2026 Circle Strings Salvage Dread Burst, Sinker Sitka/Old Mahogany

Circle Strings is the rare builder-direct shop in the Atlas — the South Burlington, Vermont storefront for the family of brands led by luthier Adam Buchwald, who came up through Retrofret and Froggy Bottom before setting up his own bench. Two of those in-house lines clear the boutique bar and anchor the floor here: Circle Strings' own commission-built flat-tops and the vintage-minded Fairbanks Guitars, Dale Fairbanks's painstaking takes on golden-age Gibson and Larson Brothers designs. Buchwald also owns Allied Lutherie, the long-running luthier-supply house, giving the shop's builders access to tonewood few makers can source. The Atlas's first Vermont dealer.