Petros Guitars, based in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, makes high end, boutique instruments. God, I hate that word. It makes the guitars sound like the come with a doily and a cup of chamomile tea. To my knowledge, they do not.

Petros make beautiful instruments that are a finger pickers' dream. Their flagship model is the Applecreek (named for the cross street where Petros is located).

"The Applecreek is my base model and is available in all three body styles," says Bruce Petros, who, with his son Matt, helms Petros Guitars. "From there, many options are available from a cutaway to various inlays and different woods. My other models are basically option packages."

Next is what I refer to as the "obnoxious" question; Why should someone buy one of YOUR guitars -- with all the other options available. Petros was more than ready for the question.

"First of all, all the woods we use are master grade. Wood binding and abalone purfling is standard. Wood tuner buttons are standard. Besides these things, our tops are arched and graduated for strength, stability, volume, overtones and powerful bases and fundamentals," he says. "Our tops don't just come out of the thickness sander and slapped on. Great care and expertise is taken to create an instrument that will respond to the musicians touch in ways they just won't find in factory produced instruments. A great guitar player's instrument is his connection to his / her creative muse. It needs to be a seamless extension of his / her soul. It needs to be sensitive to his / her needs and not a hindrance or an obstacle to be overcome. Only a finely crafted, master grade instrument can do that. "

Their website talks about the Spanish word "duende" -- which literally means something like "charm." I thought it meant "goblin" but my Spanish is dubious. The term refers to the soul of an instrument.

"A mediocre instrument will create mediocre results. In addition to all the tonal things we do with the tops, we also do some very unique things with our bridge. Not only do we make a fully compensated saddle (unlike 95% of all the other guitars out there) but our saddle and bridge is slanted back by 10 degrees," says Petros. "This does several things. One, it forces the saddle down more evenly into the saddle slot. It reduces the forward stress as can be witnessed with fronts of bridges breaking right off. It also makes it self-compensating for string height. The higher your action, the more compensation you need. As you raise the Petros saddle, it also makes the string longer because of the backward slant."

Petros use Indian rosewood for the back and sides and Sitka spruce for the tops of their guitars. But even Sitka spruce has qualitative variations. Petros take special care when selecting even woods with a fine reputation.

"I choose my top woods for as many of the qualities that determine master grade wood. Those are: stiffness, evenness of grain, perfect quarter sawing, evenness of color," says Petros. "I prefer very stiff wood for my tops. Very tight grain does not always mean it will be stiff. I've seen very tight grained spruce that was soft as rubber. I reject any wood that does not meet these criterion. I hand select all of the Indian Rosewood I use from a warehouse with tens of thousands of sets."

Beyond the care in choosing materials is the craftsmanship. Why exactly does a handcrafted guitar matter? Can't a machine be more precise than a human? Perhaps, but machine cut woods tend to be the same size and do not take into account the different characteristics of the wood.

"The tops are not a uniform thickness right out of the thickness sander. The tops are graduated, thinner around the edges like the soft surround on a speaker." he says.

The Applecreek uses scalloped bracing.

"We believe in a symmetrical bracing system. I Like the X-brace for a steel string guitar. From there we deviate from the traditional Martin bracing system. I don't think one should make the bass side "looser" than the treble side," says Petros. "I think the whole top moves to create big bass tones and smaller areas vibrate independently to produce trebles tones--Just like a speaker. The scalloping just helps to loosen up the top more than straight braces do, just enough, especially when everything is symmetrical."

Petros guitars also have a unique neck and fingerboard design that appeals to players across the board.

"We start the neck contour from the top of the fingerboard, not from the bottom of it. In other words, the edges of the FB are not parallel to each other nor perpendicular to the surface says Petros. "This enables us to take at least 5% more wood off the neck while leaving lots of room on top for your fat little fingers to articulate. We believe in a wider FB. 1 13/16 is our standard nut width. With our unique, more slender neck, it doesn't feel like a club, but is surprisingly easy to play and less fatiguing."

If you look closely at the work on the Petros guitars you will notice the hand-worked wooden tuners.

"We make the wooden tuner buttons. They are a lot of work! But I think they add a really tasteful and classy touch; matching buttons and binding -- can't beat it." he says.

The tuners are Gotoh 18:1 tuners from Japan. Petros says they are the best on the market.

If you wonder at the base price of $6,800 think about this. Each guitar averages about 100 hours to make. That is $68 an hour. A good wage -- but try to get a lawyer to work for that. Think of it this way -- it is about the hourly rate a good auto mechanic charges, and a Petros Applecreek will last you a lot longer than your Ford Focus.