ART & LUTHERIE

Part of Robert Godin’s LaSiDo company in Quebec, Canada, Art & Lutherie was originally conceived as a good-value, entry-level line that would feature all-Canadian tonewoods (and optional electronics). Upon their debut in 1994, Art & Lutherie guitars shared LaSiDo design features, including laminated wild cherry bodies, bolt-on necks, and lacquer finishes. Initial Art & Lutheries were dreadnoughts with maple necks, walnut fingerboards and bridges (rosewood was used later), and either natural solid cedar or spruce tops, or colored finishes over laminated cherry tops. Cutaways appeared in the late 1990. ln around 1996 the Ami model debuted, a steelor nylon-stringed parlor guitar with a full-scale fingerboard, now popular as both a travel

and blues guitar.