About Axebuilder

    Born from a deep lineage of traditional lutherie and forged in modern machining labs, the Axebuilder shop is where old-school analog craftsmanship collides with high-performance material science. We exist to eliminate the friction and compromises between the player, the instrument, and the tone.

🪚 THE FOUNDATION: SAWDUST & STRINGS

    Music and sawdust are in my blood. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, I grew up in a family completely consumed by music. My mother was a professional violinist and teacher; my father, Miles Shigemura, was a master violin maker and luthier. Music was the heartbeat in our house.

    When I was 15, I asked my dad for a guitar so I could start playing. Instead of driving me to a shop to buy one off the rack, he handed me the tools and offered me something vastly more valuable: he taught me how to build one from scratch. That single acoustic guitar became my gateway into a lifelong obsession with instrument mechanics, structural resonance, and repair.

🛠️ THE BENCH WORK BEGINS

    At 17, I took my first job in the industry at Harry’s Music Store in Kaimuki. I spent the next 15 years working at that bench alongside my dad, selling, diagnosing, repairing, and dissecting thousands of instruments.

During those years, I started building ukuleles (using techniques passed down from my father), launched Ho'okani Music Company, and eventually brought my repair expertise to Dan’s Guitars in Honolulu. But while traditional woodworking and acoustic repair was my foundation, my curiosity was aggressively pulling me toward modern manufacturing.

⚙️ THE EVOLUTION: CNC & THE MAKERSPACE

    I began volunteering at Oahu Makerspace. While I was teaching traditional woodworking and instrument making classes there, I was simultaneously immersing myself in the digital side of manufacturing. I cut my teeth on laser technology, precision 3D printing, and CNC machining. It was a massive turning point. I realized I didn't have to be restricted by traditional materials or legacy methods. I could take decades of analog acoustic knowledge and apply it to modern, high-tolerance engineering.

⚡ 2020: THE AXEBUILDER RESURRECTION

    Axebuilder was originally a concept I started back in 2005, but it sat on the backburner for years while I honed my physical craft. Then came 2020. The world stopped, giving me the exact window of time I needed to merge my two worlds. I took my background in traditional luthiery, combined it with my modern CAD and machining skills, and relaunched Axebuilder Guitars with a line of world-class, hand-wound guitar pickups that immediately caught fire with local players. That relentless pursuit of tone eventually led to the development of our proprietary Nu-D resin interfaces.

🔬 THE MODERN TONE LAB

    Today, Axebuilder Guitars operates as a multi-faceted workshop in Honolulu, Hawaii, focusing on three core pillars:
 

• The Electronics: Precision hand-wound Axebuilder Pickups designed for massive transient response and absolute clarity.

• The Interfaces: Nu-D Pix, pushing the absolute boundaries of material science, ergonomic architecture, and high-density resins.

• The Wood: Custom instrument commissions, heavy-duty shop repairs, and elite structural modifications.

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    Axebuilder is the culmination of my life’s work, my family’s legacy, and a never-ending pursuit to build tools that refuse to compromise. Welcome to Axebuilder.

Mahalo,

Reid Shigemura

Founder, Axebuilder Guitars