DAG welcomes luthier Mark Lacey to the collective. We offer this expo page as an introduction to Lacey's work. Additionally, for complete specs and prices visit the full DAG Mark Lacey section.

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 Virtuoso

Lacey Argonaut