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Bohemian Guitars is an Atlanta-based guitar manufacturer famous for putting a creative spin on the guitar, by creating one-of-a-kind electric guitars, basses, mandolins, and ukuleles, using unconventional materials such as vintage oil cans and lunch boxes. Founded by brothers Adam and Shaun Lee who grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company was inspired by the resourceful residents of the local townships who re-purpose used materials into playable instruments.

Boho Series
The Boho Series is a Bohemian Guitars branded line of 6-string oil can guitars. The neck is made of maple wood and has an adjustable truss rod while the fingerboard is made of rosewood. There are currently four designs: Motor Oil, Moonshine, Honey and SurfWax. Each design is equipped with a unique pickup configuration ranging from a double humbucker to a soap bar pickup. These guitars can stand on its own and does not require a guitar stand. Additional features include volume and tone controls and strap buttons.

Vintage Series
The Vintage Series guitars are all one-of-a-kind, upcycled instruments. Built from antique oil cans and tin lunchboxes, every guitar piece is made from recycled components. The neck, hardware, and other assorted parts are saved from used instruments.

Artist Relations
The artist G. Love of G. Love & Special Sauce is an avid supporter of Bohemian Guitars. In addition to G. Love, the Kongos, Guster and David Cook are also ambassadors of Bohemian Guitars.

Far Out Fridays
Far Out Fridays is Bohemian Guitars’ social action initiative aimed at promoting music education and therapy services to children around the world. For every guitar sold on a Friday, Bohemian Guitars donates a guitar to a partner organization. Previous partner organizations include: Guitars Not Guns, Pick With Austin, Music Heals, Triple Play, Fender Music Foundation, The Grammy Foundation, Nordoff-Robbins and Little Kids Rock. Many of the instruments were donated to schools with underfunded music programs and to Boys & Girls Clubs to start their own music programs.

On Bohemian’s charity initiatives, Chief Bohemian Officer Mark Friedman explained, “During our very first meeting we knew music education was going to be a cornerstone of what we did. We wanted to give the gift of music to as many people as we could, whether it be people who bought our guitars, or those that receive our donated instruments or benefit from our guitar auction proceeds.”

History
While brothers Adam and Shaun Lee were visiting their hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa, Shaun saw many of the street musicians using unconventional materials to create music. While he was impressed with the musician’s ingenuity and resourcefulness, he especially appreciated the sound quality of the oil-can guitar. When he arrived back in the U.S., he started building his own oil can and lunchbox guitars out of completely recycled materials in his parents’ basement in Marietta, Georgia.

After initially selling guitars to friends and community members, the brothers realized they had a budding business on their hands. The company was founded in 2012 by Adam Lee (Chief Executive Office), Shaun Lee (Chief Manufacturing Officer) and Mark Friedman (Chief Bohemian Officer).

In order to gain a sense of how successful (or not) the brand would be, in January 2013, Bohemian Guitars launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds to create the Boho Series, a mass-produced self-branded guitar (still made from recycled materials). By the end of the campaign, they had raised $55,000, $20,000 over their initial goal of the $32,000 to meet production costs.

Following its Kickstarter campaign, the company then raised funds through SparkMarket. Utilizing the Investment Georgia Exemption (IGE) legislation, which allows businesses registered and headquartered in the state to raise up to $1M per year from state residents, both accredited and non-accredited investors, Bohemian Guitars was the first to raise money in this fashion in an open (publicly marketed) capital raise since 1933 and the first of the Internet age. In addition to Kickstarter and SparkMarket, the company has also turned to Fundable to raise additional funding.

Retail
The company currently sells its Vintage and Boho (pre-sale) series through its website. The Boho series (Moonshine, Honey and Motor Oil) is also available at Urban Outfitters online store.