We are very happy to be the exclusive dealer of Protocaster Guitars and makeovers. I met Josh Grove from Protocaster right when I opened Mountain Cat Guitars and we have been working very closely together ever since. Josh’s guitars and period correct refinishes are among the best available today. Josh has done finishing and aging for many of todays best boutique builders who don’t themselves have his abilities to make a new guitar really look like a vintage guitar. Josh’s finishes don’t have weird razor lines and sanding in places guitars never normally wear. Through his painstaking aging process Josh can replicate the way a real nitrocellulose finish really ages. This ability has lead us to offer “makeovers”on currently made or more recent guitars. For players who want the vintage feel, look and sound you can only get from a thin 100% nitrocellulose finish, we can remove the newer plasticised finish, shoot it in real lacquers and age it to whatever level the customer desires.
Besides his finishing work, Josh is an amazing guitar builder with a real feel for what made vintage guitars sound and feel the way they do. Josh painstakingly hand carves each Protocaster neck to meet his stringent requirements for feel and playability. Protocasters are built in Williamsburg Brooklyn, a hotbed for the current arts and music scene in New York City. Josh moved to New York to build his guitars and be part of the exciting cultural activity in Williamsburg.
Besides building vintage recreations and doing historically accurate refinishing and aging for customers, there will also be original designs in the Protocaster line. Josh is working on a bunch of guitars that are inspired by the classics yet have a very original look.
What really sets these guitars apart from a very crowded field, including the larger, more recognized mass produced guitars, is the sound. When you play one of Josh’s guitars you immediately feel the resonance and tone of the wood. Each piece is hand selected and treated in the proper way to get the most sound from it. This is what I find most lacking from a lot of the current manufacturers, particularly the larger, better established makers.
For more information and examples of Josh”s work please visit his website at Protocaster.com, or for more information give us a call at the shop 845 918 1607