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Tyler Robbins R.2 - Italian Spruce & Madagascar Rosewood #2303
Serial: 2303 CONSIGNMENT
Weight: 4 lbs 6 oz
Add to Cart$19,250.00
Robbins Acoustic Guitars — Big Rapids Bred, Built for the Ages
Tyler Robbins grew up in New Jersey with a passion for music and woodworking that sparked in his early teens and has never slowed down. After years of self-directed learning and more mistakes than he cares to admit, he took the plunge and enrolled in the Galloup School of Lutherie in Big Rapids, Michigan. What was intended as a two-month course became an intense two-year apprenticeship that tested him mentally and physically at every stage. He participated in every aspect of the Galloup operation, from teaching and research and development through CNC and parts production to guitar building and repair, all under the guidance of Bryan Galloup, whose scientific approach to material testing and data analysis gave Tyler an understanding of his craft that goes far deeper than intuition alone.
He completed the apprenticeship and stayed. Today he is one of the lead builders at Galloup Guitars and head of the repair department, and he builds his own instruments under the Robbins Acoustics name in the hours before and after the regular working day, routinely logging twelve to fourteen-hour sessions at the bench. That level of dedication shows in every guitar he finishes.
Dream Guitars introduced him to the wider acoustic world after meeting him at the Artisan Guitar Show in Pennsylvania, selling his first two instruments before the third was even off the bench. Paul Heumiller of Dream Guitars described his guitars as very loud and clear with a beautiful fullness on every fret, and noted that it is very hard to create something new and exciting in a field hundreds of years old, but Tyler's guitars are all his own: familiar yet original. The Boutique Guitar Showcase awarded him Best in Show. Eddie's Guitars, Cedar Rock, and other respected dealers have all carried his work. One collector who has played six Robbins guitars described a signature Robbins Voice that Tyler reproduces consistently regardless of tonewood, a singularly impressive feat in a builder still early in his career.
Scientific Approach, Personal Voice
Tyler's build philosophy draws directly from the Galloup tradition: extensive material testing, data analysis, and a rigorous understanding of why acoustic guitars work the way they do, applied in service of an instrument that communicates something personal and immediate to the player who holds it. The result is a guitar with a clean, uncluttered aesthetic rooted in geometric precision, a signature headstock profile, custom rosettes in geometric patterns unique to each instrument, and a voice that one player described as having good to very good resonance, sparkling overtones, and a fullness you can both hear and feel.
Standard appointments across the Robbins lineup include ebony fingerboards and bridges, bone nut and saddle, Gotoh 510 tuners, ebony bindings with maple purfling, aluminum square side position markers, nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and Tyler's signature ebony bridge shape. Tonewood combinations have included Italian spruce and Madagascar rosewood, Ziricote and Engelmann spruce, cocobolo and Engelmann spruce, and Indian rosewood with mahogany, each one chosen for the specific voice it produces.
The Models
R.1 — Tyler's primary model and the instrument most associated with the Robbins name. A concert-sized body with a 13-fret neck join, 25.5-inch scale, and the focused, full, overtone-rich voice that defines the Robbins aesthetic. Available in both standard and cutaway configurations, and the model that first appeared at Dream Guitars and sold before it was listed.
R.2 — Tyler's second body style, a slightly larger instrument that delivers more projection and bass response while retaining the clarity, note separation, and dynamic range that run through everything he builds.
Browse our available Robbins inventory, and reach out to discuss a custom commission with Tyler directly.