About Austin & Co

Austin & Co is a custom guitar shop based in Sydney, Australia.

Guitar makers of "AUSTIN" guitars and "ESSY" guitars.

We specialise in building one-of-a-kind handcrafted classical and steel string acoustic guitars to order.

We integrate the best characteristics of classic instruments while making something uniquely inspiring in both sound and playability.

One-off designs can be made to your specifications. Other woods can be used for back and sides materials eg. Walnut, Maple, Blackwood. Sassafras and more.

Each guitar is made by hand and every specification is truly flexible to suit any style of music from Classical, Flamenco or just good old Rock.

Cutaway guitars are available either Venetian style or Florentine. With the cutaway the advantage to the player is the ability to access the upper part of the fretboard creating a different aesthetic effect.

All timbers selected are visually stunning with their inspiring range of grain patterns and producing sounds that are live in each of their tonal ranges.

Materials carefully selected from :Australian native tonewoods and timbers from America, Europe, Africa and South America.

Meet Michael Shalhoub

Born in Sydney Australia, Michael has been building Acoustic guitars since 2002 and prior to this

spent 42 years as a professional furniture maker.

Michael performs all the work on his handmade guitars himself, designs and builds each instrument with precision and care. His reputation since the beginning is built with a passion of extraordinary pride in workmanship which is built in every guitar he creates.

Austin guitars are only constructed from quarter sawn premium grade timbers known for their tone.and beauty, says Michael.

With a passion for building working instruments, each one is unique using Australian native tonewoods and also imported timbers from Europe, America and Africa.