MAGIC ACT

With electronics inspired by a famed 1970s studio console, Terry C. McInturff's Spellcaster sounds like a Telecaster from your favorite classic rock album.

- DAVE HUNTER

CONSIDERING THAT HE has been working with guitars since 1978, it's no surprise Terry C. McInturff knows how to build a good one. Most newcomers to his work, however, are surprised by just how good his creations are, and by the fact that this eminently skilled luthier isn't a household name. McInturff's Spellcaster wraps the builder's broad-reaching craftsmanship and innovation into a mightily versatile instrument that pays homage to the seminal solidbody electric, while it launches the platform into the next dimension.

McInturff grew up in the Chicago suburbs and got hooked on guitar from the AM rock and roll radio of his youth. Though he's a talented player (and remains a gigging guitarist to this day), he was drawn to guitar making, and McInturff solidified his abilities by attending the famed Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, an institution he discovered in the back pages of Guitar Player magazine. From independent building and restoration, he went on to work at a shop that subcontracted Ken Smith basses, then took a stint building in the Hamer Custom Shop before moving to North Carolina and setting out on his own as Terry C. McInturff Guitars in 1996. For many years now, McInturff has maintained a one-man shop in which the master himself completes every aspect of the design and build process, which is how this Spellcaster came into the world.