About me:

My name is Bryant Stoltzfus. I live in rural Ohio with my wife Brianne and our four kids. Guitar building started for me when I came across the book Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar by Jonathan Kinkead at the Library in 2018. What I thought would be just a fun project turned out to be a difficult challenge. After my first guitar went to the firewood pile, I started again. Two years later, I finally put strings on my first finished guitar. Since then, guitar building has become a passion (my wife calls it an obsession…) and I have spent many hours sanding, carving, voicing, finishing (and re-finishing), and taking classes to craft the best guitars I can. My goal is to create instruments that are not only beautiful to look at, but are also so comfortable to play and lovely to listen to that you don’t want to put them down!
About the name:
My last name is Stoltzfus. It’s hard to pronounce and always needs to be spelled. When I was looking for a name for my guitars, I wanted something that was easier to say and remember. The name “Strider” is based on my last name. “Stoltzfus” means proud-foot in German, “but can also connote someone with a confident stride.”*
*Stoltzfus, Nic. (2019) German Lutherans to Pennsylvania Amish: the Stoltzfus Family Story. Masthof Press. Page 3.
Photo Credit: McKenzie Luree Photography
