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Blind Guitars Acoustic Guitars — A Tribute to the Blues, Built in the Basque Country
Virgile Pilon builds guitars in Anglet, in the French Basque Country, with the same obsession he has carried since the day he first discovered the recordings of the American bluesmen of the 1920s and 1930s. Those recordings, made on guitars that most players today would barely recognize as ancestors of the modern acoustic, shaped the sound of blues, rock, and country music for a century, and found their way onto the Voyager 1 spacecraft now sailing beyond the solar system. That lineage is the starting point for every guitar Virgile builds.
Blind Guitars is a tribute to that era and those instruments, filtered through the hands of a luthier who has spent years studying, improving, and pushing the original designs further than their makers ever imagined. The result is a lineup of acoustics that feel rooted in history and alive with possibility, instruments that carry the warmth and character of the vintage guitars that inspired them while delivering the dynamics, resonance, and balance that modern players demand.
Every Blind Guitar is built entirely by hand in Anglet, from the selection of tonewoods through to the final setup, with an environmental approach to materials sourcing that runs through every decision Virgile makes in the workshop.
The Models
B-1 — Inspired by the Gibson L-1 of a century ago and the model most directly connected to the blues tradition at the heart of the brand. A small body guitar with a true powerhouse voice, perfectly suited to fingerpicking and available in flattop, flattop with floating bridge, and archtop-flat back configurations.
B-26 — An iconic parlor shape from the 1920s, lightly built with a modern double X bracing for exceptional tone and balance. Recommended for players who want the sweetness and ease of a small guitar with more volume and projection than the format typically delivers.
B-30 — Blind Guitars' Orchestra Model, with perfectly balanced tone, immediate response, and the versatility that makes it equally at home in live and studio settings. The most popular model in the lineup.
B-34 — A square-shoulder dreadnought in the Martin tradition, revised and improved with a 25.5-inch scale that enhances midrange and treble clarity without sacrificing bass volume. The natural choice for folk, bluegrass, and contemporary fingerstyle players.
B-42 — A slope-shoulder dreadnought inspired by the great Gibson bodies of the 1940s, with fat, rich bass, sweet trebles, and the kind of full-bodied power that rewards strummers and singers above all. Virgile describes it simply as a true cathedral.
B-51 — A tight-waisted jumbo with dreadnought lower bout dimensions that delivers impressive acoustic volume with a clear, articulate voice and pronounced midrange projection. Also available in an archtop-flat back configuration that blends the punch and response of a carved top with the openness of a flat back.
B-24 (Signature Model) — Virgile's most personal instrument and what he considers his ideal acoustic guitar shape. The most technically complex model in the lineup, built with laminated X braces, notched tone braces, solid linings, laminated sides, and exclusive access to Virgile's private stock wood selection. Available only in limited quantities and built to the highest standard of everything Blind Guitars does.
Tonewoods and the Blues
Virgile's wood selection draws on a global palette of tonewoods including Sitka spruce, Engelmann spruce, European spruce, Adirondack spruce, Indian rosewood, Brazilian rosewood, mahogany, maple, cocobolo, Movingui, and ancient Dark Forest cypress, with each pairing chosen in service of the specific voice each model is built to produce. The B-XXIV built from a Dark Forest Ancient Cypress top carbon-dated at over 1,750 years old remains one of the most extraordinary instruments Virgile has ever completed, a reminder that the rarest tonewoods carry a tonal character that no conventional wood can replicate.
Browse our available Blind Guitars inventory below, and reach out to discuss a custom commission with us directly.