My name is Michihiro Matsuda.

I was born in Nagoya and raised in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from the Robert Venn School of Lutherie in Phoenix, Arizona, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for an apprenticeship with master luthier Ervin Somogyi.

Following my apprenticeship, I studied guitar repair with renowned instrument repairman Frank Ford of Gryphon Stringed Instruments, where I am currently a member of the repair staff.

Pairing traditional woodworking skills with an innovative sense of design and construction, I build around ten to twelve guitars each year at my lutherie studio in Oakland California. I strive to make instruments that integrate fine materials with organic shapes and graceful lines. Each of my guitars is unique, personal, and individual, even if it is one of my basic models

The guitar is the tool of the performer. Good guitars enable anybody to express themselves musically and artistically. But I start to think that guitars are not just the tool to make music, they are more than that.  In the process of making the guitar, the wood becomes a musical instrument. I am the person who puts the voice into the guitar, and with my creative visual and sonic design choices, I am expressing myself artistically as well. My custom instruments not only meet the technical needs of the player; they are also personal creative works from my imagination.

It is my hope that my artistic influence will inspire guitarists to even greater creative heights.