John Peter Barthell has been building guitars in the Pacific Northwest since 1976 and is very good at his craft. He works alone in his shop and builds every part by hand except the strings and tuners. His guitars have a beautiful natural look to them and sound and play fantastic.

Barthell uses a seven fan strut bracing system and a feature unique to his guitars is that the sides are one piece and therefore he does not need an internal reinforcing block.

This example is #157 of Barthell’s output and here are the specs:

   Body                               Indian rosewood
   Extended heel cap           Ebony
   Head overlay                   Indian rosewood
   Soundboard                     Cedar logged near here long ago
   Neck                                Sapele
   Bridge                              Sapele with ebony
   Fingerboard                     Macassar ebony
   Tuners                              Gotoh
   Strings                              D'Adarrio high tension
   Scale length                      654 mm
   Width at nut                      52 mm
   Internal bracing                Symmetrical seven-strut fan

The finish on the back and sides is Liberon oil and the top is French polish. Liberon is a modified tung oil, and when you hold his guitar it has a warm and natural feel to it. I find these guitars to be an amazing value, a totally handmade Luthier instrument with fantastic tone and projection at the price of some factory made student guitars.

I just received a new Spruce top Indian rosewood guitar from John Peter Barthell.

This guitar is offered at $3500.00