John Bartlett retired from the U.S. Navy in 1984, then retired from public accounting in 2010. He started playing guitar back in the Jurassic Period (1960 or thereabout) but didn’t become interested in guitar construction until around 1989. A luthier friend suggested he try building one. Since then, he’s built around forty guitars, an F-style mandolin, and four banjos. “I’ll keep doing it until I get it right,” he says.

▪ bio current as of 2013