~ Lacey Guitars ~

Mark Lacey's career in building musical instruments began in 1974 when he attended The London College of Furniture & Interior Design. The college offered a three year full time course in Musical Instrument Technology. Lacey spent the first two years building mostly early fretted instruments from the renaissance and baroque periods. These included lutes, guitars, citerns and viols. During his final year at college he concentrated on building modern fretted guitars. In 1977 Lacey moved to Oslo, Norway and spent the next four years working as a repairman for Norway's largest importer of musical instruments: Norsk Musikk Instrument Co. A/S. During this time he attended repair courses at the Ovation, Peavey and Hohner factories.

In 1981 following a job offer Lacey moved to Nashville to work as a repairman for vintage expert and dealer George Gruhn. It was here that Lacey was first exposed to older archtop and flat-top guitars, having the opportunity to examine them in detail. In 1983 Lacey relocated to Los Angeles, following an offer to run a custom guitar shop for pick-up designer, Bill Lawrence. The following year he decided to strike out on his own. Lacey's first venture was repairing and building out of another store in Hollywood called Voltage Guitars. This continued until 1986 when George Gruhn contacted Lacey asking if he would work at the Guild guitar factory located in Westerly, Rhode Island. At Guild Lacey doubled as quality control and design engineer. He was responsible for getting the Ashbury Bass and the new line of solid bodies into production.

Lacey decided to return to Los Angeles and start his own custom guitar/repair shop. In July 1988 he opened "The Guitar Garage" just off the Sunset Strip in Hollywood and hired two repairmen to help with the work load. Within a short time they were inundated with repair work which allowed Lacey to devote his time exclusively to building instruments. Since then, he has been concentrating on making archtop guitars. In 1995 Lacey returned to Nashville where he works at home. Over the years he has built and repaired instruments for many known musicians which have included: Aerosmith, America, Howard Alden, Jackson Browne, Credence Clearwater Revival, Duran Duran, Herb Ellis, Pink Floyd, John Fogerty, Bruce Forman, Peter Frampton, Frank Gambale, GIT students and instructors, David Alan Grier, The Hard Rock Cafes, Jacksons, Bon Jovi, Leo Kottke, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul McCartney, Jeff Meyer, Hall and Oates, John Porter, Terje Rypdahl, Louie Shelton, Rod Stewart, Sting, Andy Summers, Tiny Tim, U2, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Lacey's main influences have been John D’Angelico, Jimmy D’Aquisto and Gibson. He feels his archtops and semi-solid models reflect this. He has tried to stay fairly traditional in his designs. Lacey has had the opportunity to examine in detail many of the older archtops and he incorporates their best features in his own guitars. Having done a great deal of repairs over the years one learns how not to build a guitar. Lacey has had to deal with just about every type of repair situation, both acoustic and electric. His main objective besides building guitars that sound good is to build guitars that will last. What keeps Lacey motivated? Building guitars certainly isn't the easiest profession. He often finds himself working 70 hours a week, not to mention all the dust. He guesses like most other full time builders, he is hooked on building guitars. He gets a great sense of achievement in creating a musical instrument from scratch. The most rewarding aspect is hearing his guitars played by talented players. PRICING - LACEY GUITARS START AT $8000