Forshage Orion Custom Solid Spanish Cedar w/Charlie Christian PU's by Pete Biltoft

Who is Chris Forshage? In his own words:

"Who am I you ask? I am a luthier in the Austin/Pflugerville Texas area. I have been playing guitar since the mid 1980s and built my first guitar in 1994. For many years I did primarily custom work in the archtop acoustic realm but over the years I have built basses, flat-tops, mandolins, electrics, hollowbodies, 7 strings, ergonomic headless guitars, and a variety of solidbodies.

I am a one man shop and use NO CNC for any woodworking. Precision Pearl does some of my inlays and I am pretty sure they use CNC but that is as close as they get to my guitars. I have nothing against CNCs.  I just figure, why pay a bunch of money to have a machine do all the fun stuff. I enjoy what I do, and I especially enjoy being able to approach each guitar individually and be a little bit intuitive about each one. Now, if they could teach CNC to sand I might come around but till then I will do it myself.

The first guitar I ever built was a 17 inch archtop and while it is far from perfect, it came off pretty well, sounds fantastic and started off a love for luthiery that has kept me at it for almost 25 years(wow) now."

Notable Forshage players include the late great Walter Becker, Wayne Krantz, and Austin phenom Carter Arrington.

Chris Forshage builds all types of guitars but the model he is probably most known for is his headless Orion. With it's ergonomic design, smooth set-neck heel joint, above the nut neck extension and Forshage's fantastic craftsmanship and attention to detail, the Orion is probably the best headless electric guitar available today.