contact us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding your instrument, repairs, any instruments we have for sale, ordering an instrument, or any instrument you wish to sell.

1000 North Rand Road No. 224
Wauconda, IL, 60084
United States

847-864-7730

I began making guitars in 1966 in Dayton Ohio, where I worked out of my house. From 1968-1970 I lived in Mexico City, returning during the summers to build instruments at the Dayton location. 

During this time I was studying Anthropology and playing flamenco guitar professionally in various troupes in Mexico and around the U.S. In 1972 I moved to Chicago and worked briefly out of the back of a music store before moving to my present location in 1973. 

At that point I gave up any pretensions of being a professional guitarist and dedicated myself full time to lutherie.

 


My 800 Greenwood Street shop has undergone several renovations and changes over the years, the most recent being the 1995 massive renovation I did of the outside and inside of the building. 

As a result, my building is now climate controlled throughout the entire 4,000 square feet, and it has now acquired a nicer facade, with more interior showroom space than was previously available. 

Consequently, we are better able to serve those who prefer to visit the shop to select an instrument from our extensive inventory, which is housed in glass fronted rosewood cabinets. Being able to play many instruments side by side is very helpful in making a final selection, and we have full repair/restoration facilities on the premises for minor action adjustments to major restorations of valuable collector instruments.

Authentication

The Bruné workshop can write papers of authentication including a detailed condition report for your instrument, or one which you are contemplating purchase.  In every case, our opinion is of the instrument itself, never the owner, the seller nor the buyer.  Our opinions are relied on by major museums, auction houses, collectors, players and other dealers, and we provide this service based on the time required to thoroughly examine and evaluate the instrument in our shop, typically costing between $100 and $500.

These papers can only be written for instruments which we personally examine in our shop using our equipment and examination devices.  This cannot not done in the field, nor can it be done from photos.  If you would like to send us an instrument for authentication and condition report, please read our packing and shipping instructions first.

Whenever possible we try to identify the actual author of an instrument if the label is determined to be incorrect, unauthentic or non original, although this is not always possible.  Our authentication and condition report includes a two page letter covering the description of the instrument, materials used, the history (when it can be determined) and a statement of the current condition, alterations and previous repairs if any.  When necessary we will supply an auxiliary fact sheet and additional pages of explanation which we may document with photos from our archives to show how we arrived at the opinion as stated in the report.  We rely only on our own extensive archives of known authentic instruments when making comparisons of details supporting our opinion.

It is always better to have this information BEFORE committing to buy an instrument. Please note we no longer write APPRAISALS for value due to the new IRS rules.  We prefer to let the market tell us what the values are.  However, we do not trust the market to authenticate for us.