Welcome to Willis Guitars - From the woodshop Luthier: Willis D Howard
Building masterpieces for the guitar and violin enthusiasts
Custom Instruments
Violins and repairs
I build my violins one at a time, i personally hand voice with thumb planes and scrapers for a sound for bluegrass and country fiddling, my fiddles are player grade nothing bold and fancy except for the amazing sound. Local maple wood for the entire violin is used except for Sitka spruce for the top and ebony for the fingerboard.
I repair and setup violins as well as Bow rehairing.
Willis guitars
I currently build three sizes of guitars, Dreadnought, CS model (similar to J200) and a custom size similar to 000-18. I benchmark my guitars using spruce forward scalloped soundboard and hand voice each by hand.
This scalloped bracing produces rich and booming sound since the top is able to vibrate more in combination with smaller “scalloped out” braces. The Willis guitar also gives off a sweet and balanced harmonics due to this design. The Willis guitar gives more overtones, volume, and bass which is great for bluegrass players and finger-pickers. I usually have a few build for purchase now or I can build one just for you.
Repair Services
Guitar and violin repair including bow rehairing.
Luthier: Willis Howard
A native of Whitesville, Kentucky. A professional craftsman building custom instruments for a select few enthusiast, with only around 6 guitars per year being built and hand voicing each one makes a Willis instrument very sought after.