Jay Lichty was originally in the homebuilding trade, and began making guitars when the housing market declined, eventually making his luthier business his primary occupation by 2009. Within the first year of business, Lichty Guitars experienced a steady stream of custom orders and a Garden & Gun magazine award naming Lichty Guitars the overall winner of the "Made in the South" awards. Jay Lichty creates all the instruments by hand using a wide variety of domestic and exotic hardwoods including Indian rosewood, Brazilian rosewood, pau ferro, cocobolo, lacewood, hormigo, koa, mahogany, ziricote, ancient kauri, maple, claro walnut and others for the instrument bodies. Types of wood used for the soundboards include lutz, englemann, sitka, Adirondack spruces, Western red cedar, sinker redwood, koa, and mahogany. A collaboration with Raleigh, North Carolina artist Clark Hipolito led to a series of handmade hand-painted guitars and ukuleles. Jay Lichty offers one-on-one guitar building workshops and small group classes. He is a member of the Guild of American Luthiers and the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans.
Awards
Lichty Guitars was the overall winner in Garden & Gun magazine's "Made in the South" competition in 2010.
Designs
Acoustic guitars
Dreadnought Guitar - A square-shouldered, deep-bodied guitar, the dreadnought is a contemporary interpretation of the most popular steel string guitar design. The quality of the dreadnought sound is full, balanced and powerful with deep bass registers.
OM Guitar - The OM style is a favorite of fingerstyle soloists as well as guitarists with a wide range of playing styles. The Lichty OM has a 14 fret neck, a smaller body than the dreadnought and sloping shoulders. The Lichty OM is known for its responsive playability and for producing balanced crystal clear notes from one end of the scale to other. Unlike the dreadnought, the bass register does not dominate.
Alchemist - The Alchemist features distinctive body lines with an OM-style size, a wedge-shaped body a sidesound port, extended fretboard, bound fretboard and headstock and Gotoh 510 tuners.
Parlor Guitar - The smaller body size and design of the parlor guitar allows for a balance of frequencies.
Crossover Guitar - A melding of a classical and a steel string guitar, the Crossover has the body and bracing of a Ramirez classical coupled with a radius fret board and a 1-7/8″ nut width. Classical guitars typically have a 2″ to 2-1/4″ nut width and steel string guitars are 1-11/16″ to 1-13/16″. Lichty added a truss rod, a body cutaway and a side sound port, as well as a K&K Classic pickup and nylon strings.
Ukuleles
Tenor Ukulele - A popular choice for performing soloists, the tenor is larger than the concert and soprano size, and therefore produces greater volume and a more complex tone than smaller ukuleles. Its larger size also makes it an easier adaption for guitar players.
Baritone Ukulele - The baritone is the largest of the ukulele sizes and produces the deepest sound. Given its size and tuning, it is favored by many guitar players as a cross-over instrument to expand their playing experience.
