The Guitarmaker Tour Visits American Acoustech in Rochester, New York

In this day and age, a guitarist with $5000 can purchase a very nice instrument. There are plenty of excellent guitars in this price range. But what about someone with only $500 to spend? Do these folks still have to go to the local discount mart and pick out their guitar in the toy department? Not any more. American Acoustech Incorporated in Rochester, New York, are making guitars to address this neglected market. Their goal is a simple one-to reclaim the market for medium-price instruments.

American Acoustech is owned by David Stutzman and his partner, Tom Lockwood. As Dave states, "We thought long and hard about where we could fit into the guitar making market. There are an awful lot of people making high-end guitars- just beautiful instruments. If we wanted to be in that end of the market, there would be a lot of competition. So we looked at it the other way. What about the other end? These instruments have always been foreign: Japan, Korea, and Indonesia. So, we finally decided on that approach to the market. Our goal is to make an instrument that sounds like a low-end version from one of the highly regarded instrument makers. But at a fraction of their cost. However, we are not trying to makes clones of other guitars. We're trying to make a distinctive instrument that's really our own. So far, the response from the dealers and users has been very good."

But the story actually began in the 1950s. David's dad had a day job with an insurance company and repaired stringed instruments on the side. In addition, he also collected old instruments. As David puts it, "Before my father opened his store, he had over 800 guitars in our basement. My mother suggested that he might want to sell a few of them! So we opened one day a week. On the first day, we sold 44 guitars. People would wait all week and then flood the store on Saturday. It was a retailer's dream. In the last 40 years, many of those old guitars have since become vintage instruments."

In 1977, David took over the family business, the Stutzman Guitar Center, and moved it to a refurbished 100-year-old farmhouse. As a second generation of instrument dealers, Stutzman's store offers a full line of new and used acoustic, electric, and vintage instruments - including banjos and mandolins. In fact, there are many specialty guitars from the turn of the century and a collection of unique instruments like harp guitars, mando-basses and pocket mandolins. The store also does expert repairs and custom work in addition to offering music lessons.

David and Tom grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since they were kids. When Tom was 14, his dad took him to Stutzman's store to buy a guitar. And the rest is history. Tom went on to study mechanical engineering in college. He then landed a job as plant manager at Guild Instruments in Rhode Island. This was during their "golden years," between 1971 to 1983. During 1978, Guild made about 26,000 guitars. The D-25, D-35 and D-40 models were the standard for mid-range

American steel string guitars. Over the years, Lockwood and Stutzman discussed many design ideas for guitars. These ideas eventually formed into a partnership and American Acoustech Incorporated was born.

Lockwood and Stutzman decided to employ new technology and materials to manufacture their instruments. Their first stop was the Rochester Institute of Technology's Mechanical Engineering Department. There they tested different top designs and bracing patterns of numerous guitars. This was done with computer analysis of acoustic signal patterns. The results lead to a variety of prototype designs. "We are convinced that 90% of a guitar's performance comes from the top. This is where we place a lot of emphasis. The top reflects the performance of the guitar-the action and playability with good bracing" states Lockwood.

American Acoustech has been in the guitar business for about four years. However, the first year was devoted to developing jigs and fixtures. The factory currently produces 25 guitars per | month. This is on a part-time basis (although Tom and Dave readily admit they are putting in full-time hours). Their goal is to make three thousand instruments a year within the next two to three years. Three thousand is the magic number. This will enable them to stay small and maintain quality. Any more production than this and overhead expense would increase dramatically. To compensate for the increased overhead, they would have to make many more guitars to maintain the same profit. "We want to maximize profit and minimize headaches," says Stutzman.

Three traditional dreadnought models are currently available: a native American cherry model (ESVL-1) lists at $599, an East Indian rosewood model (ESVL-lR) at $799, and a walnut model (ESVL-1W) also at $799. Interestingly, cherry is a popular wood with furniture builders, but it's not often used in guitar construction. However, the owners found it to be strong and acoustically resonant- excellent for guitars. Bookmatched solid Sitka spruce is used on the top with scalloped bracing. Rosewood is used on the fingerboards and bridges, but they may go with ebony fingerboards in the future (the company does not make their own fingerboards-it's cheaper to buy them). The spruce comes from the West Coast, while the cherry and walnut are purchased locally. Base response, sustain, and power are the dynamics they are striving for in their guitars. Lockwood and Stutzman believe that the design and bracing of the instrument are much more important than the materials used.

