Latest News '10
For people who know John's guitars perhaps one of the most visible recent changes is the logo. For a number of years John has been troubled by a couple things with the old logo. It served us well but with the change of the decade we decided to make the switch-over. No longer a font-styled theme the logo is based on John's signature although it was cleaned up quite a bit. The signature logo appeared on a few guitars in the previous decade including all the 12-string guitar but it is now on all the new guitars.
In addition to working on some orders and show guitars, John has been busy in the shop working behind the scenes with some new ideas and development.
We're heading back to Woodstock!
John went back up to Montreal this year. The guitar show was great and the Jazz Festival was going on right outside too. This show is a blast
News '09
The Woodstock Invitationals Luthiers Showcase was a great show. What a blast, We are heading back in 2010.
John returned to the Montreal Guitar show this summer and the Healdsburg Guitar Festival. In addition back in June, John went to the ASIA guitar maker symposium. It has been a busy year for John and he is still busy in the shop with some orders. John has also been working on some new ideas in the shop that will be making their way onto guitars starting in 2010. One simple change is that John will be using his signature logo on all of his guitars not only his 12 strings. (More to come on that later.) John is also busy with some other things that will only be seen inside the guitar. In addition, John has joined in on the Sonic Sitka Project and hopefully will be bringing the Sonic Sitka guitar to Montreal in 2010. (more details on that soon!)
Latest News '08
Probably the most obvious news to anybody who has been to this site before is that the site has a new look and some new content. The whole 'engine' to the site has been rebuilt and hopefully is a little more stable. In addition the site was moved to a new web hosting company and hopefully the e-mail server will be a little better.
John returned to Montreal Guitar Show this summer '08. The show is a good time and Montreal is a blast. We hope to be able to go back in 2009.
We have spent quite a bit of this year doing some shop improvements that will hopefully make thing go a little more smoothy. Mostly the improvements to the shop were to help with dust collection and general layout. It took a lot of time to get some new tools and areas built in the shop, but it should be a better work area, which indirectly should help make a better guitar. In addition John has been really doing some experimentation and design work in the shop. He has been looking into the details of some older guitars and using the "good" stuff from them in his newly introduced Vintage Series guitars.
Miscellaneous News (past)
John has been working on some more subtle refinement in design and the build process. Here are some examples of the new standard features that are now included on an Osthoff guitar. For example, John is now tilting his saddle back toward the pins to give a better downward pressure on the saddle slot and as a side benefit it also addresses some intonation issues when making action adjustments.
Some players have asked John to give them access to the trussrod from the headstock, so that they can gain access to it with the strings up to tension. In the past, John accommodated this with a "custom" build, but decided to make it a standard feature this year. While trussrod adjustments should be left to the "professionals" this does allow for better and easier access for adjustments.
With the addition of the trussrod access at the headstock, John wanted a little more "meat" in that area. He did that by adding a diamond volute to the back of the headstock. The diamond volute and rear headstock veneer are now standard features on John's guitars. While the diamond volute has been around for many years, the idea of adding the veneer with the diamond is not that common. James Olson does something similar on his guitars. John spoke with Jim before implementing this design. "James encouraged me to go with these features and although he does not take credit for this idea, he may be the first to add a purfling around the diamond volute. I have not use the purfling scheme yet, but with Jim's blessing may offer it as an option. Thanks Jim for your help and inspiration."
John returned to The Healdsburg Guitar Festival in the summer of 2007. Keith Knight demonstrated John's Guitars in a "mini-concert" at the show. Keith brought along his Osthoff Long scale 27" AS to the show and used it in some of his performances. John hopes to be able to return for the '09 show.
SoundSeats with the Osthoff logo are now available, see The Merchandise Page for ordering information.