LAME HORSE guitars

EST. 1995 | USA

Acoustic | Electric Guitars

  • Each Lame Horse guitar reflects an ethos shaped not by tradition alone, but by curiosity, problem-solving, and a desire to design instruments that last a lifetime. Adjustable action systems, rear access panels, multi-port voicing, and seven-laminate necks are hallmarks of the brand—functional innovations that never feel gimmicky, because they are born from decades of real-world experience.

    One of the most beloved details in every guitar is the tiny hand-carved Zuni good-luck fetish, fastened inside the body.
    As Chris tells it:
    “I figured if you're a guitar player you could probably use all the luck you can get. And maker. Probably maker more so than the player.”

    But the real signature of a Lame Horse guitar is its sound—open, articulate, expressive—and the visual language that surrounds it: turquoise glints in the Elko model, sculptural cutouts, Texas iconography, and the playful, heartfelt touches that make each instrument unmistakably theirs.

    From the rugged charm of the Saddle Pal, designed to be small enough to ride on horseback yet “sound as big as Texas,” to the elegantly voiced Elko, the vintage-inspired LH-14, and the imaginative Gitjo, Lame Horse Instruments balances bold creativity with deeply considered functionality.

    For Chris and Jeremy, building guitars is simply the continuation of a lifelong conversation between design, intuition, and joy.

chris jenkins | Luthier

Close-up of a decorative acoustic Lame Horse guitar with intricate wood and shell inlay design on the body.

“Innovation should never overshadow the wood—it should reveal what the wood has always been capable of.”

lame horse

demo

Lame Horse Work Hoss Demo | Honduran Rosewood & Italian Alpine Spruce

Backstage demo of the Lame Horse Work Hoss, played by Lindsay Straw at Carter Vintage Guitars and built by Chris Jenkins with an Italian Alpine spruce top from Val di Fiemme and Honduran rosewood, delivering powerful tone, clarity, and refined playability.

lame horse

demo

LE TIGRE by Lame Horse Guitars | Hybrid Acoustic Electric Demo

Michael Watts explores Le Tigre, a slimline hybrid acoustic-electric prototype from Chris and Jeremy Jenkins of Lame Horse Guitars (Texas, USA). Blending a distinctive unplugged voice with a K&K magnetic humbucker, Le Tigre is a bold, one-of-a-kind instrument built for roots, stage, and studio.

boutique guitar showcase en tour | 2017 - 2019

  • Lame Horse GitJo Banjo, front and back

    entour 2019

  • Close-up of a Lame Horse gitjo electric guitar with text overlay promoting a boutique guitar showcase tour in 2019, sponsored by D'Addario.

    entour 2019

  • Close-up of a Lame Horse acoustic guitar with intricate red and black inlay design on the sound hole.

    entour 2018

  • Close-up of a Lame Horse acoustic guitar with a decorative soundhole and a black pickguard, set against a black background with red text on the left side reading "The Saddle Pal Boutique Guitar Showcase."

    entour 2017

Black-and-white photo of Chris Jenkins with glasses, smiling, holding a decorative acoustic guitar.

“Wood doesn’t heal the way muscle does. It made me a better surgeon.” 

  • His days were split between ranch calls, surgery, and the quiet desire to make something with his hands. A garage-band guitarist in his youth, Chris’s relationship with the guitar took an unexpected turn when a table saw accident left him temporarily unable to play. Instead of stepping back from music, he stepped deeper into it.

    When his son Jeremy broke the truss rod on his bass, Chris decided not to repair it—but to build a new one from scratch. With only a router, a sabre saw, and a single book on electric-guitar construction, he carved a path that would define the next decades of his life.

    His turning point came in the mid ’90s at Charles Fox’s lutherie course, where he absorbed knowledge not only from Fox, but from fellow builder Harry Fleischmann, whose daily commute conversations became a second classroom. That experience gave Chris the confidence to build his first acoustic guitar—a guitar he sold for $1,000 and a moment that forever fused craft to passion.

    For years he built at night, balancing scalpels and chisels, and found that the disciplines were more connected than they seemed.
    As he jokes:
    “Wood doesn’t heal the way muscle does. It made me a better surgeon.”

    Influenced by makers like Ervin Somogyi and Fred Carlson, Chris sought not to copy a lineage but to add his own voice to it—one rooted in precision, humor, storytelling, and a fierce commitment to originality.

    Today, he continues to build with the same curiosity that first lit the spark.

