John Shelton has been a woodworker pretty much his entire life. At a young age John began to work with his father who was a master carpenter doing building construction and cabinet work. When he was in college he became fascinated with flamenco and devoted a great deal of time practicing and playing. It was during this time that he began his quest for the perfect flamenco guitar. In the mid 60’s John devoted all his time to playing, teaching, building and repairing flamenco and classical guitars. His wife Susan joined him in the late 60’s and he taught her what he knew. As a flamenco dancer and guitarist it should not be a surprise that she is as devoted to guitar building as he is. John and Susan have worked as a team for over 40 years now and have never lost the fascination with guitar building. Each have gravitated to the areas of their particular skills.

John and Susan build guitars with the assumption that every one will be an improvement over the previous one. They have no standard formula in their building. Dimensions are determined by what they think is the ideal for that piece of wood.

Their guitars are a composite of all the wonderful Spanish instruments they’ve studied and learned from over the years although they never really copy any particular maker.