Luthiers' Cruises

Michael Gurian

Michael Gurian was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1943.  He took music lessons playing various instruments and became particularly fond of wood.  He later studied sculpture at Long Island University, took up playing classical guitar, and taught music in Roslyn, New York.

Using his studio apartment as a workshop, Gurian built his first guitar – a copy of a classical made by Velasquez student Victor Manuel Piniero. It was an encouraging exercise, and set the stage for further efforts. In 1965 he moved to a three-room shop in Greenwich Village, and with two assistants began building classical guitars, lutes, and the Armenian oud. He started building traditional steel-string guitars four years later, quickly adding his own distinctive body shapes. As interest in Gurian guitars grew, he moved his shop from Carmine Street to Bedford Street and then Grand Street in New York City, eventually employing 15 builders. In 1971 he moved his shop from New York to Hinsdale, New Hampshire. In the mid-1970s vintage retailer Matt Umanov persuaded Gurian to build a cutaway guitar, which became a popular member of the Gurian lineup.

Tragedy struck in 1979, when a boiler explosion caused a fire that destroyed nearly all of Gurian's guitar inventory, work-in-process, tooling, machinery and rarest wood supplies. With amazing perseverance, Gurian promptly rebuilt in West Swanzey, New Hampshire, and by late 1979 was not only building guitars again, but employing over two dozen people and servicing nearly 200 dealers worldwide.

In the early 1980s, Gurian stopped building guitars and turned his attention to making custom guitar parts for a worldwide clientele of high-end builders. He also supplies customized materials for the marine, furniture and craft industries. 

Michael Millard

Michael Millard was born in Hanover, NH in 1947. He was dragged "kicking & screaming" to Connecticut where he was placated by working in boatyards at the ripe old age of eleven. There he learned woodworking at the hands of several ancient men who shared their skills eagerly in an age of fiberglass boats. A friend there introduced him to the blues and Reverand Gary Davis. In 1970 he went to work for Michael Gurian in NYC and began building his own guitars.

After returning to New Hampshire with Gurian Instruments he made Froggy Bottom Guitars his full time work. In 1980 he returned to Gurian Instruments for a year to help with the start-up of their new factory after the infamous fire in their Hinsdale, NH factory. He has worked with partner Andy Mueller since 1994, joined in 2005 by Eric Goodenough, an old friend from the 1980 stint at Gurian Guitars.

Michael lives on a mountaintop in Chelsea, VT with his wife Kristina, their three children, his Golden Retriever Woodberry and a bunch of cats. He needs more time to play his guitar.

Thomas Humphrey