Every year, The Holy Grail Guitar Show gives the possibility to admire guitar-making's excellence. Has been so since the first edition of the fair in 2014: more than 100 luthiers from all over the World in the same place. Where you can feel the talent, the imagination, the passion and the know-how. One of the questions we do to them when we are there is "Which guitar handmade from a colleague would you buy?” On several occasions the answer was: Jersey Girl. And it's not hard to understand why.  Kaz Goto and Akiko Oda run Jersey Girl more than 25 years ago in Japan. They define their guitars as 'compositions'. And of course they are! You could spend hours studying every single detail. From the wood they use to the handmade pickups or inlays. Their guitars reflect the peace of the natural environment where they are born. We invite you to read their answer to our questions and to have a look to their official website and Instagram.  So you'll understand what we mean by 'excellence'.     

SIX STRINGS...  

1. GUITARS EXCHANGE: How did you end up becoming, or start out as, a luthier?
Jersey Girl: Kaz started guitar making when he was 19 as a teacher at The Guitar Engineer School in Tokyo. Akiko started when she was 18 as a student of Kaz. Jersey Girl Homemade Guitars was born in 1991. Eiko joined us in 1996 as a guitar strap creator.  

2. GUITARS EXCHANGE: What inspires you to design and manufacture a new guitar?
Jersey Girl: Our ordinary life. Music, movies, nature’s colors, some kind of art and growing veggies!  

3. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Do you look for a given sound for any particular reason?
Jersey Girl: No, we don’t. We are only making the tone we love. We are making compositions’ individuality one by one. If someone feels a common tone in our compositions, that’s will be our tone.  

4. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Select one and talk about: soul, jazz, blues, rock, pop…or other.
Jersey Girl: If you want to make a good instrument for yourself, you listen to the music you love. If you want to run your life making instruments, you listen to pop music!  

5. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Are you a jobbing artist or a solitary artisan?
Jersey Girl: We are just a team of music lovers. We always feel happy to be a part of contemporary music.  

6. GUITARS EXCHANGE: What was the last record or CD you bought? And listened to?
Jesrey Girl: The last we bought: Watkins Family Hour Now listening: Street Parade / Theresa Andersson  

...ONE BODY...  

7. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Electric or acoustic?
Jersey Girl: Sometimes electric, sometimes acoustic. It is not important to us.  

...ONE NECK...  

8. GUITARS EXCHANGE: What is the secret behind your choice of wood?
Jersey Girl: Can't answer this question, sorry. ;)  

...AND TWO HANDS  

9. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Why should we consider luthier-crafted guitars as a viable option to guitars made by the large manufacturers?
Jersey Girl: It doesn't matter who made the guitar, a luthier-crafted or a big name of the industry. The important point to us is trying to make our compositions to be loved for their refined work. Then we’ll stand in a different field of guitar market naturally, we think.  

10. GUITARS EXCHANGE: Who plays your guitars? Who would you like to have play your guitars?
Jersey Girl: We don't care about the names and their compositions. We care about what our instruments can do.  


Jersey Girl Official website: http://www.jerseygirlhg.com
Jersey Girl Istagram: http://instagram.com/jghgdays