards the end of 2018. I had a guitar that was in need of some TLC to bring it back to saleable condition. The finish had been badly damaged in transit from Spain and it fell short of the standard I require before instruments are put up for sale.

I contacted Colin who invited me to visit him in the workshop so he could take a look at the guitar. The first thing you’ll realise about Colin is that he’s passionate about his work and is happy to discuss projects in great detail. After scrutinising the issue with the guitar I’d brought to him, giving me the options on repair and settling on a plan to have it refinished, we got onto talking about guitar lutherie.

During the course of our conversation, it transpired that he had studied guitar lutherie with the maker of my own guitar, Michael Gee. I’m a huge fan of Michael’s work, hence owning one of his instruments, so I was fascinated to learn that both Colin and Michael have very similar ideas on what a classical guitar should be.

Following a few more visits to Colin’s workshop, he very kindly offered to build a concert classical guitar especially for Classical Guitar Academy. Colin is often in demand with a high workload, so to fit in a brand new build was a very kind gesture.

On further visits to the workshop I was able to view the raw materials selected for this new guitar. Colin showed me the piece of spruce he had chosen for the top, with lovely bear claw figuring for added visual appeal. I was also shown the pieces of Indian Rosewood that would eventually form the back and sides of the guitar.

Fast forward to 2020, the guitar is nearing completion and I’ll finally be able to hear it’s voice! This is extremely exciting as I’ve been drip fed photos along the way, seeing the guitar in various stages of its construction.

This guitar is now available for preorder with an expected arrival of Summer 2020.