ABOUT SNIDER GUITARS



The Guitars:


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Snider guitars are built for musicians who are unwilling to settle for the typical handmade guitar, let alone a factory guitar. They are the work of both a master craftsman and a soulful artist. Above all else, they are about everything working together: the design, the wood, the pickups, the nut, the hardware, the fretwork, the neck, the finish, the joinery, the bracing, the glue, the wiring - everything. Each Snider guitar is built by hand, one at a time, by one luthier, Mike Snider. There is no assembly line, no production runs. There is no work handed down to apprentices or farmed out to other builders. And there are no robots or CNC machines involved in the creation of these handcrafted guitars. Every aspect of the sound, feel, and visual impact of each instrument is painstakingly considered and given the highest attention to detail, and only the finest materials available are used.

Snider guitars are crafted with a combination of traditional and modern techniques, although hand tools are used as much as possible, with a minimum of jigs and templates. Electric guitars are cut out and shaped freehand. Carved tops are individually carved by hand. Snider necks are also all hand carved and shaped, and frets are installed the old fashioned way, with a fretting hammer. Even the pearl signature in Snider headstocks are cut and inlayed by hand. Mike pays extra special attention to the woods he selects for each build, and carefully matches each piece to the next. Every acoustic top is meticulously braced, sculpted, and voiced to yield the best tone possible. The pickups for Snider guitars are hand wound by Mike as well.

Does this all add up to an efficient, profit-maximizing enterprise? No. Is it even a reasonable business model? Probably not. Does it make for some of the most incredible instruments available? Yes. Hell yes.

The Builder:


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Snider Guitars is a one-man operation in Denver, Colorado run by Mike Snider. Mike's interest in guitar building began as an adolescent, shortly after he began playing.   Having always been one to take things apart, modify them, and put them back together, this naturally carried over to guitars.  
Mike soon found himself a job at a local music store as a teenager, where he had the opportunity to get involved in repair work and expand his knowledge.   Later, he was fortunate enough to land an apprenticeship with renowned electric builder and master luthier Bruce Clay.   The two worked closely and Mike gained a massive amount of knowledge from Clay until he moved, and Mike went on to apprentice with another incredible luthier, Brian Deckebach of Del Toro Guitars, and longtime repairman of Guitars on Broadway.  
Absorbing as much knowledge as he possibly could, and through any means possible, Mike took an introductory woodworking course and found a woodworking job at a furniture repair shop.   At about the same time, he also discovered Robert O'Brien's Steel String guitar building course at Red Rocks Community College, where he learned to build acoustic guitars.  
Mike was invited to be O'Brien's teaching assistant the following semester, and soon after was asked to start the Electric Guitar building program.   After founding this class, which he continues to teach this today, he created an inlay class as well, teaches Fundamentals of Woodworking, and has recently taken on a Steel String Guitar Building class as well.   He has also had the opportunity to study woodworking in the school's renowned fine woodworking department.