McInturff Taurus Sportster Black Guitar #8031 - Used  From Terry McInturff

I built my first guitar in late 1977 and have been a full-time luthier ever since. It has been a fascinating journey, involving many tens of thousands of instruments of all kinds and vintages in addition to the 3600 or so McInturff guitars I’ve made to this point. It has been a lifetime's career devoted to the guitarist's world.

The first phase of my career relied upon guitar repairs/restorations to pay the bills, and I cannot imagine pursuing my building without having had that incredible education in my background. I have been hands-on with countless vintage guitars as well as with their modern counterparts. If it weren’t for this background, I'd likely be “building by numbers”... Copying the traditional designs without knowing exactly why the very best guitars sound the way that they do.

I remain an active performing guitarist, and my lifelong hobby of audio engineering continues to inform my work as well. Here we have two additional sets of experiences that I cannot imagine doing without; the former has given me the opportunity to learn what the real world of the working guitarist is all about... The “combat conditions” of stage and touring, whilst the latter has enabled me to study in detail the pivotal subject of sound. It is all about sound, this passion of ours.

Along the way I've been lucky enough to have been awarded consecutive “Editor's Pick Awards” by the good folks at Guitar Player Magazine; my work has been featured in many magazines, receiving excellent reviews; I've been the subject of various interviews on TV, radio, and internet publications; and of course I have had the opportunity to work with the finest woods in the world.

I have also been gifted with the opportunity to build guitars for artists such as Eric Clapton, Chuck Garvey, Jimmy Page, Seth Yacovone, Brad Whitford, David Hidalgo, BradDelsen, Chris Stamey, and many other fine players.

But the greatest reward that my career has brought me is the thousands of friends that I have made from all over the world. As you can imagine, I've had quite a few clients and I can say in all honesty that I have never had a bad client. Guitarists are uniformly interesting people and getting to know so many of them has been a true gift. I am very grateful indeed.