Circle Strings

Adam Buchwald founded Circle Strings in 2005, and its roots are in vintage instruments rather than a fixed catalog. Born in the Bronx in 1978, he came to lutherie through repair — studying with Brooklyn luthier Bob Jones, then spending a couple of years as head repairman at Retrofret, the well-known Brooklyn vintage shop, where he worked on a steady stream of significant old instruments. He moved to Vermont in 2008 to teach guitar building, took a turn at Froggy Bottom Guitars, and set up his own Burlington shop soon after. A working musician himself — he plays banjo — Buchwald built Circle Strings around the guitars he wanted to play, and the operation has grown from a one-person garage into a full team workshop in South Burlington. The instruments are custom flattops that sit largely in the Martin tradition, extended into mandolins, tenor guitars, Bacon & Day–inspired builds, and one-off designs worked out with the customer. The building blends modern and traditional methods — CNC for the repeatable work, handwork where voice and feel are decided — with quality checked at every station so a problem is caught before it moves down the bench. Woods run from the standard to the exceptional; the current line includes a Salvage series pairing sinker Sitka tops with old-growth mahogany alongside more traditional Adirondack-and-mahogany 000s, with prices reaching into the mid-thousands. Buchwald has also built custom acoustics for Trey Anastasio of Phish, work that has carried the shop's name well beyond Vermont. Circle Strings is unusual in being the hub of a small family of Vermont enterprises rather than a lone bench. Buchwald launched the more affordable Iris Guitar Company in 2018 — built by the same crew, the same way, with plainer appointments — and around the same time acquired Allied Lutherie, a supplier of fine tonewoods to builders worldwide, and brought Dale Fairbanks and his vintage-focused Fairbanks Guitars (itself on the Atlas) into the same building. The group also runs its own retail store — opened as Ben & Bucky's Guitar Boutique and since rebranded the Circle Strings Guitar Shop — beside the workshop, selling its own instruments alongside used, vintage, and other new gear.