West Texas
Soul.

A sound all its own.

Original guitars, basses and mandolins from Alpine, Texas, in the Big Bend desert. Crafted by Michael Stevens, a founding builder of the Fender Custom Shop.

Stevens Electrical Instruments: electric guitars and basses in a glowing West Texas desert sunset

The Instruments

Ole Blue turquoise double-neck Stevens Guit-Steel — Photography by Amanda Wyn Chance

The Stevens Guit-Steel. Built from an idea. Made to perform.

Born from Junior Brown’s vision of bringing the electric guitar and steel guitar together in one instrument, the Guit-Steel took shape through Michael Stevens’s ingenuity and exacting craftsmanship. Their years of collaboration united Brown’s unmistakable musical style with Stevens’s ability to solve extraordinary design challenges, creating an instrument as original as the musician who inspired it.

View the Guit-Steel gallery ↗

Choose a model. Step through its photographs.
Get to know the details that make it a Stevens.

The details all in one place.

Fillable price list (PDF) Fillable request & invoice form (PDF) Guitar & bass specifications (PDF)

Les Plank Slant Guitar Explorer Neo Classic Custom Bass Guit-Steel

Meet the Craftsman

Portrait courtesy of Todd Jagger

Michael Stevens builds electric guitars, basses and mandolins that draw on classic designs while carrying a character all their own. Balance, comfortable contours and carefully shaped necks are central to his work, alongside the craftsmanship that supports tone, sustain and tuning stability.

His career began at Guitar Resurrection in Oakland in 1967 and continued in Austin, where he built custom instruments for artists including Junior Brown, Christopher Cross and Paul Glasse. He went on to co-found the Fender Custom Shop with John Page before opening his own shop in Alpine, Texas, in 1990.

A history of original thinking ↗ · The Fender Years ↗

From the first days
of the Dream Factory.

Michael’s place in Fender history is more than a footnote. His double-neck Stratocaster/Esquire, bearing serial number 0001, stands at the beginning of the Custom Shop story. Built for Jimmy Wallace, it joined familiar forms in a distinctly unexpected instrument.

Read the story at Fender ↗

In 2017, Fender invited Michael back for its 30th anniversary Founders Design project. His Esquire reflected the same practical imagination: vintage inspiration, carefully considered contours, and a belief that an instrument’s shape should serve the musician.

Explore Fender’s Founders project ↗

A Lifetime at the Bench

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The Artists

Michael Stevens and Junior Brown with a Guit-Steel.

Meet the musicians who played Stevens instruments and explore their photographs and stories.

View All the Artists ↗

Junior Brown and Michael Stevens’ collaboration

Junior Brown envisioned an instrument that could bring electric guitar and steel guitar together. Michael Stevens helped turn that idea into the Guit-Steel, combining the two in a design built around Brown’s playing. Their collaboration connects a musician’s distinctive approach with a builder’s ability to give it a physical form.

Explore Junior Brown’s photographs and stories ↗

In the Spotlight

Interviews, documentaries, and recorded conversations with Michael Stevens.

Video and audio links open in a new tab.

Meet the Cowboy

Michael Stevens outdoors in a cowboy hat and boots, holding two guitars

A life beyond the workbench...

Before the Alpine workshop, there were years on the road with Arabian show horses. In 1974, Michael stepped away from Guitar Resurrection to pursue what his biography calls his first passion: horses.

He spent the next four years training Arabian show horses and traveling, before returning to guitar work in 1978. Back in Austin, he reunited with Larry Jameson at Guitar Resurrection and resumed the work that would lead to his own distinctive instruments.

That chapter belongs alongside the guitars in Michael’s story. His collection of bits, spurs and Western gear offers another way to explore the cowboy side of his life.

For Sale from the Stevens Collection

Explore collectible bits, spurs and Western gear from Michael’s own collection. The catalog brings together photographs, descriptions and listed prices.

View catalog Download catalog (PDF)

Let’s talk instruments.

stevensguitars.com@gmail.com (432) 364-2487

West Texas Soul.