~ John Page Guitars ~

John Page started building guitars out of necessity. He was a kid in his early teens with a lot of desire to play guitar and virtually no money to buy one. Figuring "it can't be that hard," he proceeded to attempt building his first guitar. After weeks of work, filled with anticipation and excitement, he threw it in the trash... it totally sucked. That was over thirty years ago, but John continued building guitars, until he got it right. Years later he was fortunate enough to be hired on at Fender Guitars. John spent 21 years there, as a Guitar Designer in Research and Development and finally as the co-founder of the World Famous Custom Shop. He designed and built hundreds of guitars and worked with some of the finest musicians in the world for decades... and then he got burned out on the industry, and walked away.

These guitars, the "P-1," mark John Page's return into guitar building. He has not produced a guitar under his own name since selling his old shop in 1981. Every guitar he designed or built from then until 1998, was under the Fender name. So John is very excited and proud to release these new pieces, under the name "John Page Guitars."

In a world where automated machines and off-shore sourcing have taken over the guitar business, John is extremely proud to make each of these guitars with his own two hands... with some help from some old friends. J.W. Black does the final fret dress and set-up, John Suhr and Fred Stuart make the pickups, Gerry Germain from G&G Quality Case makes the cases, Lawrence Berndt supplies the neck wood, Peter Kellett does the anodizing, and the list goes on. These are people John trusts and respects from his past, and they help make his guitars "complete."

In an effort to make the very best guitar that he can, John is only going to make a very limited number of these per year. Initially, he will only accept 12 orders at a time. Once he has taken twelve orders, he will suspend order taking until those instruments are nearing completion. He will, however, probably build a few spec guitars a year as well, just to keep everyone guessing, and to have some fun too.

After years and years of wondering what he was going to be when he grew up, John finally realized that he's an artist. An artist that likes to create functional works... "Functional Art."

John Page Guitars are hand-built in Sunny Valley, Oregon, USA.