Tom Ellis grew up near Houston and enjoyed woodworking in his teens – mostly building surfboards. He built his first mandolin in 1972, which began the course of his career as a luthier.

The unique voice of Ellis mandolins was praised by David Grisman in a February ’81 Frets Magazine article where he identied Tom as one of the top 5 mandolin builders alive. Tom and his shop were soon soon featured in the April ’86 issue of Frets Magazine during the build of Ricky Skaggs’ second Ellis F-5. That mandolin was also featured in Fine Woodworking Design Book Four.
Every mandolin returns to Tom’s bench for final setup and inspection before it begins its journey to a new home.

The resulting instruments are beautiful, wonderful sounding works of art, enjoyed and played by musicians around the world.