Custom made guitars created in Sioux Falls strike chord with buyers

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists Luthier as “one who makes stringed musical instruments (such as violins or guitars)” It’s a specialized skill that has been around for centuries.

Inside J Rieck Music in Sioux Falls, you will find guitars of all makes and models.Gibson, Fender, Martin, but a few of them are special, like this one owned by Jeff Schwebach.

“I mean I just love the whole aspect of it, there is something about it, that you know when you pick up a really good guitar.

That really good guitar was made right here in Sioux Falls in Josh Rieck’s workshop.

“You use heat and moisture to bend wood soften of the ligament and you can make the wood malleable,” Rieck said holding a piece of formed wood.

Rieck takes pieces of wood…

“Honduran Rosewood and this will have an Engelmann spruce top on it, he said.

And slowly builds an instrument. The process involves a lot of shaping, sanding and gluing. Rieck says the type of wood used in building the guitar can determine how it will sound and look. He is using Koa wood from Hawaii in his next project.

“Not all Koa is figured but a lot of the stuff we use is figured, said Rieck.

Tom: Oh, my it’s almost got a 3-D effect to it.

“And that comes from the grain of the wood actually going like this while it’s growing,” said Rieck. So that’s what you are seeing is the whole tree would have this kind of ripple in the grain of the wood.”

After running it through the sander multiple times, Josh wets the piece of Koa wood to show us what the finished product will look like.

“You can see the grain really pops,” said Rieck.

Rieck has always loved music and art, throw in a little science and math and you’ve got a modern day luthier.

“Now I do 3D modeling and CNC programming but also love working with my hands with chisels and plains all of that I mean there is the science of sound, the acoustics of it, there is like the structural engineering component of it,” said Rieck.

Whatever that combination is, Rieck has found it,

“Well as you guys heard the sustain is crazy on it,” said Chris Beyer.

Beyer, considered one of the best guitarists around says Rieck’s guitars are precise and easy to play.

“Now the tuning that I have, this is is an open tuning and it’s really low so if it happened to be even slightly off on the fingerboard you can really hear it,” said Beyer. “With this, even when you fret it, it still keeps its intonation up and down its neck the other thing that is cool is having that sound port up here.”

The sound port is Rieck’s signature design. Someone can look at the guitar and tell who made it.

Jeff Schwebach owns two of Rieck’s handmade guitars.

“And you can say that’s the top I want that’s the back I want. And then the different grains and everything are beautiful as well, for example on this one mahogany, and you can see that grain and it’s the coloring its beautiful, and not only that it sounds. Every wood is going to sound differently as well and that’s the fun of having a custom-built guitar is you can pick it,” said Schwebach.

Rieck has been building and repairing guitars for 20 years, he plans to keep going for another 20.

“There’s just never-ending avenue to explore, and we can always learn and there is room to be creative in all of it. I think that’s what really keeps me going,” said Rieck.

Rieck’s ultimate goal is to use technology to streamline a labor-intensive process and make building custom guitars more affordable. Something that would no doubt strike a chord with customers like Schwebach.

“There is such a difference in a good hand-built guitar,” said Schwebach. “You can’t explain, you hear it as a player, you feel it, and I think Josh is going to be one of those premier builders.

In case you were wondering, the cost of one of Rieck’s handmade guitars starts at around $7,500.