Cincinnati, Ohio, Don’t Fret Guitars, Devin Cherry and Spooky MGB

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Don’t Fret Guitars is a husband and wife team who believe anything – and anyone – can make music.  Devin and Spooky have been building a life together as well as building one-of-a-kind stringed instruments since 2019.  Devin, a high school science teacher, started building guitars after his Science Olympiad team needed to build an instrument for a competition.  His students, determined to build a guitar, pushed him to find instructions to build a simple three-stringed box guitar.  After building that prototype, they would go on to build a six stringed acoustic guitar and take first place!  Devin was hooked. Spooky, a recording artist who used to work as an auto mechanic, joined the project after the first few builds.

Since then, Devin and Spooky have together built over 100 instruments and counting.  They specialize in fretless three-string guitars built using cigar boxes, shovels and even boat paddles.  However, their growing list of builds include many different types of instruments:

Six string box guitars, resonators, lap steels, solid body electric guitars, hybrid electric/acoustic guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, dulcimers, violins, and even a washtub upright bass.

Their passion is to reuse or repurpose unusual items into unique playable instruments. MGB supplies are often used, with the flat humbuckers being some of their favorites. Their builds combine their love of music and visual art with their combined experience with building and fixing things. They typically sell their creations at local art shows in Cincinnati, Ohio but have shipped guitars all over the country.  

You can see their guitars on their Facebook page or on Instagram, as well as purchase their guitars at the Reverb Store (links are all above). If you see something you like on their social media pages that aren’t listed on reverb, send them a message and they’ll work with you directly.