ABOUT US
Husband and wife Charles Fox and Denise Richards are business and creative partners in both ASL and Charles Fox Guitars. In 2001, having closed a busy guitar production workshop and a much larger version of the American School of Lutherie, Charles and Denise moved from Healdsburg, CA to Portland, OR, downsizing their demanding life and workload. Today Charles builds guitars independently and teaches small classes in his Portland workshop, imagining that he's retired, at least twelve hours a day.
Pioneer American luthier Charles Fox has been active in the development of modern lutherie for over 40 years. Charles is often referred to as the dean of educators in the field of guitar making, having introduced hundreds of people to this craft and counting many of today's successful luthiers among his former students. Since 1968, Charles has been building guitars both as an independent luthier and as head of guitar production workshops. In 1973 he founded the
first school for guitar makers in North America, the School of the
Guitar Research & Design Center in South Strafford, VT.
In 1993 Charles established the American School of Lutherie in Healdsburg,
CA, where he also co-founded the Healdsburg Guitar Festival.
Charles
enjoys an international reputation as an artisan, designer, consultant and educator.
His original design concepts, such as the thin-line acoustic guitar, as
well as his building techniques and production devices, such as the Universal
Side Bender, are widely used by guitar builders and factories all over
the world. In the late '70s and early '80s, Charles' GRD Guitars helped
define the market for high-end electric guitars. He is currently director
of the American School of Lutherie and heads Charles Fox Guitars, a
Portland-based workshop crafting performance-quality instruments for musicians around the
world.To see some of Charles' own work, please visit his websites: www.charlesfoxguitars.com and www.ergoguitars.com.
Denise Richards, former corporate public relations and marketing executive, is Charles' wife and business partner. Denise collaborates with Charles in guitar design and material selection, shoots the guitar photography, manages the websites, runs the day-to-day business, and keeps an old man feeling young by chasing him around the workbench now and then.