SHerwood Phifer

Sherwood “Woody” Phifer is a veteran craftsman, rare as one of the few Black luthiers worldwide. Originally from the Bronx, NY, Sherwood "Woody" Phifer has for the last ten years resided in the Mid-Hudson Valley. A graduate of Taft High School, Sherwood attended Taft with contemporaries Luther Vandross, Nile Rodgers and Eddie Martinez.

Sherwood Phifer builds the “Bentley” of guitars. To compare a Phifer Guitar to what is available in the mass-produced marketplace is to compare a finished couturier garment with an off-the-rack piece. Each high-end instrument is hand-built, down to the nameplate, individually customized to release the talent of the player and the tonal quality that resides in the particular wood he chooses.

Phifer has been fashioning from scratch, instruments that speak for some of the most highly accomplished musicians in jazz, rock, and R&B for nearly a half-century. He has built or restored guitars and basses for rock luminaries like Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Rick Derringer; jazz legends like George Benson, Ronny Jordan, Reggie Washington, David Gilmore, and Richie Hart; and session pros like Will Lee, David Spinozza, John Tropea and Chuck Loeb

Sherwood apprenticed with the legendary (late) luthier Charles Laboe at the renowned Guitar Lab located in The Village. By 1975, Phifer would start his own guitar building business which he has operated ever since.

Over the past 20 years, Phifer has become somewhat singularly focused on developing the perfect acoustic archtop guitar, a distinct hollow-body acoustic instrument particularly popular with jazz musicians.

Phifer’s work has been included in a number of books, publications and podcasts, including: Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Just Jazz Guitar, Blue Book of Guitars, Guitar Player Magazine, Hand Made Hand Played: The Art and Craft of Contemporary Guitars, Fret Bord Journal, and Rolling Stone Magazine.