To launch Breedlove, pioneering California guitar makers Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson pulled up stakes in San Diego County, leaving posts at Taylor Guitars for a new world of discovery and imagination. Landing in tiny Tumalo, Oregon, just northwest of Bend, the two opened shop in what was essentially an old barn, which fast became a legendary sound laboratory.
With the forward-looking Concert body, Breedlove and Henderson, who soon brought Larry’s visionary brother Kim into the mix, made their mark, fundamentally changing minds and establishing the rhythm of creativity and boldness that defines Breedlove to this day.
In November 2010, Two Old Hippies, led by Bedell, assumed leadership of Breedlove, which had already migrated to Bend—opening a larger, state of the art facility on the city’s American Loop in late 2012, and becoming today’s home of USA-made Breedlove Guitars.
“Breedlove has continued, really, from the dreams of Larry and Steve,” Bedell says. “Everything we're doing today is still based on innovation and customization. Those are the themes that inspire us. We’re constantly learning. It's just this real passion to create the best sounding instruments possible.”
The Breedlove Custom Shop is at the heart of everything, daily refining every aspect of tone, performance and style; challenging expectations; and exploring new ways to advance the art of guitar making.
All made-by-hand Made in Bend models, for example, feature Sound Optimization®, an exquisite, complicated process that begins with treating each carefully harvested, milled, weighed and sanded piece of wood individually. Tops and backs of premium quality exotic and native tonewoods are meticulously paired and hand-voiced to specific targeted frequencies, resulting in light, responsive guitars with exceptional tone and sustain.
Led by chief designer Angela Christensen, who studied under Kim Breedlove, the Custom Shop has even experimented with varying sizes of sound holes, dialing in the exact dimensions that will make each instrument truly come alive, delivering all its potential to player and listener alike. No element of a Breedlove guitar, from nut width to strap button placement, from choice of electronics to proper string gauge—is left unexplored or simply to chance.
Similar thoughtfulness and care is taken in the development of all Designed in Bend models, making for professional grade instruments even at entry levels.
Breedlove guitars are purpose-built with specific playing styles in mind, from jazz and Americana to country and rock and roll. The Breedlove Play Style System assigns specific attributes to each instrument—with Heavier Play for ‘strumming and flatpicking;’ Versatile Play for ‘medium heavy strumming to enthusiastic fingerplay;’ and Lighter Play aimed at ‘fingerstyle play for note-note clarity.’
Currently Breedlove is defined by its four revolutionary body shapes, which span across the company’s offerings, each rooted in the original innovations of Breedlove and Henderson’s boundary-breaking Concert body, which paired ergonomic comfort and relaxed playability with a previously unheard of clarity and sonic versatility, working equally well under pick or fingers.
The concert is still the flagship, the workhorse and the standard bearer. A 25.5” scale on a 15” body, it is immediate and authoritative in any wood combination, responding to every intent of the player, just as it has for three decades.
The larger Concerto is a modern adaptation of the classic dreadnought, delivering the same presence and volume in a much more comfortable package that allows for hours of play without pause.
The diminutive, easy-fretting short scale Concertina, similarly, is a bantam improvement on the 12-fret parlor guitar, featuring an audacious voice and creamy tone. It’s more than you might expect from a small guitar.
And Breedlove’s Companion strips the stigma from the travel guitar simply by playing and sounding like a full-size instrument, while still being portable, stowable and sturdy.
“Before we developed these four body shapes,” Bedell says, “you had to compromise between volume, projection, overtones and complexity. We’ve worked really hard at giving you all of that in an instrument that feels natural and easy to play.”
In its quest for a combination of superior sound and visual beauty, Breedlove employs carefully sourced tonewoods from around the globe—including some from its own backyard.
Breedlove was one of the first builders to use Oregon myrtlewood, which grows twisted, gnarled and hardy on the windblown Pacific coast less than 100 miles from Bend.
Myrtlewood is the basis for the best-selling Made in Bend Oregon Series, as well as the luxurious Designed in Bend Organic Collection Artista Series.
Nature has bestowed swirling beauty on myrtlewood and the grain and color of each instrument is as individual as a thumbprint. Nature has also given myrtlewood a haunting sonic identity, combining the rich, sonorous bass of rosewood, the warmth of mahogany and the clear, ringing treble energy of maple.
Additionally Breedlove builds with both classic and unexpected tonewoods like Adirondack spruce, redwood, cocobolo, East Indian Rosewood and koa in the nuanced, eye-catching Legacy Series; torrefied European spruce and African mahogany in the sustainable Organic Collection; ovangkol in the side soundhole Solo Series, which includes 12-string and fretted and fretless bass instruments; ziricote (along with myrtlewood and koa) in the Pursuit Exotic Series; and red cedar in the Pursuit series.
By respecting the inherent qualities and personalities of these woods—these gifts from the earth—Breedlove is able to coax every musical shade and subtlety from each.
Breedlove—30 years of innovation, 30 years filled with a restless urge to create the perfect acoustic sound, to match that sound with effortless playability, and to craft a clean, modern aesthetic.
You will play better, sound better and play more with a Breedlove.
