My name is Curt Burton. I've been doing lapidary and jewelry design since I was 10 years old. Cutting stone and putting jewelry together has always been an expression for me. In the 8th grade I even helped the teacher instruct the class on lapidary. It was a challenge that I enjoyed very much.

     I also started on the trumpet at the age of  8 years old. That lead to playing a guitar and many other instruments, including bass guitar, and woodwind instruments, along with 4 years of college music theory.

     About 15 years ago, I read an article about a famous guitar player, Jeff Beck. He said in an interview he had found fascinating aspects to a type of wood called iron wood. Excited about the density of this material, he commissioned a luthier to make a guitar of the material. The luthier told Jeff that it would take diamond equipment to cut out this guitar and would be very costly, heavy and not worth making. But Jeff insisted it be done. Well?, the interviewer asked Jeff how it turned out?  Jeff said it was amazing, the harmonics, the tone, the sustain, the guitar practically played itself. Then Jeff was asked, well then so you use this guitar now?  NO WAY!!!!!!!!  the darn thing weighs about 45 pounds!!!!!!!!!  That was the end of that, or so I thought.

     Then a couple of years later, I found out about Jimmi Hedrix, and how he was always saying, that you had to "draw the sound/effect out of the guitar itself, then amplify it."  HMMM!!!  Bam!, it hit me! Why not make a guitar out of rock. No, not any rock but semi-precious stone, like obsidian, jade, tigereye, jasper, chalcedony, agate, petrified wood, etc.

    I spent many months with a tuning fork, A-440 hz, listening to pieces of rock. Wow! All rock had an amazing clarity, the "sustain" was out of this world, and best of all, each rock had its own unique sound. For example obsidian has a bright sound with a lot of high end, but, jasper has a muddy sound, like a middle sound of a jazz guitar. I spent the next years testing and trying to use rock to make a new concept in guitar building.

     The time has come, now I have figured a way to build this guitar, a way to keep the weight down to about 7-10 pounds, and I finally have my patents in place. These instruments are amazing!  The neck will be made of traditionally used wood construction, usually 24 frets. They will be made by other top professionals, as you will see in our "features" pages on this website. The pick-ups can be of any customer choice...but wait a minute! I now have a better idea........introducing a web page that will have all the necessary tools for you to log in and custom design a guitar of your choosing, a guitar that is very unique and abolutely the only one in the world that sounds and looks like it. All guitars come in a solid case. They will also come with certificates to fill out to have a local professional guitar technician in your area, adjust and set it up, just in case anything is changed in the shipping process.

     After the years that I spent working in bars, playing on the road, I feel that every guitar player deserves the proper tool, a tool that they can control, but at the same time, stretch out and reach for that new sound. We have discovered how to do that!

     E-MAIL me with any questions, concerns, and be sure to watch for the final design on the web site! My addresses are  curtburton@peoplepc.com . 218-298-1250 in New York Mills, Minnesota, USA.

Our Snail Mail Address Is:
Curt Burton - Rock Solid Guitars
205 Walker Avenue North #211
New York Mills, MN  56567