ABOUT KELLY GUITAR CO.

Unpretentious, Honest, and Beautiful.

Kelly Guitar Co. is a handmade classical and nylon string guitar company nestled in the Redwood forests deep in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. While the company is a new venture, owner and luthier Owen Kelly has years of experience making beautiful and exquisitely detailed classical guitars. The Kelly Guitar Co. Designs are a confluence of centuries old and modern luthier techniques using both traditional and more sustainable materials.

Each guitar is hand made from start to finish in our small shop, one at a time, sparing no oversight or detail.

​

About The Luthier, Owen Kelly

Before guitar building, Owen developed his woodworking skill in shops building high-end and custom kitchens, libraries, wine cellars, and furniture in Santa Cruz, California. He started building classical guitars in 2013 when Owen was given the chance to work at the world-renowned Hill Guitar Company where he became the head luthier before setting out on his own in 2019. Over the years Owen have been fortunate to work and collaborate with some of the most amazing and peripatetic luthiers in the world like Kenny Hill, Francisco Hernandez, and Fructuoso Zalapa. Kenny Hill's tutelage in particular has always been one of Owen's most fulfilling and educational experiences of his career and allowed him to thrive with Hill's foundation of traditional Luthier excellence. 

​

Owen would go on to further develop his skills while living in Argentina. Designing new guitars and exchanging techniques, ideas, and materials with other amazing luthiers in Buenos Aires.

The Kelly Guitar Company is a new venture and Owen's dream is for it

to never stop improving and developing. The Kelly Guitar Co. strives to combine traditional and modern building techniques into something exceptional and to create guitars that are unpretentious, honest, and beautiful.