Hi, I'm Steve Salvi, and welcome to my website.



For over 35 years I've been a passionate advocate of the guitar, its 

players and its music.  There is nothing I love more than to be around

guitars and guitar players.  I feel privileged to be where I am today

and am looking forward to meeting you and many more players in the

years to come.



I started playing music at an early age, and took up guitar at age 12. I

loved the music of Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges as well as many

others, and ended up with a plethora of open tunings and finger style

techniques that I still use today.



At 14 I discovered Metal, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Van Halen, John McLaughlin, 

Howlin Wolf, Mike Stern, Joe Pass and Al Di Meola amongst many 

others. Studying all of these guys passionately for years has, I believe,

given me a broad horizon by which to see the instruments I now find

myself building. I attended my first instrument building class at age 17, 

with the late and great Peter Kempster here in South Australia, and 

spent years dabbling with building and repairs whilst playing in bands

and doing solo performances here in Adelaide.



In 1992 I went to London and worked in the epicentre of the UK

guitar scene, Denmark Street in Soho, in Europes largest Vintage and acoustic 

 dealership doing sales and repairs, and within 4 months was managing the

whole shop.

While there, I got to play, and work on, literally hundreds of premium brand

guitars, like Martin, Lowden, SantaCruz and Taylor. But it wasn't just the guitars

I found compelling whilst in London. The players I met, jammed, hung out

with and learned from, whether famous, amateur or introspective, was a life

altering experience.

All of this experience has helped me understand what I, and others,

need out of a guitar.

​

I came back to Adelaide in 1997 and started working for a very large

specialist guitar dealership doing sales and repairs.

​

In 2000 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship for guitar

building and went to the US where I attended a marvelous

contemporary guitar building course with Charles Fox, guitar builder and

jig maker extraordinaire, and then traversed the countryside seeking

out fellow builders and major factories alike, to exchange ideas and

learn new techniques to add to my guitar building expertise before

coming home and starting my own shop.  Right now I'm enjoying

building my own guitars and playing regularly.  I'm proud to say that

I can call some of South Australia's premier builders and players my

mentors and close friends.  I learn from them everyday, and I have

learnt one thing for sure, if you don't know what a truly great guitar is,

or sounds like, then you can't make one.  The dream must be dreamt

before it can become a reality.



My hope is to live a long and fruitful life improving my guitars and 

making new friends. Drop me a like if you like, I try to answer as many

emails as I can.
 

Live the Dream!
 

Steve Salvi