Michael Bashkin

ARTIST. SCIENTIST. LUthier.

Michael Bashkin brings a unique vision and sensibility to the art of guitar-building – a philosophy that crystalized during his years teaching tropical forestry in Belize, Central America. Michael’s approach is holistic, merging his experience as a visual artist, a musician and a lifelong student of wood.  

Michael understands wood on a level that few of us do. He sees grain the way a photographer sees the nuances of texture in reflected light. He hears the resonance. He feels the personality captured in a sheet of Italian spruce. He hears the voice, bright and full of life, waiting to be expressed.

Michael is also a scientist whose graduate studies at Colorado State University and post-graduate research at Duke University taught him about the mechanics of wood. He knows where wood has come from and how it’s evolving. He has studied the way trees are responding to climate change – and how the wood harvested from them can be sculpted and assembled to respond to energy in certain, very special ways. Having studied with such gifted luthiers as Ervin Somogyi and Harry Fleishman, he shares their abiding respect for both aesthetics and function – balanced elegantly.  

The Birth of Bashkin Guitars in Colorado

After years of experimentation and exploration, Bashkin Guitars came to life in 1998 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Today, Fort Collins seems an especially appropriate home for this creative luthier. It’s a college town, a music town, and the national center for craft brewing! It’s also a national hub for farsighted research in energy and environmental innovation – and the gateway to the Rocky Mountains.  This city pulses with vitality, balancing technology and creative inspiration. It is the perfect home for this world class guitar builder.