​​

Big Lou isn't a person you'll meet behind the counter. It's the name behind every wide-neck guitar we've built since 2010, and the story behind that name is one we're proud to tell.  Big Lou Guitars was founded in 2010 by Louis Carroll, an inventor, entrepreneur, and musician who ran into a problem a lot of players quietly live with: he couldn't find a guitar that actually fit his hands.

 

So, he built one.

 

What started as a personal fix turned into something bigger.  Louis realized other players were dealing with the same thing, reaching for instruments that never quite felt like theirs.  His sense of wanting to give back to the music industry led him to share what he'd discovered: guitars built around the player, not the other way around.  That idea became Big Lou.

​

For over a decade, that single idea shaped everything we made: wide necks, room across the fretboard, comfort that lets you actually play instead of fight your instrument.  It's why players with big hands, small hands, beginners, and pros alike have found a home with Big Lou.

​

In 2024, Louis handed the guitars and the mission to Michael Anthony, a musician and luthier who'd developed his own career around instruments and the people who play them.

 

Michael's approach from day one has been simple: when something is built well, you don't reinvent it, you carry it forward. That's the philosophy guiding Big Lou today.

​

Michael Anthony is a musician and luthier originally from Colorado, now based in Murrieta, California. With over 20 years of experience building custom acoustic and electric guitars Michael shares what he loves most about the guitar community, “absolutely everything about it!”  That spirit shows up out of the shop too. Michael volunteers as an instructor with the Guitars for Vets program and regularly donates Big Lou guitars to support their work, putting instruments in the hands of veterans.

​

What's next: the Limited Series

Under Michael's ownership, Big Lou has already introduced its newest line: the Limited Series. It's not a replacement for what Louis built, it's the next chapter of it, carrying the same wide-neck, fit-the-player philosophy forward but with improvements to particular aspects of the standard models.  Michael wanted to offer players options that weren’t available before while improving the quality of the brand across the board.