This Gurian 1980 Cutaway model guitar is a beautifully crafted instrument with a tone to match. The quality of all materials and craftsmanship is fully evident even from a casual look. This guitar has a very even grained spruce top and very pretty flamed maple back and sides. The herringbone binding is made from wood by hand. The neck is quite fast but not too thin and plays like a dream with a medium to low action. Whether played unplugged or amplified through the original FRAP GF100 3- dimensional transducer this guitar sounds very balanced and precise yet never shrill or harsh.

This guitar has been at our store since the early '80s when the Dirk Witte store bought four or five Gurian guitars. When this guitar didn't sell after a few years the shop owner decided to put it away in his storage room and wait for better times. Therefore this guitar is in mint condition apart from a small blemish on the top and was never played much apart from some store testing. We still have the original cardboard case (although it's a bit mouldy).

Here's what guitar builder/writer William R. Cumpiano, who once worked for Michael Gurian, said about Gurian guitars in an article in Acoustic Guitar Magazine in 1996:

"Michael Gurian is an extraordinarily gifted guitar maker, best known for his New Hampshire-based workshops of the '60s, '70s, and early '80s. Today he manufactures and supplies guitar fittings, marquetry, and tools; imports wood; and acts as a consultant to the guitar and woodworking industry. During the early and mid-'60s, Gurian learned from luthiers Gene Clark, David Rubio, and Manuel Velazquez. He mastered the craft of classic guitar making and became a talented lutenist, lute maker, and builder of the Armenian oud. One of his early shops was on Carmine Street in New York City, where he built classic guitars and lutes for many of the top recitalists of the 1960s. He later opened a shop on Grand Street and then moved it to Hinsdale, New Hampshire, in the early '70s. His operation was one of the first significant forerunner to many current American ateliers, including those of Mossman, Santa Cruz, and Collings. Gurian built his reputation among studio guitarists who liked fast, narrow necks and the punch of a long scale length (his was the longest in the business). Some of the celebrities who play Gurians are Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon, who still treasures a custom wide-neck Size 3 Gurian made for him in the early '70s. Dogged by bad luck, a disastrous fire, and a major recession, Gurian Guitars, Ltd., closed up shop in West Swanzey, New Hampshire, during the '80s. Only a couple of thousand Gurians were ever made, and everyone I know who owns one is very possessive of it. As a result, Gurian guitars are very scarce on the market today. I would consider any Gurian in good condition an excellent purchase."

Here's what the Gurian catalog from 1980 said about the Cutaway model:

"This latest instrument in the Gurian family is both acoustic and electric. In balance and tone, it is unsurpassed by any other instrument. For the electric musician, the Cutaway is a new experience. It is the fantastic but slightly altered sound of the Size 3 UNdistorted plus the power of amplification. To achieve a truly flat-top sound, amplified, has been an unrealized dream since Charley Christian first attached a crude pickup to his arch-top. The Cutaway, with its specially designed and amplified transducer, achieves this dream. No words can adequately describe the purity of tone and balance found from the low E to the highest fret on the first string (which due to the cutaway, is fully accessible). With the Cutaway, a new page is begun in the history of the development of the guitar. The sound of the Size 3 Gurian, either acoustic or amplified, with superb electronics, combined with the increased range and speed of a cutaway guitar."