Welcome to Freilicher Guitars

...NEWS...

Summer 2007 : Well I admit it, I have been a major slacker on web updates this year! That being said I have been very busy in the shop working on guitars and banjos necks, a long awaited major shop overhaul and working at my unofficial machinist apprenticeship. WHEW.....

I finished up and delivered the first of the re-designed Monarch guitars to Brandon Taricone this spring. Brandon helped out with the reworking of this model and I think we came with a beautiful and timeless design. Brandon plays with the New Orleans based Brotherhood of Groove and is also working to help restore a few houses around the NOLA area.

I finished up this neck for a Vega Whyte Laydie pot over the winter.

In the machining departent I have been working on many new tools and fixtures around the shop including a saddle slot mill, a circle cutter router base, a fretwire bending machine and a few specialty hammers. Exiting I know! ...... For the guitars I have been working on making my own bridge pins and end pins, not that it really makes any financial sence, I just like the challence.

Thanks for looking! Keep in touch and I promise more updates in the near future.

--Louis

November 29th 2006: Here is the latest Vega style Whyte Laydie neck making its way through the paint department.

November 14th 2006: It's been a while but I have been busy, busy, busy. Here is the new hallow body electric I am building for a picker from New Orleans.

I late October I took a trip out to meet with Bob Anderson in Coneaut, Ohio. Bob is a master pearl engraver and woodcarver, who builds some of the finest looking banjos you will ever see. Bob gave me a day-long pearl engraving crass-course. When I met him this summer and asked if he could teach me to engrave He said " I can show you what you need to practice in a day, but it will take you 20 years to master." After about 10 hours of practice here is what it looks like.

It was so wet here this summer that I did not make much progress on my run of flat tops, but as the nights get longer and dryer here in New England I suspect I'll get a few boxes together and ready for a finish run in the spring.

July 9, 2006: It has been a long wet summer here in Western Massachusetts! I have a run of guitars started, one is this macassar ebony slope dreadnought shown bellow. The other two are a German spruce and mahogany size 0 and a brazilian rosewood OM.

May 17, 2006: Here is the latest OM style guitar. I built it for Levin Schwartz from the great local band The Amity Front. This OM features a red spruce top with African mahogany back and sides. The fingerboard, bridge and headstock veneer are madagascar rosewood.

March 22, 2006: The new Slope D is strung up and sounding great!

March 4, 2006: It's neck finishing season here at the Freilicher Guitars workshop. Here is a redwood burl on the back of a Seeger - style banjo neck I am building for a fellow up in Cabot, Vermont. The color on the curly maple neck was built up with shellac and finished with clear nitrocellulose lacquer.

February 22, 2006: Here is the mahogany and sitka spruce Slope D I am working on. I have just polished out the lacquer on the body while I wait for the finish on the neck to cure. This guitar will be strung up ready to play by mid March.

February 1, 2006: Fall and winter have been busy here at Freilicher Guitars! Here are a few guitar bodys currently in the works. From left to right: A redwood and curly maple L-00, A red spruce and mahogany OM, A sitka and mahogany Slope D and sitka and indian rosewood parlor guitar I am finishing for a gentleman in Vermont.

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Designed and maintained by Louis Freilicher Belchertown Ma 01007

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