Northern California luthier Bruce Sexauer is well known to connoisseurs of high-end guitars. Since building his first guitar in 1967, Sexauer has explored virtually every guitar type, including electric solid-bodies, archtops, and classicals (fingerstyle virtuoso Duck Baker plays the only classical Sexauer has built to date), but he’s best known for his flattop steel-strings. Sexauer’s tonal inspiration comes from American prewar guitars, and his partnership with vintage guitar dealer Eric Schoenberg has allowed him access to some of the very best vintage instruments. (Besides building guitars under his own name, Bruce also builds for Schoenberg Guitars). But Sexauer doesn’t work strictly in the vintage tradition. Many of his guitars include contemporary features such as multi-scale fingerboards, wedge-shaped bodies, unusual woods, etc.

For this video, Sexauer brought two recent guitars to the Peghead Nation studio: an FT-15 built with Brazilian rosewood back and sides and an Italian spruce top and an FT-000-C built with European pearwood back and sides and a German spruce top. He discusses his approach to lutherie with Peghead Nation’s Teja Gerken, who also plays each instrument. sexauerluthier.com

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