Pre-War Guitars Co.

The shop came together in 2014 when Wes Lambe and Ben Maschal joined forces in North Carolina, working from nearly opposite directions. Lambe had spent the previous two decades hand-building fan-fret seven- and eight-string guitars, baritone acoustics, tenor guitars, and the Moog Custom Shop guitars and lapsteels — his customer list already included David Crosby, Pat Metheny, Charlie Hunter, Sean Lennon, Trent Reznor, and Nels Cline. Maschal had taken a more conventional path: Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in 2001, a Charlotte repair shop, then a stretch at Mandolin Central in Siler City alongside vintage-instrument guru Tony Williamson, studying the finest 1930s instruments at very close range.

The shop came together in 2014 when Wes Lambe and Ben Maschal joined forces in North Carolina, working from nearly opposite directions. Lambe had spent the previous two decades hand-building fan-fret seven- and eight-string guitars, baritone acoustics, tenor guitars, and the Moog Custom Shop guitars and lapsteels — his customer list already included David Crosby, Pat Metheny, Charlie Hunter, Sean Lennon, Trent Reznor, and Nels Cline. Maschal had taken a more conventional path: Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in 2001, a Charlotte repair shop, then a stretch at Mandolin Central in Siler City alongside vintage-instrument guru Tony Williamson, studying the finest 1930s instruments at very close range. The two had different portfolios but a shared obsession with the magical tone of those 1930s guitars, and Pre-War was the bench where they'd put the obsession to work. Aging acoustics isn't a gimmick at Pre-War; it's structural to the sound. Lambe explains the spray-booth tradeoff plainly: when you're not aiming for a glassy showroom finish, you can shoot a much thinner coat of lacquer, then relieve the surface tension by checking it.