Artisan Guitars, a brief history…

Artisan Guitars - How we got here

   Artisan Guitars began as most small businesses, licensed in the state of Tennessee to operate under our registered logo in December 2005. We built our 1st shop in the Factory at Franklin, a famous manufacturing plant, home to Dortch Stove Works founded in the 1800's. We launched our website ArtisanGuitars.com simultaneously with the opening of the shop.

   Located at 230 Franklin Road, the Factory at Franklin was built in 1929. The building was restored by Calvin Lahew, and today is a bustling center of restaurants, businesses, and entertainment venues - located less than a mile from the historic downtown Franklin, founded in 1799.

   In March of 2010, we officially became licensed as a limited liability corporation with the State of Tennessee. We being, Ellie and Bill Warmoth, exclusive members of Artisan Guitars, LLC.

    Many of you recall the location of our original shop in Franklin Tennessee, just south of downtown Nashville. Over the fifteen years in that location our shop grew in scope, brands, and physical size. At its height of glory, we featured what I like to think were the best curated list of handcrafted brands in America.

   Around the showroom you could see and play custom guitars from Bourgeois, National Reso-Phonic, Santa Cruz, Huss & Dalton, Waterloo, and Collings – all in the same visit. Electrics too!… we became a Fender Custom Shop dealer to draw more attention to the Collings electric guitar launch.

   We had all the good built-to-order brands, and it wasn’t hidden under glass in some private room. It was all on display (often a terrible idea). As we got into a groove locally and online, we met some fantastic players, in person , some virtually worldwide.

The new shop - 1201 4th Avenue South - Downtown Nashville

   By early 2018 we had outgrown the shop in Franklin, and began building a new location nearer to downtown Nashville. It was located on the second floor of a historic grain building; an enormous undertaking to create a bespoke shop fitting of the handcrafted brands of guitars. You can check out the shop tour video on our YouTube channel, here.

   From furnishings to architectural design and lighting, we curated every aspect of the new shop. We completed the build out in the fall of 2018, and moved in during the Thanksgiving holiday, late November.  Of all the treasures we built at the original shop, the custom neon sign was one of the few elements that moved with us. This was an enormous endeavor, and with the Pandemic to follow in early 2019, our timing couldn't have been worse.

   All our builders took a conservative path, anticipating the cancelling of orders, and laid off essential staff as a means to survive. However, sales and orders grew as travel was limited and more musical customers were homebound. Unable to fulfill the avalanche of orders, our builders began allocating build slots and limiting the number of custom guitars we were able to order. The view through our lens for the future of Artisan Guitars was harrowing.

Fall 2021 - Artisan Guitars, LLC - 221 Spencer Creek Road, Franklin TN

   Our business plans never included downsizing, which was an agonizing decision. However, with inventory being depleted, there was no way to sustain our large staff and operating budget.

   We commissioned two small custom buildings to be built on our home property, to house a single brand, Maton Guitars. This move allowed us to continue to work with musicians both locally and across the country. By the fall of 2021 we were operating from our new digs, in two private studios. We no longer needed our toll free phone number or land line, and focusing on a single brand allowed us to become more specialized in our work, which is very rewarding.

   Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Maton Guitars, we are thankful to our dear friend Tommy Emmanuel and his extended family, Linda & Neville Kitchen for their support.

More of the story... 

   If you've read this far, you are all caught up on the details of our transition over the past two decades. Should you like to learn more about the highlights of our history, you can find some interesting details below.

The SCGC 1929 00-17

   We enjoyed a lot of “firsts” in our heyday, like designing what we conceived & named the 1929 00-17 from Santa Cruz in 2009. Inspired conceptually by a depression era vintage Martin, drawing design elements from the Art Deco era of Raymond Loewy, we introduced their first Santa Cruz to feature the vintage script logo, inlaid in grained ivoroid (celluloid). It was an immediate success.

Introducing the "BPW" Santa Cruz

   After many visits over months of trying new guitars, Brad purchased his first Santa Cruz from Artisan Guitars in 2010. That relationship grew on a personal level with our families enjoying a unique friendship.

