Salvi's Fine Guitars, Thebarton, SA

Hi there, I'm Steve Salvi, For over 30 years I've been a passionate advocate of the guitar, it's players and it's music.

There is nothing I love more than to be around guitars and guitar players. I feel
privileged to be where I am today and am looking forward to meeting you
and many more players in the years to come.

I started playing music at an early age, and took up the guitar at age 12. I loved
the music of Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges as well as many others, and
ended up with a plethora of open tunings and finger style techniques that
I still use today.

At 14 I discovered Hendrix, Zeppelin, Van Halen, John McLaughlin, Howlin
Wolf, Mike Stern, and Joe Pass and Al Di Meola amongst many others.

Studying all of these guys passionately for years has, I believe, given me a broad
horizon by which to see the instruments I now find myself building.

I attended my first instrument building class at the age of 17, with the late and
great Peter Kempster here in South Australia, and spent years dabbling
with building and repairs whilst playing in bands and doing solo performances
here in Adelaide.

In 1992 I went to London and worked in Denmark Street, London at a premier acoustic
dealership, doing sales and repairs and within 4 months was managing the
whole shop. While there, I got to play, and work on, literally hundreds
of premium brand guitars, like Martin, Lowden, Santa Cruz and Taylor.

It wasn't just the guitars I found compelling whilst in London. The
players I met, jammed, hung out, with and learned from, whether famous, amateur or introspective, was a life altering experience. All of this
experience has helped me understand what I, and others, need out of a
guitar.

I came back to Adelaide in 1997 and started working in a very large specialist guitar
dealership doing sales and repairs.

In 2000 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship for guitar building and went
to the US for a few mo.