Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jason Armstrong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jason, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I guess the exciting part of building instruments for me initially, and then continues to this
day, is kind of creating a palate for others to use, you know, a musical palate so to speak.
And with building instruments you know for clients they take what I make and take it
in totally different direction sometimes and expand on it and it gives them a platform
you know to express themselves creatively as well through music and through the instrument
that we make.
In the middle of 2014 I decided to to make my hobby and passion kind of officially into
a small business.
I had been building and repairing & and working on instruments for 15, 16 years at the time
but wanted to sort of create my own brand and label.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Part of the name American exotic guitars; the exotic comes from the fact that one of
the things that excites me about instrument building is trying to incorporate some of
the native hardwoods that we have that have very similar sonic qualities and structural
qualities are some of the imported and more traditional tone woods.
You think of instruments you think of mahogany and ebony and those things and I i do incorporate
those into some instruments but there’s also many Native hardwoods that rival or even surpass
sometimes those qualities of those woods and they’re much more readily available, sustainable,
and there’s not many manufacturers that incorporate them.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

One of the things that separate me from many of the mass manufacturers besides being smaller
numbers and handmade instruments is the multiscale fretboard and building multiscale instruments.
This is one of the multiscale models so that you can see frets are splayed out- Which gives
it a more ergonomic feel, better tension on the low end.
Most folks that try them end up loving it- the way it feels the way it sounds.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

A lot of times you know a player will have a particular look that they want or woods
to use or color scheme and so we can we can accommodate that throughout the build process
to get exactly the instrument they want even shaped to the size of their hand you know
how it feels and fits them.
“It’s mine- there’s nothing else like it which is probably the coolest thing I mean imagine
you’re building your favorite muscle car, following it down the assembly line over the
guy’s shoulder you know having input directly into what’s going to come out on the other
end and there won’t be another one exactly like it.
It was a great experience.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://americanexoticguitars.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americanexoticguitars/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MultiscaleGuitars
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA5gdt8WVOLx8bj940Rh8VQ