chris jenkins | Luthier

gallery | lame horse guitars

Inside of a Lame Horse Guitar with painted landscape and portrait illustrations, viewed from below, showing the interior ceiling and some decorations.
Decorative panel shaped like a tiger with a red circle on a Lame Horse Guitar in the background.
The back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar showcases a glossy, brown, quilted wood finish with decorative white and black binding and a symmetrical, elongated oval sound hole.
Decorative wooden end of a Lame Horse Guitar surface with inlaid turquoise tree design and turquoise inlay strip.
An acoustic Lame Horse guitar with intricate marquetry and inlay work on its soundhole and top surface, resting on a black textured background.
A wooden acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a unique design, featuring an openwork sound hole shaped like a tree, and a decorative fretboard with turquoise inlays.
Close-up of a Lame Horse guitar headstock with blue turquoise tuning pegs, gold hardware, and a cross symbol on the back of the headstock.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar's soundhole, decorated with floral inlay, showing strings, a fretboard with star inlay, and part of the body with wood and mother-of-pearl details.
A wooden acoustic Lame Horse guitar with unique design features, set against a black background.
A Lame Horse guitar with a richly patterned reddish-brown wood body and a light-colored neck against a dark gray background.
Close-up of a wooden Lame Horse instrument, showing the ornate inlay detail on the back. The wood has a rich reddish-brown finish with visible grain, and the background is black.
Close-up of a wooden Lame Horse guitar body with inlaid turquoise and abalone decorative trim.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a light-colored wood body, black pickguard, and decorative turquoise inlays around the soundhole and edges, set against a plain light background.
Close-up of the back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar showcasing its rich, quilted maple wood grain and decorative inlay details.
A decorative wooden end of a Lame Horse Guitar surface with a turquoise inlay in the shape of a horse and three wavy lines, possibly representing steam or heat.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a decorative inlay on the body, featuring a colorful, tribal-like design and blue star-shaped fret markers on the fretboard, against a black background.
Close-up of a white acoustic Lame Horse guitar with Celtic knot designs on its sound hole and fretboard, with black background.
Close-up of the inside of a Lame Horse Guitar with star-shaped goals and decorative murals in the background.
Back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a rich, reddish-brown wooden finish, black background.
An acoustic Lame Horse guitar with decorative inlays on the headstock and sound hole, and a unique body shape.
A decorative acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden body, featuring unique inlays near the sound hole and a dark fretboard with a blue inlay. The headstock has tuning pegs and a blue logo.
A sunburst-colored acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden body, six strings, and a decorative rosette on the sound hole, placed on a black background.
Close-up of the back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with intricate inlay design on a dark background.
A wooden acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a black pickguard and a colorful, decorative sound hole design on the upper left side.
Close-up of an ornate Lame Horse guitar headstock with inlaid design, tuning pegs, and a decorative inlay featuring a lion silhouette.
Close-up of a black acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a decorative sound hole and colorful inlays around the sound hole and edges.
A sunburst acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a built-in pickup and a circular input jack, resting on black fuzzy fabric.
A decorative acoustic Lame Horse guitar with an ornate, intricate design on the body and headstock, set against a dark background.
Close-up of a Lame Horse guitar headstock with a unique inlay pattern and tuning pegs.
Close-up of the back of a Lame Horse guitar with a red, quilted maple top and black edges, placed on a wooden stand.
An acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a unique design, featuring a wooden body, decorative red and black inlays near the soundhole, and a dark fretboard with metal frets, set against a black background.
An intricate Lame Horse acoustic guitar with a light wooden body, detailed inlay around the soundhole, and decorative discs on the side, set against a black fuzzy background.
Close-up of a Lame Horse acoustic guitar's sound hole, strings, and fretboard.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a quilted maple top, intricate inlay detailing, and a black background.
Black acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden neck and decorative inlay around the sound hole, set against a black background.
Close-up view of the tuning pegs and headstock of an electric Lame Horse guitar with turquoise tuning keys.
The image shows the back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a glossy, quilted maple wood finish, sitting on a black fur-like surface.
A close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a decorated sound hole, featuring intricate wood inlays and inlaid mother-of-pearl designs, with part of the fretboard visible.
Close-up of a black acoustic Lame Horse guitar with mother-of-pearl inlays and a circular sound hole, set against a black background.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with decorative inlays around the sound hole and along the edges, and a black fretboard with turquoise accents.
The interior of a wooden Lame Horse Guitar viewed from inside, showing the strings, dampers, and soundboard.
A black acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wood grain body and a white pickguard, lying on a black furry surface.
Close-up of a black Lame Horse guitar headstock with tuners, a mother of pearl inlay with the word 'elacie', and decorative elements, set against a black background.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a whammy bar and a decorative pickguard.
Back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden finish and decorative inlay, against a dark background.
Close-up of an ornate, decorative Lame Horse guitar headstock with swirling red, black, and shell inlays, and six strings visible.
Back of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden body and neck, showing tuning pegs on the headstock.
Close-up of a wooden Lame Horse guitar body with decorative spirals and a dark background.
Close-up of a wooden acoustic Lame Horse guitar body and neck against a black background.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar focusing on the sound hole with turquoise inlay and fretboard, set against a black background.
View of a end of a Lame Horse Guitar with colorful butterfly and leaf decorations on the front panel.
Close-up of a wooden Lame Horse guitar body with a metallic strap button and a small rectangular compartment with a black screw on each side.
Close-up of a knob on a wooden panel with inlaid turquoise and red decoration, part of a Lame Horse instrument.
An acoustic Lame Horse guitar with intricate inlay work on the pickguard and around the soundhole, and a wooden body with a natural finish.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar's sound hole, strings, and fretboard, with a vibrant orange background.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar's sound hole and fretboard with strings.
Close-up of a Lame Horse guitar body with a black silhouette of a dog on a reddish-brown wood grain background.
Red acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a wooden neck, headstock, and tuning pegs, against a black background.
Close-up of an acoustic Lame Horse guitar with a decorative inlay near the sound hole, featuring a floral pattern with inlays of turquoise, and a dark fretboard with metal frets and a small turquoise marker.
Close-up of a black Lame Horse guitar with a decorative white line pattern on the front panel, a small shiny gold circular button or knob in the center, and two screws at the sides.
Close-up of a Lame Horse guitar headstock with intricate wood and turquoise detailing, tuning pegs, and strings.