10 Indian Guitar Makers (Luthiers) You Should Know About

Without a luthier, there would be no string instruments. No guitars, no violins, no cellos, no basses. Imagine living in a world without these musical instruments. We owe a big deal to luthiers for giving us some of the best sounding instruments and we can’t be more grateful. Here is a list of the best and the coolest luthiers in India, that are doing a great job creating specialized instruments for us:

1. Bigfoot Guitars

Bigfoot Guitars, based out of Gurgaon, is a venture of Karan Singh. He started Bigfoot as a personal experiment to repair guitars, but having been passionate about musical instruments, Singh got into sculpting guitars himself and soon started pursuing it full time. He has devoted himself to the journey of discovering the joy of creating string instruments with his own hands. From basic repairs to the intricate detailing, to setting different acoustics for the guitars, he does it all. Besides designing commissioned instruments, Bigfoot also provides structural and electrical repairs and modification services.
Making steel string and classical guitars, Karan believes that the soul of an instrument is in its sound and thus, he makes sure to craft each guitar according to a certain sound that his customer has in mind. No two instruments that he makes sound the same.

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Address: B – 6/9, DLF Phase 1, Block B, Sector 26A, Gurugram, Haryana 122002

2. The Thing Smiths

The ThingSmiths is a South Delhi based company that is focused on building guitars built on the knowledge they’ve gained over years of maintaining, upgrading and modifying guitars. They make electric guitars and accessories using selected woods, alloys and plastics.

Address: Arjun Nagar, Kotla Mubarakpur, Delhi

3. Dehradun Guitar Company

Dehradun Guitar Company has one simple philosophy, and that is to build guitars by hand that will help people play and sound the best. Deharadun guitars are made with an essence of the hills at the heart of Dehra and are sold at affordable prices for artists. The guitars are built with wood sourced from India and are very rich, quality and tone-wise. They are designed so as to provide maximum comfort while playing.
They have two series of guitars that they craft as of now, Himalayan and Signature. Then there are custom made guitars for which you can choose from a wide selection of tonewoods for the quality of sound, add your preferred cut, make it ornate and choose from a glossy or a natural satin finish.

Address: 52, Birgirwali, Rajpur, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248009

4. Enzo Guitars

Samir Karnik, a modern-day luthier is the founder of Enzo Guitars. In Japanese, enso means a circle drawn with one brush stroke to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. He compares the guitar to a canvas that is played by a person to express themselves through music.
Each of the guitars that Samir makes are composed of four to five types of wood. Indian woods such as Mango and Neem are used in his guitars, too. Karnik makes different acoustics for his guitars to give each one a distinctive, exclusive sound of itself. Meanwhile learning from his experiments, he puts a great deal of his heart and soul into his luthierie.

Address: Grant Road, Mumbai, 400007

5. Signature Guitars

Signature guitars are another company that makes premium quality guitars for the Indian masses. They sculpt their guitars mainly out of Rosewood and Mahogany, the two most suitable woods for the Indian subcontinent. They also make many variations according to the wood, sound, etc.

Address: ⅕, KC Ghosh Lane Howra, Opp Prince Club, Belur Station Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 711201

6. Avid Guitars

Based in Delhi and run by Ankit Kathuria, Avid Guitars have expertise in high end, handmade string instruments. They deliver custom made acoustic, bass and electric guitars and even violin worldwide!

Address: D-129/A Brij Vihar, Delhi, 201011

7. Astha Guitars

Astha Guitars is a venture of the Swiss guitar company Brunner and the Indian NGO, ACTS. They build acoustic and electric guitars by giving young, motivated people a chance at employment and to teach them skills helpful to gain confidence in the future.
For every guitar sold, 10% of it goes to supporting lesser privileged children with their education

Address: 2nd Cross Road, KHB Colony, 5th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560095

8. Cathode Guitars

Cathode Guitars have been crafting state of the art guitars and basses in the mid-Himalayan region of Solan. They specialize in building 6, 7 and 8 string guitars and 4 and 5 string basses. They use a wide range of woods and guitar hardware to suit their customers’ taste and build personally customized guitars in accordance with their preferences and the tone required by them. All their guitars are skillfully handcrafted and ensure a smooth feel and playability.

Address: Mehta Complex, Solan , Himachal Pradesh, 173212

9. Cipriano Music

It all started when Auddie D’Souza needed an electric guitar but couldn’t afford it. He started building his own. He would also repair his friends’ guitars now and then and would juggle this hobby with his full-time job. It was only a matter of time till he realized that he wanted to pursue luthiery and that is what he did. Designing custom guitars, basses, electric cellos and a variety of specialized string instruments is the specialty of Cipriano Music. Each of their instruments is one of a kind and has an exclusive sound of its own.

Address: Khandelwal Industrial Estate, Next to Topaz Bar, Upvan, Thane West, Thane, 400606

10. Indische Guitar

The idea of starting Indische Guitar was conceived when two friends started building guitars in a room. It soon escalated and into a workshop and now its one of the best guitar companies in India. Indische Guitar, as a company, is an example of excellent luthierie as it manifests in the guitars they make. They have guitars, violins, ukuleles, basses handcrafted meticulously to perfection. They use not only traditional woods like Rosewood, Spruce, Ebony, Mahogany, Maple and Pine but also exotic woods like Malaysian Blackwood, Purpleheart, Ziricote and Cottonwood in their craft. They provide a variety of bracing schemes and shapes in their instruments ranging from the traditional ones to the strictly modern ones. One of the most remarkable things is that they build guitars according to the budget and try to deliver only the best quality instruments in that budget.

Address: Ananda Apartments, AA-20, Shop No. 1, Beside Sports Council Club, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700059