Kim Breedlove

It was on a six month surfing trip deep in Mexico that young artist and musician Kim Breedlove decided his life calling: to build stringed instruments. With a strong art background and refined design sense, Kim Breedlove acquired the tools, the training and a keen interest in building guitars, mandolins, banjos and other fine instruments in 1974.

At a very young age he entered the elite level of producing legendary quality instruments and has dedicated his life to this masterful artistic endeavor. Kim is now the namesake of the company, however, it was founded by his younger brother, Larry Breedlove and friend, Steve Henderson in 1990. Today Kim serves as master luthier and designer of the Breedlove Guitar Co.

The first instruments built by the Breedlove Guitar Co. were acoustic guitars tailored for the fingerstyle player. The early instruments included the C1, a shallow Concert guitar, the C2, a deep Concert Guitar, the RD or Rounded Dreadnought, and the MJ or Mondo Jumbo. The distinctive body shapes, bracing techniques and inlay design were exemplified in the asymmetrical body style of the CM Classic built with Walnut procured from Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Also utilizing woods from the region was the Northwest Classic built with Oregon’s native wood, Myrtlewood, and Sitka Spruce and Walnut. Virtuoso fingerstylist Ed Gerhard lent his name and expertise to the Ed Gerhard Signature models. Mandolins were built utilizing traditional design with the modern flair of the K-body style modeled after the CM Classic and other design innovations including ease of playability, inlay design and unique geometry. Even though it sounds fictitious, the Breedlove name is actually the surname of Kim Breedlove. There have been other famous Breedloves in baseball and car racing.