I’m Geoff Yenson, and I offer custom-built acoustic guitars and ukuleles, as well as comprehensive luthier repair & restoration services.

I learned luthiery from master luthier David Dart (luthier since 1964!) beginning in 2014, and I spent a year working on the boutique factory line at Santa Cruz Guitar Company before returning to David’s shop in 2018 to deepen my apprenticeship. I continue to work alongside David in his workshop, exploring my own approach to fine handcrafted acoustic instruments while assisting him on his own guitar, mandolin, bass and ukulele designs.

I became obsessed with the guitar around age 11, shortly after I’d started listening to grunge & classic rock in middle school. I took lessons on a rented acoustic for a few months, and then my folks bought me a Strat copy — a Yamaha Pacifica 112 — and a small solid state practice amp. Like many guitarists, I’d experiment by swapping out factory components for higher-quality aftermarket ones: saddles, tuners, pickups. Most of these modifications turned out OK, eventually.

My first encounter with luthier-built guitars was in Granada, Spain. I was traveling through Europe with some friends in the summer of 2007, and we were staying in an apartment just down the street from a luthier shop. I’d never seen a luthier-built guitar before, and I was amazed by the precision, the detail, the lightness. I couldn’t afford anything in that shop, though, so I settled for a decent factory-built classical guitar — brand Juanita, model Admira — from a local retail store instead.

A few months later, that guitar fell out of the back of a minibus in Guatemala, resulting in a cracked headstock. I was on my way to Lake Atitlan to study Spanish & fumbled my way through a dictionary to source una abrazadera (a clamp) y pegamento de madera (wood glue) to put it back together. Vicente, the owner of the school where I was studying, lent me a clamp, and a local hardware store had the glue. Vicente advised me to pad the wood surface with thick leather. The repair held up well enough, and that guitar remained a faithful companion for several years, as I rambled through Europe, Morocco, central America, Haiti, both coasts of North America.

Eventually I landed in Mendocino County, California, visiting a friend whom I’d met while doing relief work in Haiti following the cataclysmic 2010 earthquake. He’d spent a couple years learning from David Dart in early adulthood & took me by the shop for a visit. I was looking for some replacement tuners for my guitar, and David sold me a suitable set for ten or fifteen dollars. I was astounded by the depth of his knowledge and his body of work; he was kind enough to take the time to show me several of his instruments — guitars, mandolins, lap steel guitars, more.

A few years later, in November of 2013, I returned to Mendocino County after spending a year doing Hurricane Sandy relief work in New York — mostly in the Rockaways, in southern Queens. I was burnt out from the disaster relief world and needed a change of pace, so I reached out to David through the same friend who’d introduced us before. I popped by for another visit, and David agreed to let me shadow him in his shop. I started in January 2014, sanding components for a batch of four concert ukuleles. During the summer of that year, I started on a guitar of my own — an OM shape, from David’s templates, with a Sitka spruce top, Honduras rosewood sides & back, mahogany neck. It took about a year and a half to finish, but it turned out pretty well.

I’ve continued to work alongside David for several more years, absorbing more and more of the design and build process. I’d estimate that I’ve worked on over a hundred of David’s instruments — guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, basses, and more, as well as countless repair jobs ranging from basic setup to comprehensive vintage restoration.

Today, I’m excited to be developing my personal instrument design aesthetic while continuing the time-tested principles of David Dart’s philosophy towards acoustic instrument engineering.

-Geoff