American Classic Tennessee Handmade Guitars

03/04/2025

It felt really good to be back in Steve’s shop today. I have missed working on building beautiful American Classic guitars. But since the tornado destroyed the old shop it just hasn’t been possible. With the tornado ripping down walls and roofs, and dumping tons of water and debris into the space where we worked, it was months before Steve could get his feet back under him. Through all of that, with all the loss, there was a few things that survived.

And here she is…

Madonna

She was cut the summer before the tornado from a single piece of sassafras. She was wet like everything else in the shop. Even with that, she survived showing no damage. Today she started the journey to become a beautiful see-through blonde with bird’s eye and striped maple neck capped by a rosewood fingerboard. Haven’t decided what adornments will grace her. I kinda want to give it a little color, could do some ruby and gold tuners, with a red and gold flake pick guard, maybe some aged hardware.

Maybe Madonna is the last American Classic tele.

Maybe not…

01/01/2025

My great friends and partners at Cumberland Acoustics in Hendersonville, TN, just shared great news. So I’ll share to this page.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15hpUhECk5/

~!!!~ Big News From Cumberland Acoustic ~!!!~

As many of you know, 2024 has been a pretty tumultuous year for us! We survived that wicked tornado and moved our business to a (much smaller) shop behind our house. Here's a Great Big THANK YOU to our customers that stuck with us through this almost unwieldy transition.

And, speaking of transitions (here's the Big News part)... we have transferred ownership of the Cumberland Acoustic business to our long time and faithful employee, Erik Engebretson. We have been discussing this for some time, but the tornado just sort of accelerated the whole thing. Does that make it a blessing in disguise? We sure hope so!

Many of you already know Erik. The fact is, he has probably been the guy that worked on any instruments you brought to us over the past several years. He is also adept in all of the procedures and processes to continue to serve you with our fine line-up of musical instrument parts and accessories.

So, I guess this is sort of my sign-off as "That Cumberland Acoustic Guy." I'll still be in the background for a while, and helping Erik out if anything unusual comes up. We are currently in the process of transferring all the things you need to transfer, like phone numbers, social media accounts, PayPal accounts, banking stuff, and all that. This should all be completed within the next few days.

Finally, I want to offer up my deepest appreciation for all of the many customers that we have had the privilege to serve over the past 25 years. We are still working with many of the same customers that we started our relationship with way back in 1998! During this time, I have earned the friendship of a great many of you, and that means as much to me as anything else.

Oh yeah, the picture is of Erik and I doing the business transfer, all professional-style, at the lawyer's office.

Here's wishing Erik the best of all things with this business! I am hoping for at least another 25 years of success!!

12/09/2024

I want to thank all the American Classic family for staying with us this past year. It has been a couple days more than a year since the tornado tore through the Hendersonville shop and upset not only American Classic, but also the Cumberland Acoustic, Redline Resnophonics, Engebretson instruments, and everybody else in the building. It has taken a lot to get back on our feet. Steve and Eric are rebuilding their businesses and moving forward.

As for American Classic, I’m not sure how we move forward. I have some health issues I’m dealing with, but they are getting on. I do want to do some more guitars, as time allows.

There are some instruments left, I’m not sure which ones actually but I know the Nashville Skyline blue Esquire, Beth, is in beautiful shape. She made it through without a problem. The to***co burst T-style, Rhonda, is in really good shape. And Laura, a beautiful 2 piece sassafras with the best of the old growth pine tops and a tiger stripe neck, is in excellent shape. She plays like butter and has that Tele twang.

All their pictures are on this page somewhere. I can give you specifics for anything you want to know about them.

If you are interested I’m sure we could arrange to get you information and if you’re local to Nashville, we could let you lay hands on her for a little while.

Send me a DM and I’ll see what I can arrange.

06/26/2024

It just don’t get any better than this…

Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins perform a duet of Today I Started Loving You Again on The Ralph Emery Special from 1969.

06/22/2024

And everybody wonders why I go to Portland so much!

I love the Portland Pickles. I was at the home opener a couple of weeks ago.

Local baseball fans can expect pickles and pot abound at upcoming games. The Portland Pickles are now offering THC products at events — and they’re the first...

12/11/2023

This is the American Classic Tennessee Handmade Guitars shop. It’s run by my partner Steve Smith who also owns Cumberland Acoustic and Redline Resnophoinc and has been in this building for 25 years.

03/19/2023

“Abigail” will be at Amigos beginning this Friday afternoon. She’s pretty special!

Abigail
Alder body with a very clean maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.
American flag hydro-dipped pattern
‘51 NoCaster pickups, standard Tele wiring,
White pearloid pickguard
Relic’d hardware, CTS dimple-back pots and a .047 pF tone cap.

BTW, we cut these guitar bodies, necks, and fingerboards ourselves, in the Hendersonville shop. These are not parts bought from some offshore mass-producer. These guitars start as blocks of wood that we have glued together ourselves. We cut and fashion them right here in Nashville.

Our woods are sourced from US suppliers where possible. I personally choose the wood for our projects. I have visited suppliers and had my hands on neck blanks before I brought them to the shop.

We also try to source parts locally when possible. We use Vaughn Skow pickups, produced right here, or Klein pickups from Texas. Sometimes we have to go out of state for things like Sprezel tuners, made in Kentucky. All of our nickel hardware is produced and plated right here in Portland, TN. When we customize parts, they come from people we know, from Austin, TX, and Chico, CA.

It means something for my partner and I to call them American Classic Tennessee Handmade Guitars.

Visit our corner at Amigo’s Nashville this weekend, March 25-26, in Franklin, Tennessee.

03/18/2023

A little audio/video of our instruments, played by the great Tim Thompson.

Virtuoso guitarist Tim Thompson showcases the fine guitars now available from American Classic Guitars company. The new ACG guitar series are taken through a...

03/18/2023

“Becky” is going to Amigo’s next weekend.

Amber burst lacquer
1 Piece sassafras body
Birdseye maple neck with maple fingerboard
5hole black guard
Klein Epic ‘52 pickups with .047pF vintage PIO cap

Come see us in Franklin~

03/17/2023

At Amigos, I will have an array of tubes for guitar amps, especially vintage amps.

I will have a bunch of 6V6GTs by various manufacturers, I
ll have 6L6GC NOS from GE and other manufacturers. I'll have EL84's from US and European manufacturers.

For the pre amps, I'll have vintage NOS 12AX7s from GE, RCA, Telefunken, Mullard, Ei, and others. I'll have 5751s for those who want to tame the Fender V1 pre.

Come on by the booth. We'll be happy to help you out.

03/17/2023

This little gem will be at Amigos Next weekend.

"Rachel" - Esquire
2 piece alder body
Cadillac Green with cream pickguard
Klein Epic Esquire pickup
Custon solid brass hardware, including the switch tip and neck plate
Eldred wiring so this one has 3 completely different sounds
---> Straight through - Pickup > volume control > out the plug (no tone just raw guitar)
---> Pickup to tone control to volume out the plug (this one gives you some control on bass and treble)
---> Cocked wah sound - this one has a cap in the signal path to give a sound similar to having a cocked wahwah pedal, just enough to give it a little raunchy tone.

Come by the booth and give her a try.

03/09/2023

We will be there, come on out to see Us.

We build unique, custom guitars. Specializing in 1 piece and 2 piece bodies, custom paint, custom electronics, custom sounds.