The Long Game

“Basically, what we do, is to turn beautiful pieces of wood into excellent guitars,” says Nik Huber on his company’s website, a statement that’s fundamental to the craft of the luthier. For the past two decades Nik and his ever-growing team haven’t changed the world nor challenged the heritage brands: they have just continued to make excellent guitar after excellent guitar.

Mentored by Paul Reed Smith prior to setting up his workshop in 1996 (see ‘Huber’s Helper’ box over the page), we first bumped into Nik at a UK music show later in that decade, leading to his first product review in Guitarist magazine in 2000. Quite a lot has changed since then.

“Don’t forget, back then there was no internet, no YouTube, nothing,” exclaims Nik today. “There was no