My wife and I chose the name BlueStain Guitars in fond memory of our days living in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in a log cabin we built over the span of 10 years. “Blue stain” is the name given to the discoloration of pine tree wood that occurs as a result of pine beetle infestation.

Our forest had many infected trees, which usually die as a result of the beetle attack. But as a result of their death, beautiful colored wood is left as their legacy. We purchased a portable band saw mill, and spent 4 years making lumber from the dead trees to be used for flooring, decking, siding, wall studs and vaulted ceilings in the cabin. Unfortunately, it became difficult to manage our lives in a remote mountain setting, so back to the city we went, but we still have fond memories of the unforgettable experience of milling our own lumber and building the cabin.

As much as I would have loved to make guitars from blue stain pine, it just doesn’t seem to make tonewoods of the quality I want for my instruments. But the spirit of our forest lives on in the guitars, as I have incorporated some leftover wood in decorative elements, such as the end wedge and the neck heel endcap.

My first guitars were made from fairly standard stock that was obtained through conventional national suppliers, but even so was very high quality tone wood and parts rivaling some of the best instruments today. However, due to the ever-decreasing supply of quality materials, I have searched out and found suppliers that deal in recovered and repurposed woods, as well as tone woods that have set unused in luthier shops for decades. Using these materials not only avoids the harvesting of live trees, it provides products that can be unique and beautiful, and may be decades or hundreds of years old. These woods are usually more expensive than newly harvested components, but are environmentally superior and make fantastic looking and sounding guitars!