Handcrafted with Care
Each Smith & Fison guitar is the result of careful craftsmanship by a single luthier—me, Ben Smith. My goal is to create instruments of the highest quality and beauty with the tonality and responsiveness only possible in a handmade guitar. I think these guitars are actually quite rare these days. Every element, from the wood selection to the final polish, is shaped by my hands, ensuring that each guitar is not just an object but a complete, expressive instrument. This is not mass production; it is the deliberate work of an individual craftsman trying his best again and again.
More specifically, I orient my building toward the guitars and practices of the late 19th century, mostly in the United States. This was a time just before standardization, mechanization, and factory processes transformed guitar making from a craft into an industrial process. To me, this was the golden era of craftsmanship and design for the steel string guitar. This is the spirit of guitar building to which I aspire.
Craftsmanship Behind the Sound
To my way of thinking, the acoustic properties of a guitar are primarily determined by three critical elements: body shape, bracing, and top thickness. I carefully balance these factors in each Smith & Fison guitar to maximize resonance and tonal clarity. I use a thin top and finish to let the wood vibrate freely, resulting in a more responsive and dynamic sound. In contrast to factory-produced guitars, where heavy finishes and overbuilt tops are used to avoid warranty claims, my approach is about minimizing mass and maximizing resonance. Light bracing, natural finishes, and a careful choice of high-quality components work in harmony to produce a distinct voice for each instrument—lively, rich, and nuanced.
Natural Materials, Pure Beauty
Smith & Fison guitars are constructed from materials that connect us deeply to nature: carefully sourced wood, bone, and shellac. Unlike factory instruments that often feature plastic bindings and thick polyurethane coatings, my guitars feature organic materials chosen to enhance both aesthetic and acoustic properties. The grain of the wood, the subtle sheen of shellac, and the honest, unadorned craftsmanship are all intended to highlight the inherent beauty of natural elements. These choices are not just about looks—they are essential to the guitar’s tone and responsiveness.
The Beauty of Imperfection
I believe that true beauty incorporates imperfection. None of my guitars are flawless. While I don’t intentionally introduce these imperfections, I do choose processes that result in slightly different outcomes each time, giving the finished guitar a living feeling absent in the perfection of factory guitars. These slight imperfections are a testament to the fact that this instrument was shaped by human hands, not machined into uniformity. Most importantly they give each guitar a warmth and attraction that makes you want to hold and play it.
The Ethics of Choice
Guitar making involves many choices that have direct ethical and environmental implications. The tropical woods that most guitars still use today are essentially all involved in supporting environmental destruction, governmental corruption, and international crime. Many in the supply chain tend to look away from what is really happening. I don’t feel comfortable taking part in that system and I know it’s perfectly possible to build guitars of the highest quality without sacrificing my morals. That’s why all of my guitars are built with domestic woods from carefully managed sources, reclaimed woods, or from a very, very short list of trusted tropical sources that I can vouch for. I wouldn’t want to buy my wife a blood diamond or buy clothes made with child labor, so I won’t build guitars that conflict with my morals either.