When Adam Buchwald of Circle Strings first called, he said he was starting a new, more affordable line of guitars to supplement his sales at Circle Strings. Now, when Adam says “more affordable,” he is talking about as opposed to his $15,00-$20,000 handmade guitars under the brand Circle Strings. Adam was making guitars for famous people and people who can treat guitars like investments. So, this new line of guitars, to be called Iris Guitar Company, would be in the $2200-$4000 range. Still a very beautiful instrument in a higher price point, but very affordable for the serious player who wants a world-class instrument. His goal: 20 guitars a year.

So, 20 guitars a year would be considered a big success. That was late in 2019 and today, in mid-2025, Iris Guitar Company is approaching their 1400th guitar! I’d say it’s working.

We started off simple and built from there. Adam wanted a distinct headstock logo design…something that would be instantly recognizable. I’m pretty sure I collected every single headstock design on the internet to study, draw from, and create something classic, timeless, but very unique. As you can see in the photos, the Iris headstock logo is not your typical pretty script logo. It’s bold, it comes from the 1900’s catalog guitar lineage, and it will never be mistaken for anyone else.

Once we had the logo design, we moved to building the first website, labels for the guitars, warranty cards, some t-shirts and that was a good start. It wasn’t long before things picked up…and they picked up quickly. Magazine ads were created, the website expanded as new models were added, and the brand was becoming a hot topic in guitar circles.

We have continued to build the brand as things grow, always staying true to the original mission: building beautiful sounding, affordable instruments for serious guitarists. It doesn’t hurt that Adam Buchwald, his partner Dale Fairbanks, and his world-class team of luthiers are building some of the best sounding instruments in the business.