Wilkie Stringed Instruments
Based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, master luthier Wyatt Wilkie is globally celebrated for his flawless, entirely hand-carved archtop guitars and mandolins. Raised in a deeply musical home by a professional mandolinist father, Wilkie originally entered the high-end instrument world in 1992 by designing custom cases for the Calton Case Company. It was during this “Golden Era” that he regularly handled and analyzed instruments from legendary builders like Jimmy D’Aquisto, Linda Manzer, and John Monteleone, sparking a lifelong obsession with the architecture of the archtop.
After years of performing professionally and building mandolins across the globe, Wilkie’s path led him to Savannah, Georgia, where he served a rigorous, invaluable apprenticeship under the legendary Bob Benedetto. Rising to become the Master Craftsman of the Benedetto shop, Wilkie was personally responsible for hand-carving the company’s elite flagship and custom models. Today, operating out of his one-man shop, he builds a very limited number of custom instruments each year—such as his celebrated Northern Flyer and Paramount models—prized by top-tier jazz artists like Ted Ludwig and Ed Cherry for their exceptional acoustic power, absolute geometric precision, and deep tonal richness.
