We are glad to have Walkin' Jim Stoltz endorsing Montana Guitar Shop.  "Keep on making those beautiful guitars."  Thats just what we plan on doing Jim.

Folksinger and songwriter (8 cd's), adventurer, long distance back packer, photographer, artist and author, Walkin' Jim Stoltz has taken to the backcountry of North America, walking the last wild places for months at a time, nearly every summer since 1974.  His long treks have included journeys from Georgia to Maine along the Appalachian Trail, from Mexico to Canada via three different routes, from coast to coast, Yellowstone to Yukon- well over 25,000 miles in total.

For over thirty years Stoltz has celebrated the natural world through his songs and concerts.  It is quite a treat to visually see where he has been (a breathtaking slide show) as he plays guitar and sings about his wonderful adventures.

This year as Walkin' Jim heads out on the long trail he will be bringing along a Snail travel guitar (the Cadillac of travel guitars) so that he might bring good tone and musical inspiration with him.  Be sure and check out Walkin' Jim's website at www.walkinjim.com.

We are so sorry to tell you..... Walkin' Jim passed away September 3rd, 2010.  We will miss him, he was a very unique and talented man.  Rick

To view the March 2009 slide show featured by the Missoulian, Click Here.

We have a beautiful D-SP Koa for sale.  The tone is deep and rich.  The nut is 1 3/4" and the scale length is 25.4".  Fretboard and bridge are ebony.  The top is Sitka spruce with a bird's eye maple roseatte.  Back and sides are Koa with a wedge of flamed maple down the back.  The bindings are purpleheart and maple with a gorgeous wood purfling.  This guitar is a treasure with a pearl and abalone lillie inlaid in the peghead. $3,250.00.  SOLD 

This page only has a random sampling of what is available.  Please e-mail Rick to see what he may have in stock at any given time.  Thank you.

This is a guitar player's guitar.  This 000-SP has a bear claw Sitka spruce top and an African Mahoghany back and sides.  Bindings are purpleheart and maple with herringbone purfling and roseatte.  Schaller tuners.  Very sweet tone and projection for this 12 fret vintage style guitar.  $2,750.00.

The SNAIL travel guitar is the Cadillac of travel guitars.  It fits in that nich to give you more playing time and enjoyment.  Unlike many other travel guitars the SNAIL has a full 24.9" scale length and tone that is beautiful, balanced with excellent sustain.  Take it in the car, traveling, to the office, hiking,stows on the airlines, etc., etc.  Most our snails are black walnut back and sides with cedar top and East Indian Rosewood fretboard and bridge.  These guitars have excellent Gotoh mini tuners and truss rod.  Very fun to play.  $589.00 w/gig bag     Special figured cedar & Ebony fretboard-bridge $750.00 w/gig bag

Our full size guitars at Montana guitar shop are built with curved backs with a 15' radius running lengthwise and widthwise.  Rather than using the concave sanding discs that most shops use to trim the sides of the guitar before the back goes on we invented our own jig that trims very cleanly and accurately.  Backs fit very precisely which is another aspect of building stress free guitars.  Using a router the mechanism glides on ball bearings and is adjustable for different size guitars.  Note that head and tail blocks are also carved at the precise curve to match the sides.

At Montana Guitar Shop our guitar necks (except nylon string and Snails) all  have a mortise and tenon joint and are bolt on.  This makes it a much easier process to reset the neck should it ever need to be done somewhere many years down the road.  We use brass bolts which are threaded, epoxied and pinned into the tenon of the neck.  They will NEVER come loose.

In the quest to make the SNAIL travel guitar more playable, the answer has finally come.  As you Snail players know, the design of the instrument is very good in every way except the head is somewhat heavy when playing in the seated position without a strap.  It came to me this morning, I tried it, and Presto-Change O it worked.

Here is the solution if you prefer not to play in classical style with the guitar at a 45 degree angle when seated. Attach your strap to the end pin only.  While standing and holding the Snail in position let the strap hang straight down to the floor.  Wrap the strap around the middle of your posterior and hold with your left hand.  Sit down on the strap.  With the strap hanging over the left side of the chair adjust the tension so that the Snail neck is counter balanced by the pull of the strap on the guitar body.  Resting the Snail on my right leg worked best for me.  Lo and behold it is just like playing a full size steel string because that sense of having to hold the neck up is gone.

Please e-mail me with your suggestions.  Thank you.

Rick

As we are entering the dry winter months it is important that you protect your guitar from low humidity.  High quality acoustic guitars are generally built at around 45% humidity and usually the better instruments are crafted with solid woods.  Solid wood guitars are more sensitive to dry and temperature extremes than less expensive laminated wood guitars; part of the price to pay for better tone.

It is easier for an instrument to endure high humidity than low because wood will expand and can usually take the pressure without anything coming apart.  Although I don't really recommend using your guitar right next to a lake or river for very long as it can throw it into a tizzy that will last for a few days.  One effect higher humidity has is that it has a tendency to cause the soundboard to rise which will cause the action to be higher than it normaly would be.  Some players have different height saddles for different seasons.  Extremely high humidity environments should be avoided.

A good investment for your home and instrument is a hygrometer which will tell you what your humidity level is at.  The best humidity level is near the level at which your instrument was built so ideally we would like our homes to be 40% to 60% or so.  If humidity levels begin hovering around 35% or lower for very long we should be purchasing an instrument humidifier which stays inside your case.  Most music stores will have them.  And always keep your guitar in the case when not in use.

Remember low humidity and high temperatures are the real killers.  If wood shrinks it has nowhere to go except to crack.  NEVER store your guitar near heaters or heater ducts and NEVER carry it in your car trunk in hot weather. 

Be especially cautious with your NEW instrument as it is more likely to check or crack in its first few years of life.  Take good care of your guitar and as the wood ages (and through use) you can expect the tone of your guitar to be sweeter and sweeter.

Rick

To properly play your SNAIL travel guitar it should be held as would be a classical guitar when sitting down.  The guitar body should rest on the right leg or between the legs and the neck should tilt up at around 45 degrees in relation to the body.

If you prefer not to play classical style or to play standing up it works best to use a guitar strap with one end attached to the end pin and the other end attached to the peghead (with a strap or cord underneath the strings).

Rick