Bob Gramann

Bob Gramann is an exquisite builder of guitars. He has a stunning acoustic aesthetic, has a quirky affection for unusual and locally-sourced woods and is based just a couple of hours away down in Fredericksburg, VA - in other words he's perfect for our upstairs boutique guitar room.

It's by chance that our reps stumbled across this local builder almost 400 miles north of here at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) conference back in 2011. Falling in love with the sound of Bob's instruments and really enjoying how passionately he talked about building and playing and listening to instruments we were surprised but very pleased to find out he was closer to the DC-area than to New York and that he'd be interested in entering a partnership with us.

Since then we've sold many of his guitars, banjos and basses, and are very proud to showcase his unique instruments to our clientele.

Bob's instruments universally focus on sound first. They make great use of local woods like Osage Orange, Sycamore, Black Locus and Black Walnut (and the instruments are named after local rivers). His instruments tend to have slightly wider fretboards and string spacings (guitarists looking to play banjo who always felt banjo necks were a little cramped? Check out Bob's banjos. Also...they come with a free stuffed animal!) and are highly responsive, often bassier and punchier than comparably-priced instruments with similar body styles.

Here's one of his instruments being played by singer/songwriter Christopher Cavaliere. The video really captures the crisp and rounded sound of a Gramann.