Jeffrey R. Elliott was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He began playing guitar at age sixteen and immediately fell in love with the sound of the classical guitar. This led to performing folk music professionally while majoring in Fine Arts at Michigan State University. In 1964, a chance visit to Richard Schneider’s workshop in Detroit opened the door to the world of lutherie, and two years later he began a six-year apprenticeship with Schneider. In 1973 he moved to Portland, Oregon where he now resides with fellow luthier Cyndy Burton. In 1975 Jeffrey wrote and co-produced the color slide presentation, The Handcrafted Classic Guitar, which accompanied one of his guitars in the Smithsonian Institution’s 1978-1979 Renwick Gallery exhibit, “The Harmonious Craft,” in Washington, D.C. Jeffrey has been an active member of the Guild of American Luthiers since 1975 as an author for American Lutherie magazine and as a convention lecturer and exhibitor. He has also been an organizer for Portland’s annual Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibition since 1975, has taught guitar making privately since 1972 and at the American School of Lutherie in Healdsburg, California starting in 1998. Clientele include Julian Bream, Ralph Towner, Leo Kottke, Jonathan Leathwood, Dick Weissman, Earl Klugh, and Burl Ives.