John Buscarino–Virtuoso

John Buscarino is one of the few luthiers working today as a solo artisan, handcrafting guitars suited to each customer’s personal needs. His instruments are prized not just for the beautiful sounds they produce, but also as the cherished possessions they inevitably become. Guitar player Steve Morse considers his Buscarino guitars “treasured works of art,” as do many of John’s customers.

John is rare among today’s guitar builders in that he apprenticed with not one but two master luthiers. The first was Augustine LoPrinzi, from whom John learned the finer points of building classical guitars. John later worked with fellow Blue Guitar luthier Bob Benedetto, spending years perfecting the woodworking skills that today make him a master luthier in his own right. John has created hundreds of exquisite guitars using proven methods passed down over generations. He constantly refines these time-tested techniques, taking each to new levels of perfection in mastering the art of lutherie.

The Buscarino Virtuoso was built with a spruce top, fiddleback flamed maple back, sides and neck. This guitar features maple-wood binding with natural-wood purfling of black and blued dyed veneers on the body, headstock, fingerboard, and pickguard. The fingerboard uses ebony and exhibits a custom tree-of-life inlay made of abalone and mother-of-pearl, accented with red coral and blue turquoise. The tailpiece uses ebony a regal abalone and blue turquoise tipped floral display with a mother-of-pearl scroll featuring Scott Chinery’s engraved signature. The bridge and pickguard have been crafted with ebony as well. To top it all off, the headstock features a custom mother-of-pearl ornament with turquoise accents and is equipped with ebony tuners with diamond-shaped inlays of blue turquoise.

https://buscarino.com/