www.chrisbuono.com

Chris Buono is a good personal friend as well as one of my best test pilots. For the last decade he has fearlessly played anything I’ve built — often sight unseen…and before a live audience. The only exception I can think of is the Harp Guitar (but we are also in the midst of a pandemic).

With the possible exception of Steve Sjuggerud, Chris has certainly played the greatest range of instruments I’ve built, which makes him uniquely qualified to make comparisons and discuss preferences. If you ever want an objective opinion about my work from a working professional…contact Chris.

I’ve never (ever) asked any of my artists to be exclusive to the guitars I’ve gifted or sold them. I believe in free markets and free association. If an instrument is a good match, it will naturally become an honest favorite. Chris owns a Goshawk™ which seems to appear on a high percentage of his work since it arrived to him.

A good sign.

Chris is a master teacher. Hit him up to take your playing to next level.

chris buono
IMAGE: Newly revised: www.chrisbuono.com
toone ensemble
IMAGE: Magnets & Wire album is featured on his discography. Love these guys!

Fine Art

Hi Rick,

Your Goshawk™ guitar and Anthology™ case against a piece of furniture of 1774 (Jean-Francois Leleu). The piece of furniture is really unique in this world…as is your guitar. The drawing is a self-portrait from Frank Auerbach, he is one of the best living artists from the London school (a good friend of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud).

I started again to play acoustic for a couple of days, difficult to re-adapt. My (French) guitar teacher played your guitar, he went crazy! Your guitar is Fantastic, more than I ever could expect.

A thousand thanks for all this.

Adam (Paris, France)

goshawk guitar

Guitar Moderne | Magnets & Wire

Michael Ross of Guitar Moderne published a piece on Magnets & Wire album. He does a nice write-up plus excellent compilation of videos featuring some of my builds in the hands of these exceptional artists.

Guitar Modern is:

Guitar Moderne offers extensive coverage of the world-wide explosion of avant, experimental, and unusual players, as they discuss their approach to this classic combination of metal and wood. Here too, you will find articles and reviews covering combining computer with guitar and the world of plugins that this opens up, as well as news about the more extreme pedals available. Guitar Moderne is not genre specific; it covers forward-thinking players of any musical style: jazz, experimental, classical, blues, rock, metal, etc. Guitarists and fans from every continent can converge here to learn about the many directions this versatile instrument is taking and the gear being used for the journey.

guitar moderne

Goshawk | Butterscotch Blonde

Destined to become somebody’s best friend.

Warmth, sparkle, and copious spank. Singing sustain. Especially resonant Swamp Ash couples with flame roasted maple for this lovely light weight butterscotch blonde Goshawk™ 6-string solid body.

Patented precision machined Intonation Cantilever™ solo bridges. Advantage™ neck profile. Proprietary DiMarzio™ pickups with 10-way switching. Truly useful volume and tone controls. Carbon fiber pick guard.

Just the right amount of vintage.

Ready to rock any size venue. Dare you.

Dear Rick,

Just received it (3h ago) can’t stop playing your guitar 2 am in Los Angeles but 10 am in Paris… no sleep this night.

What an awesome instrument. Just everything about it, the sound, the possibilities, the beauty, and so easy to play… light, fantastic neck, just everything.

Congratulations! You did an artwork, I only regret that I did not have it before, years ago.

Thank you very very much and for the Strymon Iridium and Shure SRH1540s also.

I really believe this is an incredibly good instrument and I enjoy it so much!!! Almost explored every tuning that I am using, DADGAD, dropped D dropped G and standard. The African music sounds also extremely well (DADF#BE).

Wishing you the very best, Adam (Paris, France)

goshawk guitar
advantage neck profile
rick toone
dimarzio guitar pickups
intonation cantilever rick toone guitar bridges

Goshawk | Purple Relic

purple goshawk guitar
PHOTO: Patented Intonation Cantilever™ solo bridges, precision machined from stainless steel. Exclusive DiMarzio™ pickups. Carbon fiber pick guard.
advantage neck profile
PHOTO: Proprietary Advantage™ neck profile roasted figured flame maple.

HOLY SH*T. 

Apologies for the bluntness, but man… Goshawk™ is something to behold. 

I’ve been playing guitar for the better part of 30 years, over half of that for a living, and I can’t recall the last time — if EVER — I got goosebumps playing guitar. As it were, it happened while rolling off the tone knob (which also deserves its own comment: I’ve also never had a guitar where the ENTIRE range of the tone knob was not only useable, but sounded AMAZING).

There is some SERIOUS tonal mojo going on here.

The ergonomics are a very good fit for me. The neck size, and even more so the way the body fits me and seats the neck much more “in” my person, it just works. The ability to play in the lower register without feeling like I am stretching my arm out is just superb. 

Again, wow… the whole chemistry of this instrument is ME. I’ll be taking it out on the road in the coming weeks for the road test part. And I’ve got a recording project underway I’ll be using it for in the meantime.

Thank you Rick. You’ve gotten me an instrument that makes me want to just sit and write. It’s rare I’m inspired to this degree with a new guitar. This one is special. (Matt Richard)

rick toone
PHOTO: Compact curves that fit. Swamp ash solid body.
goshawk guitar