About TK

Todd Keehn, Owner/Head Luthier of TK Instruments started modifying his instruments at the age of 13. At 16 he built his first electric guitar from a mahogany bookshelf in his bedroom. He has been a Luthier (musical instrument builder) for 20+ years now.

Besides being a Luthier, Todd has also been a musician for 20+ years:

in 1989/90 he won two state guitar competitions, as well as receiving honors in Guitar Player Magazine's International Sound Page Competition (see Aug. '90 issue).

This is the issue that Todd was featured in.

Here is the (rather strange) write up on Todd from the above Guitar Player issue.

We were living in Washington State at the time.

Here is the award Guitar Player magazine gave Todd for the 1990 Sound Page Competition

Here is another award Todd received for the 1989 Colorado Guitar Wars Competition

Todd has also been written up in newspaper and magazine articles for both his instrument building, and musicianship.

Over the years he's been working, and reworking on eliminating the traditional design flaws of stringed instruments.

Todd's ultimate mission with TK Instruments has been to create the "perfect instrument" for skilled musicians.

Todd has continuously collaborated with other musicians, adding and subtracting from traditional instrument designs in order to create instruments that in no way hinder a musician's technique or style.

To learn more about Todd's fascinating instrument designs please be sure to see: Anatomy of a TK.

Be sure to check out our Zoo page to see some of the wildlife that I have photographed.

click on photo to visit the zoo

A little more on the history of Todd Keehn:

Way back in the beginning, I originally got into instrument building due in part to poverty and the desperate need to play music.

I grew up rather poor in a very small "hick" town in Colorado.

Let me tell you that being a skinny 120 pound long haired guitarist in a small "hick" town isn't much fun...

We lived in a single wide trailer, where my mom was most often either a waitress and/or professional house cleaner.

Anyway, the main theme here is:

when you are broke and a total outcast, you can get pretty good at playing an instrument, -IF- you can afford one...

And that's how I got started in building them.

At first, I just got by with VERY cheap guitars.

Anyone remember the brand known as "Hondo"?

I actually got a plywood Hondo II Les Paul copy for Christmas one year.

At the time, it seemed like it was one of the best days of my life, but after some time had passed and the Hondo II had long since run it's course, I decided I REALLY needed an upgrade instrument.

Now I had already done many repairs / modifications on the guitar, such as: basic electronics repairs, fret work etc. etc.

But "plywood" was just something I couldn't modify...

So really, my first real building experience was to build a real wood body.

So, I used some mahogany book shelves I had in my bedroom (with out my mom knowing!) and I glued the shelves together to form a body blank.

I then cut the pick guard out of an old white Plexiglas cutting board using a saber saw...

The only tools I had were a Saber saw, a router, a drill and a few basic hand tools.

Anyway the final body shape was very similar to those cool old Ibanez Destroyer II's that Iron Maiden and Def Leopard played.

So there's where it all really started!

From that day on I began modifying all of my guitars to fit my needs.

But eventually it got to the point where modifying guitars just didn't cut it anymore.

So then I decided to officially build my first complete guitar (neck and all!).

Well after building about 5 instruments or so, I really felt like I knew what I was doing.

Then the day came where I sold one of my instruments to a local high end music store for $1200!!

Man, I felt like king of the world!

It was then, that I decided to do this for a living....

Many years have passed since the "Bookshelf/Hondo II" , and so far, I am still inspired to continue expanding on my abilities as a Luthier and musician.