John Monteleone was born in Manhattan in 1947 and was raised on Long Island. He had taught himself at an early age to build guitars and began professionally restoring and building stringed musical instruments in 1973 after graduating Tarkio College with a degree to teach music.

Recognized as being one of the finest living archtop guitar and mandolin makers in the world today, John Monteleone has been at the forefront of innovative cutting-edge archtop instrument making for many years.

His uniquely designed instruments are the essence of artistic expression, reflected in the subtle but challenging marriage of form and function.

John Monteleone has been pushing the luthiery envelope for more than forty years with his refreshing passion for new and elegant designs. Producing instruments of great tonal expression is also one of Monteleone’s missions in life.

A dedication to the refined harmonic balances of tone and playability is always the central nucleus of structural foundation around which he often introduces the more interesting design accents and playful nature of his original and beautiful works.

Although Monteleone offers a line of standard high-end instruments he is also well known for his one-of-a kind extravagantly individualized and prized custom works of playable musical art.

Plain and simple, John is a living master. With decades of superlative and innovative work under his belt, he’s clearly earned his sterling reputation.