Welcome to the Carmel Music Co. web site
Fine Acoustic Guitars and Mandolins

Carmel Music Co. owner, Dexter Johnson, has been building, repairing, and restoring acoustic guitars and mandolins since 1969. You can hear one of his custom made guitars played by Jerry Garcia on the Acoustic Disc release Garcia/Grisman (track 9 - "Arabia"). He also worked extensively with his friend, mandolin virtuoso David Grisman, on the Tone Poems 1, 2 and 3 discs setting up the vintage instruments for the recording sessions and co-writing the album notes with David.

We specialize in acoustic instruments at Carmel Music Co. and carry no solid body electrics except for an occasional mandocaster. We are an authorized dealer for Gibson/Flatiron, Santa Cruz, Collings, and Nashville Guitar Co. Besides these and other fine new instruments we always have a great selection of used and vintage guitars and mandolins. Dexter will be happy to talk with you on the phone about possible trade ins as well as about the condition of instruments that we have in stock and deals that might be worked out.

Among our celebrity visitors, friends, and clients we are proud to include David Grisman, Martin Taylor, Tony Rice, our deeply missed friend Charles Sawtelle (Hot Rize), Ronnie McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Buck White, Andy Statman, the late Jerry Garcia, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, G.E. Smith, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Mark O'Connor, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Aubrie Haynie, John Reischman, Butch Baldassari and the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, the late Tommy Comeaux (Beausoleil), Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Jeff Linsky, Tony Marcus (Cats n Jammers), Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and many more.

After 11 years at our location in downtown Carmel, we have closed the retail store and are exclusively conducting business via the internet and over the phone. Just as we always have, we will continue to ship fine instruments nationally and internationally.

Our goal is to stock, or perhaps have built, the right instrument for what each individual customer might need. We work closely with a number of small workshops and individuals who can create the kind of special instruments that satisfy tonal expectations, playing styles, and artistic and visual expression (exotic woods, custom inlays, fancy purflings, etc.). As far as vintage instruments go, over the last decade we have bought and sold some of the finest vintage American guitars and mandolins built during the last century including "Herringbone" and "45" style Martins, D'Angelico archtops, Gibson built "Lloyd Loar" F-5 mandolins, Stromberg's, and various Larson Bros. creations.