Cindy Guitars Transforms Wood From Churches Into Powerful Instruments
Cindy Guitars Transforms Wood From Churches Into Powerful Instruments
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The blues are not learned in a monastery, Keith Richards once noted. And yet for instruments by Cindy Guitars, the materials may have come from a church. Cindy Hulej, who works out of Rick Kelly’s Carmine Street Guitars in New York City, produces bespoke axes out of pine, maple, and oak planks that are reclaimed from some of the city’s holiest institutions—Trinity Church near Wall Street, a Serbian Orthodox cathedral in the Flatiron District—as well as less-hallowed ground such as the Chelsea Hotel and McGurk’s Suicide Hall saloon.
The Competition
• When hunting for a custom guitar maker, personality is paramount. John Suhr, who founded Suhr Guitars in Lake Elsinore, Calif., in 1997, learned his trade in Fender’s specialization shop. He bases his electric Signature Series guitars on traditional Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Jazzmasters, but spins them into exquisite one-offs. They can cost $3,495.
• Bob Seger, Richie Sambora, and yes, Keith Richards, play on the Stratocaster-inspired designs that grandmaster Tom Anderson creates. He opened his California shop in 1984 and quickly earned a name producing hand-built electric guitars—some fetching as much as $5,500—known for their build quality, playability, and innovative tone.
• Founded in 2016 by Farhad Soheili, a luthier working in Brooklyn, N.Y., FSC Instruments makes a limited annual run of guitars with lumber sourced from around the U.S. and with necks, inlays, bodies, and pickups all crafted in-house. It’s a strong entry-level step into the custom guitar world, with prices starting under $2,000.
The Case
Just reading the descriptions of a Cindy guitar can conjure an ancient energy: necks made from 100-year-old quilted maple; ebony fretboards with pure nickel pickup rings; bodies built from 200-year-old Bowery pine. Cool little details are everywhere: On the back of one headstock, a magic eye wards off evil spirits; elsewhere, tobacco-colored pickguards are emblazoned with a white crane. This custom-order Lilac and Red Sparkle J Model screams with fiery individuality but sings like an angel. $4,000
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gaddy at jgaddy@bloomberg.net, Chris Rovzar
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