2020 Kenny Hill "Heritage" CD/IN

This 2020 Kenny Hill "Heritage" is a traditional Spanish-style classical guitar with a solid cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides, handmade in California – heard in Jonathan Roth's "Grace" played by Michael Gullo on this page.

Tradition at Hill Guitar Company

For many years Kenny Hill has been implementing innovations in his designs, seeking a new, modern sound. But it must also be remembered that for well over a decade Hill Guitar Company built its reputation making guitars based on the designs of historically significant builders – the now-discontinued "Master Series" included copies of Fleta, Hauser, Reyes and Rodríguez.

The Kenny Hill "Heritage Series"

The "Heritage Series" was created for players wanting a traditionally handmade Spanish-style guitar, with a solid top and traditional bracing. Built in Hill's California shop from the best hand-selected woods from around the world, each guitar is built and finished by hand with meticulous attention to detail.

Sound

As you might expect, they play great, have great projection and the rich, warm traditional sound you've been looking for – a guitar for a lifetime of enjoyment, in the living room or the concert hall.

Kenny Hill: Guitarist and Guitar Maker

Kenny Hill was born in San Jose, California, and is a performing guitarist and composer as well as a guitar maker. Largely self-taught, he began building guitars professionally in the 1970s in Santa Barbara. In the 1980s he set guitar making aside to raise his four children – though he never stopped performing – and in 1989 he returned to the workbench with copies of historic instruments by Torres, Fleta, Hauser, Rodríguez and Panormo: the beginning of his "Master Series".

From Soledad and Paracho to the Santa Cruz Mountains

In 1993 a grant allowed Kenny to set up a guitar-building shop at Soledad State Prison in California. Two years later he traveled to Paracho, Mexico, as a writer for Acoustic Guitar magazine, to cover a master class led by José Luis Romanillos, and in 1996 he established a workshop there, spending five years building a market for Paracho's guitars. Out of this work grew workshops in California, Mexico and China: his "New World" guitars are made in Guangzhou, China, in a factory of which he is a founding shareholder, and he is designer emeritus and a long-time consultant for Cordoba Guitars.

Kenny's own Signature and Performance models – with double tops, lattice bracing and sound ports – are built by hand in his workshop in Ben Lomond, in the mountains near Santa Cruz, California, by a team of about six craftsmen that includes his son and son-in-law. In 2015 the Guitar Foundation of America honored him with its Industry Leadership Award.

Kenny Hill Guitars at GSI

Many Kenny Hill guitars have passed through our doors, from his Master Series replicas of the great historical makers to his modern Signature and Performance models.