10 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Knaggs Guitars

The secrets behind the company that makes guitars that dreams are made of   27-May-14

Knaggs have risen to prominence as one of the world's premier luxury guitar brands over the past few years, creating upmarket highly sought after guitars with some very distinctive original designs.

In the latest of our monthly "10 Things You Didn't Know" features, we go behind-the-scenes at Knaggs and find out all there is to know about the company, including some of their best-kept secrets.

1. Joe Knaggs used to be a sought after Quarterback in High School with a famous right arm. He could throw the egg close to 80 yards. Some of them never came back from heaven and are still missing to this day.

Joe is frequently playing Fantasy League and knows every football player's personal back ground including their wives' names currently part of the NFL. He was also pulled out of Math and Science classes to create art work for his school presentations.

2. Peter Wolf (the man behind the marketing at Knaggs) is from Germany and permanently moved to the US in 2003 after going back and forth between the US, Europe and the rest of the World between 1997 and 2003, developing another Maryland guitar company's Business and brand before co-founding Knaggs Guitars with Joe.

Peter was a soccer player in Germany before he got into the Music Industry. According to some people he was one of the fastest left forwards ever...

3. Everyone currently on the Knaggs team is ex-PRS and has been working on/with high-end guitars for decades.

Dean Nitsch, Knaggs' Wood shop Manager is a black belt in Karate and has represented the US in many tournaments around the World. He is not to be messed with ...

4. Knaggs Guitars introduced 9 different original designs/shapes at the Frankfurt Musik Messe 2010. As far as we know, no other company has ever released that many different models at once.

The line includes 10 different body shapes and 3 different head stock shapes, 24.75" and 25.5" scales. All Knaggs instruments have set necks.

5. The Knaggs production facility is an old brick building, which used to be a Baseball Glove factory before WW2.

At some point up to 150 people, mostly woman were making Jack E. Reach high-end, hand-made Baseball Gloves in Greensboro, MD. It still smells like leather in the building to this day and the smell of leather and wood is very soothing people say.

6. All instruments Knaggs Guitars designed and created are named after Native American Indian River names in North-America.

Both Joe and Peter have always been very interested in Native American Indians, their spirit and outlook on life. Every Friday night the tribe is dancing around a huge bonfire to please the gods.

7. Peter was a radio operator in the German army in the middle of the cold war. He used to listen to the Russians behind the Iron curtain, tracking troop movements through Morse code interceptions for NATO.

8. Owners and fans of the Knaggs company refer to themselves as Knaggsters and have been creating strong ties amongst each other.

The Knaggs tribe actually originates from England and it is said they were very creative and of higher blood conquerors. So, essentially it is an English brand. Combine that with the logistical mind and persistence of a German and you have a set-up hard to beat.

9. Together, the Knaggs team has performed live in front of at least 5 Million people if you count music, soccer, American football and Karate. They also have a combined history of a least 180 years of making guitars.

10. Knaggs is a truly International company with a multi-cultural back ground of American, German, Dutch, Argentinean, Italian and Irish descent.

Not got your fill of our "10 things you didn't know" features? Read "10 things you (probably) didn't know about Wampler", by clicking here.