Dimensions of the American Acoustech instruments are as follows: the scale length is 25.5 inches, the body length is 20 inches, with an upper bout body width of 13 inches with a 15.75 inch lower bout. An adjustable truss rod can be accessed through the sound hole, and all models have enclosed tuning machines. Silkscreened on the guitar's head is the American Acoustech name.

The owners personally inspect and shop-test every instrument before shipment. As can be imagined, beginners and intermediate players purchase American Acoustech because they are affordable. However, the company is now getting requests from experienced players who are looking for a "second" guitar.

"We were very pleased with the response to our instruments at the A.S.I.A. conference. But, everyone wanted to know how we can do it so cheap," says David.

One of the secrets to making an affordable guitar is to keep costs down. American Acoustech is the opposite of many large companies. "There are no large fancy offices here with highly paid executives. The 3,000 square foot building we're in was constructed in the 1920s as an iron factory. The hardest part of setting up the production was designing the jigs and fixtures. It took a long time. For example, our vacuum fixture was built for about $100. Most others cost many times that amount. And one of the jigs we use to scrape the binding has the base of a dentist's chair. It weighs a couple of hundred pounds, goes up and down, swivels around and works super-and cost virtually nothing! We don't have a lot of expensive things. In fact, not having a lot of money makes you more resourceful - and keeps costs down."

In addition to David and Tom, American Acoustech has five part-time employees. Each person has an area or range of operations they work in-but, this keeps expanding all the time. Tom estimates there might be as many as 250 steps to building an instrument. To simplify this process, the company tries to standardize the different production steps. Ideally, any employee could do whatever needs to be done. By keeping each step as simple as possible, there will be a shorter learning curve.

"We want to train new employees as quickly as possible without any down time" says Tom. Surprisingly, the employees at American Acoustech are not guitarpicking aficionados. But rather people from different walks of life who just enjoy the atmosphere of building the instruments. The company takes pride in creating a conducive and interesting work environment while keeping things as flexible as possible.

Marketing and distribution of the instruments is done primarily through a network of retail stores. Currently there are 25. The company figures it will increase to 45 stores in the next couple of months. "We are very particular about the dealers we work with. We are looking for specialty guitar shops. Our approach is to provide hands-on orientation of our instruments," says Stutzman.

The company does not sell direct to customers unless there is no local dealer in their area. As the number of dealers continues to increase, so does the guitar production. While it's important to meet supply and demand, producing too many unsold instruments will put a strain on cash flow. "It's a delicate balance of calculated growth. As business increases, guitar production will become a full-time operation. In fact, the factory is already set up to accommodate a production of 50 guitars a week," states Stutzman.

What does the future hold for American Acoustech? Specifically, they would like to increase the dealerships and sales to support 3,000 units per year. The company also gets requests for a smaller concert-size body and a twelve- string model. This could happen in the future. Eventually the company also will offer a Fishman pickup as an option.

There are a lot of possibilities. Yet having a quality product does not guarantee a free lunch. There are many obstacles that American Acoustech must overcome: name recognition, solid distribution through their dealer network, slow calculated growth, and maintaining a line of quality instruments. The company believes that simplicity, rigorous testing and complete dedication to quality is the name of the game.

As David Stutzman states, "I used to think that a great luthier was someone who built a great guitar. Now my perspective has changed- a great luthier is someone who can build hundreds of guitars and have them all come out very good. That's a lot harder than building one great instrument. We believe that a quality, nofrills instrument like American Acoustech can compete with imports and with the established domestic makers at a fraction of their cost."

So can David (or should I say David and Tom) take on the multi-national Goliaths dominating the mid-priced guitar market? They seem to think so, and that's all that really matters.