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Harvesting Guitars from the Bones of New York City

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Often, luthiers are quite particular about where they get their wood. It's safe to say though, that Rick Kelly, owner of Carmine Street Guitars in New York City, has a taste in wood that sets him apart from the pack.

How does Kelly get the feel and atmosphere of NYC into his guitars? He literally builds them from discarded wood he finds around the city.

This unique approach has evidently payed off for Kelly, as his clients—past and present—include the likes of Bob Dylan, the Patti Smith Group and the ultimate New York City luminary, the late Lou Reed.

Check out Kelly's process in the video below.

Harvesting Guitars from the Bones of New York City from Great Big Story on Vimeo.

Jackson Maxwell
Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.