Fancy playing a guitar that was literally once part of a New York City landmark? How about owning a guitar designed by a man who has sold guitars to Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Steely Dan? At Carmine Street Guitars in New York City, every guitar has a story. Owner Rick Kelly creates each custom instrument from reclaimed lumber that once belonged to buildings around the city. These are more than simple guitars, they’re history in your arms.
All Kelly guitars are made from one-hundred percent reclaimed lumber. …Recently I have started a new series of limited-edition “Bowery Guitars” which are all built from recycled lumber. I call this wood “The Bones of Old New York City”. It is the “King’s Wood” — white pine timbers that were barged down the Hudson River 200 years ago from the great virgin forests of the Adirondacks, in upstate New York. This is the framing wood from which all 1800’s New York City buildings are built. As these buildings are demolished, or, in many cases, the old wood is being replaced, I am right there to build a guitar from a piece of Old New York.
