Kauri Acoustics

Bay of Islands-based luthier Christian Druery makes guitars from ancient swamp kauri and last year created two instruments commissioned for the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona. “Essentially, I was asked to design and build two guitars that best represented me, my craft and my country New Zealand,” Druery says. “It’s pretty much the dream brief.” One of the challenges of making guitars in New Zealand is sourcing the appropriate materials, he says. “Quarter-sawn Spruce, Ebony and Rosewood weren’t readily available in New Zealand and I knew nothing about these timbers. After a couple of years I abandoned the idea of using exotic timbers altogether. It made sense to start using timbers native to New Zealand for many reasons. I had a wealth of knowledge and experience using Kauri and Rimu from making furniture that I could apply to guitar building. I’m very proud to say that all of the timber I use is now 100 per cent from New Zealand, and all but the Ancient Kauri is recycled from other sources.”