jwblilie312 AT gmail.com
Your Luthier: Jim Blilie
I love to make guitars. I am a fingerstyle player who plays many
different styles of music. I have only been playing guitar for about
25 years*; but I love it. And I work pretty hard at it. I can now play many
enjoyable pieces such as "Here Comes the Sun," "Gymnopedie No. 1"
(Parkening arrangement), and many fingerstyle and blues songs, etc.
* It's never too late to pick up a musical instrument! I started when I
was 36 years old; and I'm a decent intermediate player. I heard
Will Ackerman's album It Takes a Year at a friend's house in 1982.
That music inspired me to play the guitar. And playing my first guitar
(which I didn't really like) inspired me to build my own guitar. I also took
inspiration to play from this book, which I highly recommend:
Making Music for the Joy of It, by Stephanie Judy
I love to play and build guitars.
See how I build guitars here:
Steel String Guitar Construction
These may also be of interest:
Violin construction
Major Modifications
I come from a background of engineering: I was a structural analysis
engineer for many years at Boeing and also worked for the FAA
and for a civil engineering firm. I am now retired for Boston Scientific, where I designed
heart pace-makers and implantable defibrillators. I am a reasonably accomplished
amateur landscape photographer. I love visual arts and I have done plenty
of drawing and painting. I love good writing and I write regularly.
I bring a firm understanding of structure and design and a well
trained aesthetic eye and ear to guitar building. I love good tone.
I have a passion to build guitars that look, feel, play, and sound great.
If you check my testimonials page, I think you'll find that my customers
agree that I achieve those goals. You can also listen to my guitars
at the sound clips page.
Having me build you a custom guitar will likely be a dream come true.
If you want something unusual in your guitar, for instance a particular
neck width or shape, or a particular combination of woods, I can make
that dream come true.
My Published Articles:
My article, The Guitar As a Structure, was published in January 2009 in American Lutherie #100,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, Wood Stiffness: An Analysis of a Substantial Sample of Woods of Interest to Guitar Makers,
written with fellow luthier Alan Carruth, was published in March 2016 in American Lutherie #125,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, Proposed Standard Glue Strength Testing Method, was published in June 2016 in American Lutherie #126,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, A Large New Set of Stiffness Data for Lutherie Woods and a Proposed Standard Test Method,
was published in December 2016 in American Lutherie #128, the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
My article, More Glue Strength Testing Data, was published in October 2017 in American Lutherie #131,
the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers.
You can read it here (their published version has better graphics!)
The "Sound-port Kerfuffle" played out in American Lutherie 96, 97, 98, 100, 103, and 106
Leonardo Project Comments - Guitar blind listening experiments (AL 125)
The Leonardo Project (their website):
Copyright 2025, James W. Blilie, Barbarossa Guitars This page was last updated: 30-Nov-2025