We are currently in the process of setting up our new shop in Sparta, Tennessee. We are aiming to be back making our fine hand-crafted guitars in 2025. Thank you to everyone who visited us in our Fort Bragg shop. We have many wonderful memories of our 15 years there, and we appreciate all of the encouragement that we have received as we undertake this big project. We moved in order to establish Goodall Guitars in a larger building so that we have space to integrate our CNC milling and finish booth in-house. We will have more updates here as we hit our upcoming milestones.
Sparta, Tennessee is well known for the famous bluegrass artist Lester Flatt, and we are looking forward to celebrating his music at an upcoming annual event in October.
New shop map location.
Lester Flatt monument in Sparta, Tennessee. credit: https://www.knoxroadtripper.com/start/sparta-tennessee-guide
Hope your move to the Cumberland plateau is going well. Best of luck with the setting up. Hope to be able to come to visit and say hello next year after you are settled.
Robert Marion
Tupelo Ms
AKGC7007
Thank you! We look forward to seeing you when you can come by.
I will miss you in California!
I will be in touch now and then! 🙂
Will the shop be open the week of Thanksgiving, November 24-27? I played clarinet with James in Kona when the shop was there and I’d like to come by to say hi. We go to Lascasas, TN every year for Thanksgiving.
Yes, I just checked with my mom and we will be open from the 25th-27th at the shop. You are very welcome to come by, we would love to see you! Looks like it is only an hour away. My sister is in Smyrna, and that’s where we will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year. Looking forward to seeing you soon, if you need to contact us our info is up to date on the bottom of the About Us page.
Glad for you but sorry to read this as we are on vacation and just checked into a hotel near Mendocino. Was planning to stop by your shop tomorrow. Oh well, best of luck to you, it would have been a pleasure to meet you and get a sense of your workplace where you make such wonderful guitars. Glad I own one!
I hope you have a wonderful stay on the coast, we are sorry to have missed you. It was many years of planning in the making, and then a big push once the ball started rolling with the shop property selling. We will have more to post here as our project progresses to completion! I hope that the full build video on Youtube will help with the loss of being there, it’s actually helpful since it condenses many hours of work into a short period of time to see the scope of the build which can be more impactful than simply seeing what’s going on the day of your visit.
Delighted to know you’re making the move eastward! My experience with the Goodall family since my purchase in 2007 has always been exceptional, just like your instruments. I still have the handwritten letter James sent to me when I wrote to say how delighted I was with my Concert Jumbo. You’ve never lost sight of that personal touch and the array of comments and your replies here speak to that. Best wishes with the move and new shop and I hope to get the opportunity to stop in someday. And happy holidays to all.
Hi Craig,
What thoughtful compliments and back story of your Goodall guitar experience! We are delighted you are pleased. Thank you for taking the time to post your kind words!
Can’t blame you for wanting to leave California. Tennessee is a great choice!
Thank you, we’ve had a very warm welcome here and are grateful for it.
Looking good! Glad you’re getting settled in..I’m looking forward to my new guitar!
We are looking forward to building it for you!
Quick question and maybe this isn’t the best forum to ask but would welcome your recommendations. I have one of your gorgeous jumbo maple 12 string guitars which I have proudly owned for 20 years. I have a song I would like to record with it, which is in the key of E. I generally tune my 12 strings down a whole step, but using a Capo just doesn’t seem to give that same open ringing sound. Would tuning your guitar to E be recommended or should I avoid putting too much stress on the instrument? Thanks!
Hi Wendell!
Thank you for owning a Goodall maple Jumbo 12 string! You may tune up to E with peace of mind. Make sure the action is adjusted properly and not too high which can put more stress on the top. We design our 12 strings to live at E to E standard tuning, but tuning down a whole step D to D can be a good idea for sweet tone and structural integrity over the years. Having said that, using a capo is a bit of an ‘art’ because placed improperly (with too much tension and too far from the fret you are stopping) can cause serious out-of-tune issues and perhaps a bit less resonance especially if your action is too low which can cause a choking of the string oscillations on subsequent frets. 12 string guitars can be the best example of a ‘worse case scenario’ because the capo is trying to ‘fret’ uneven diameter pairs of strings. This can cause an out-of-tune problem even more than a 6 string…
james and luke dont build guitars. they craft guitars out of wood. so when they are done the tree still lives and is singing. there are a lot of hand made guitars=== then there are goodall guitars===== nuft said—– larry carollo columbus, ohio. ps nice move to gods country— good luck—
Wow Larry! Thank you very much for your kind compliments and well wishes! And yes, we feel very much at home here in God’s Country Middle Tennessee!
Just looked you up to see how things were going. Big news! I’m glad to have had the chance to visit the shop in 2015 and meet James and the whole family. I brought my prized Goodall koa/spruce/bloodwood baritone with me and enjoyed learning more about the making of these guitars and sharing a song or two. Well, now I’ve got a new destination to keep in mind once you are up and running in Sparta. Best wishes on the new venture and a very merry Christmas to you all!
Hello Matt!
Yes, it was great to have you come visit us at our workshop in Fort Bragg and thank you so much for owning a Goodall Koa Baritone!
We would love to have you visit us in Sparta Tennessee soon! Merry Christmas to you!!!
Hey Guys, Have you guys already moved or will you still be at the Fort Bragg Shop through the end of the year? If you’ll be around through 2024 we may try to plan a trip up to say hi one more time before you guys take off. Thanks
Hi David, we moved out of our California shop location at the end of November earlier this year and are fully underway with setting up our new shop in Sparta, TN. Sorry to have missed you!
Long way from Hawaii! I used to have one of your all koa parlor guitars that you built there. Wonderful instrument!
So glad you all made it safely to Tennessee. I have enjoyed a few email conversations with James and would like to join the exodus from California, but all my kids and little grandkids are here in the SF Bay Area. Those little kids are too cute to leave!
The shop looks great, looks like there is room to grow. Hope the Tennessee climate is perfect for guitar building. My 1990 Rosewood Standard is still my favorite, best sounding guitar. It sounds so good in worship band with that LB6. It makes most other guitars sound like they are “stuffed with socks.” 😂😂
Good bless you in this exciting new venture,
Keith