Osthoff Guitars

Bruce Osthoff's path to building guitars took longer than most. He first tried to order parts for a bass build in 1980, but the shop went out of business before the parts arrived. Music had been the constant — 45 years across high-school bands, working groups, and stage-and-sound support for touring acts like the Coasters, the Drifters, the Marshall Tucker Band, Jonathan Edwards, and Bill Staines — but the lutherie itself had to wait through other careers.

Bruce Osthoff's path to building guitars took longer than most. He first tried to order parts for a bass build in 1980, but the shop went out of business before the parts arrived. Music had been the constant — 45 years across high-school bands, working groups, and stage-and-sound support for touring acts like the Coasters, the Drifters, the Marshall Tucker Band, Jonathan Edwards, and Bill Staines — but the lutherie itself had to wait through other careers. He spent roughly five years as a toolmaker, learning the precision and jig-and-fixture design that would eventually transfer cleanly to building. Then years as an electronics technician, a brief stretch as a software engineer, and a longer one as a school teacher. The teaching schedule was what finally opened the door: breaks gave him room to travel, study, and learn from established luthiers.