Rick Turner Guitars

Rick Turner Guitars

Also known as: Rick Turner, Turner Guitars

Unclaimed

Rick Turner Guitars is a boutique stringed-instrument workshop based in Monterey County, California, founded by luthier Rick Turner in 1979. Turner got his start as a musician on the East Coast before moving west, where he co-founded Alembic Inc. in 1969 alongside Ron Wickersham, helping pioneer active electronics and custom instruments for the San Francisco rock scene. After a late-1980s stint...

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Rick Turner Guitars is a boutique stringed-instrument workshop based in Monterey County, California, founded by luthier Rick Turner in 1979. Turner got his start as a musician on the East Coast before moving west, where he co-founded Alembic Inc. in 1969 alongside Ron Wickersham, helping pioneer active electronics and custom instruments for the San Francisco rock scene. After a late-1980s stint running Gibson Labs' West Coast R&D division, he returned to independent building under his own name.

The shop is best known for the Model 1, a semi-hollow electric with a distinctive rotating humbucker designed in 1979 for Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, who has used it as his main guitar for decades. The lineup also includes the Model 1 Featherweight, the Renaissance series of semi-hollow steel-string, nylon-string, 12-string and Deuce guitars and basses, the Electroline bass with a Universal String Pickup, and the Compass Rose line of acoustic guitars and ukuleles. Turner also holds an early patent on graphite guitar necks, which he developed in 1976 with Geoff Gould.

Over the years the company's instruments have found their way into the hands of players associated with acts like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Allman Brothers Band, Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, and Fleetwood Mac. The shop occupies a niche at the intersection of traditional lutherie and engineering-driven design, with a reputation for semi-hollow electrics, piezo-equipped acoustics, and small-run custom work.

Rick Turner Guitars has 9 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Acoustic-Electric Guitars, Solid Body Electric Guitars, and Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitars. Their gear is featured by 8 artists, with the strongest followings in Rock, Folk, World, & Country, and Blues. Notable users include Lindsey Buckingham, John Mayer, and Robby Krieger.

Artists Who Use Rick Turner Guitars

Lindsey Buckingham uses 3 Rick Turner Guitars products

Lindsey Buckingham

Guitarist, Singer · Fleetwood Mac

John Mayer uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

John Mayer

Guitarist · John Mayer Trio

Robby Krieger uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

Robby Krieger

Singer, Guitarist · The Doors

John McVie uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

John McVie

Bassist · Fleetwood Mac

Patrick Simmons uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

Patrick Simmons

Singer, Guitarist · The Doobie Brothers

Andrew Horowitz uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

Andrew Horowitz

Keyboardist, Music Producer · Tally Hall

Hal Ketchum uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

Hal Ketchum

Guitarist, Singer

Ingrid Michaelson uses 1 Rick Turner Guitars product

Ingrid Michaelson

Singer, Guitarist

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