Introducing Instructor Kelly Butler

Hey everybody, I want to introduce one of our instructors, Mr. Kelly Butler, AKA The World’s Most Handsome Luthier.

Apparently, you can just give yourself nicknames now, so Kelly has really run with it.

I hate to admit this because it’s only going to give him a bigger head, but Kelly is genuinely one of my favorite people in the guitar industry, and just in general.

Kelly came to us about six years ago, sad, lonely, and desperately needing a guitar shop to hang around in. We reluctantly let him through the door and gave him some food. And you know what they say: feed a stray cat once and it keeps coming back. Apparently the same thing applies to Kelly.

All joking aside, Kelly is a spectacular guitar builder and an even better instructor. When you sign up for one of our Saturday classes or a corporate event, there’s a pretty good chance he might be your very own guitar-building guru for the day.

And the guy has quite a résumé.

Kelly trained at the renowned Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, Arizona. He spent years at the Gibson Custom Shop as one of their luthiers before being recruited by First Act in the early 2000s to help launch and build their custom shop in Boston.

For those who don’t remember First Act, they were EVERYWHERE in the 2000s. Kelly helped set up their operation from scratch, designed a ton of their instruments, and left a pretty big fingerprint on what that company became.

These days, he has his own brand, K Butler Guitars, right here in Nashville, and he is also an absolute finishing guru. Lacquer, polyurethane, paint, buffing, spraying, fixing the thing somebody else messed up… Kelly knows his stuff.

Which, as you can imagine, is pretty handy when you’re trying to teach a room full of people how to build guitars.

When he’s not building guitars, teaching classes, or selling paint, you can usually find Kelly in his front yard practicing/teaching karate to his children, his neighbors, passing deer, unsuspecting raccoons, or basically anyone who happens to be within viewing distance.

And no board is safe if it’s within arm’s reach.

Mr. Kelly Butler