   One of the highlights for me was the addition of a full-sized kitchen and bar located in the back corner of the shop, concealed to most visitors. That was around 2015 for our launch party, just as we introduced the Brad Paisley Signature Santa Cruz.

   Brad and I designed the Cowboy hat headstock logo together. Spawned from his 1st Santa Cruz D/PW it was quickly referred to as the "B/PW", featuring an ever more popular bear-claw Sitka top.

Collings #1 Dealer Award

   In 2014 we were honored to be the recipient of Collings #20,000 – a "D45" style guitar that provoked a “cease and desist” notice from you-know-who! Of note, a Collings D45 model is not on the menu and at $75k remains the most valued acoustic instrument to ever pass our doors.

   Working with the team in Austin was similar to experiencing their guitars, exceptional. Getting to know Bill Collings was a great pleasure, an exercise in relating to a high-functioning human with little time for minutiae.

   It is apparent Bill surrounded himself with like-minded creators who were passionate about their work. In turn we were passionate about representing the Collings brand, and enjoyed the challenge of developing deep personal relationships with fans across the globe. I like to think we set new standards for customer service that made other premier dealers take note.

Time well spent

   Over the years we supported all the major music events here in Nashville. None were as enjoyable as CAAS, the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society. Each year fans gather from around the world to attend the largest four-day event celebrating Chet and his legendary Travis-style of finger picking. The atmosphere is always exciting, even jaw dropping!

   We were introduced to all the great thumb pickers, young and old, devoted to the Merle Travis style of playing... Jerry Reed and his pal Chip Young were still with us in 2005, along with Nokie Edwards and Buster B Jones. The list of life-long devoted players include Thom Bresh, Pat Kirtley, Eddie Pennington, Richard Smith, Muriel Anderson, Pete Huttlinger, and of course our friend Tommy Emmanuel. 

   Evenings hanging out in the "Tab Pigs" suite have been icing on the cake, with often as many as 30 guests and their guitars, along with some A-list players cooling off after performing their set.

   With many guests arriving the weekend before the convention, we had the idea to host a concert for key performers on the Tuesday evening before CAAS. Each summer the excitement would build and our audience grew to over 800 concert goers who attended our Chet Atkins Tribute Show.   Over eight years we hosted consecutive concerts Pre-CAAS, celebrating the Tuesday prior to the start of the convention.

An invitation from Down Under

   An unexpected call came in from from Australia, “Would you be interested in representing Maton Guitars?” Privileged to be asked, though we had a lot going on at the time, with little room for more guitars.

   Before signing off the call, I asked “How did we come to your attention?” Anthony politely said, “Tommy told us to call you.” Well, that changed the direction of our thinking immediately. “Yes!”, I said. We would figure it out later...

   For a while we worked with local Nashville resident Beeb Birtles (Little River Band), responsible for artist relations in the U.S. at the time. In the years to come we would be working through a newly established distributor for North America. Since then we have enjoyed growing the brand and establishing Artisan Guitars as the go-to source for Maton.

Touring with Tommy

   In the spring of 2018 Tommy was performing a show at the famed Ryman Auditorium. His manager called, “Tommy would like to have some Maton guitars on display in the lobby.” I said, “I don’t think they will let you do that”, to which he replied, “I already got permission”. We showed up with a carload of Maton guitars, which garnered a lot of interest from the audience.

   Later that year, I thought how great it would be to have Maton guitars at some of Tommy’s concerts. Introducing the Maton Tour Van! The full-body wrap was designed by their team in Australia, and Nissan USA (headquartered in Franklin). One of their corporate officers is a client, and his team hosted our visit to their underground studio to put together this short film [Music "The Bug" courtesy of William Thomas Emmanuel"].

   I had the pleasure of driving the Maton Nashville van to live performances with Tommy. The maiden voyage was the City Winery in Manhattan, where he performed with John Knowles. The last show was at the Songbirds Museum, a truly awesome venue for any guitar fan.

   Our sincere thanks for devoted support from our builders and customers through the years. We could not have followed our penchant for unparalleled customer service without you.