Chartwell Guitar

I recently had cause to contact Beverly Maher at The Guitar Salon and Richard Brune at his Evanston, Ill. shop. In both cases, my call was a tentative one, as they had no reason to help me with guitar related information that I needed. And yet these two fine folks showed me why they are so revered in the classical guitar world, in that they were generous in sharing their knowledge, ready to treat me as a colleague and not a competitor.  In evaluating a fairly rare guitar, such as a Humphrey MIllenium, in this case one that lacked Tom’s signature and the year on the label, I had nothing to go on, but Beverly and Richard were super sleuths and happy to help solve the puzzle.

In starting Chartwell Guitar just over a year ago, I wondered how friendly the dealers would be among each other. Such classy, generous treatment as with Beverly and Richard has not been universal, but others like Paul Jabrayan in Montreal, Andre in Paris, and JohnPaul in Santa Monica have all been welcoming.  It is a wonderful business to be involved in and I now know the best way to succeed is to respect the product and all those who deal with it, especially the buyers who play the guitars. But without the experience of a Beverly and Richard, those who have known vintage guitar builders first hand, know the finishes and techniques these greats used, the link to folks who will need to know these things going forward would be lost.