Murray Kuun is a music enthusiast, furniture designer and luthier with a preference for natural musical texture, unusual organic shapes & natural finishes over artificial materials and ornamentation. His guitar designs are both original and beautiful: quite unlike anything that has gone before.

All Murray's instruments are individually handmade using fine materials and hardware and he can customise any of the models to suit specific client requirements.

Murray describes how he got started and his design philosophy:

I've always been a fan of music.  Serious music and fun music, all sorts of music.For me, its all about the sound of music.
 
After a "lifetime" in furniture design (www.designsunlimited.co.za), a passion for music and working with wood. I was inspired to build my first violin after a trip to see Michaelangelo's "David" in Florence, in the early 1990's. First, I built a few dozen traditional violins but later experimented with alternative 21st century designs for the ancient instrument.
 
Some years later, frustrated with the violin fraternity's aversion to a modernised violin, I started working on classical guitars with modernised aesthetics. Again, the same frustration.  I then designed and built a jazz archtop guitar as part of my "Norma Jean" family of stringed instruments.  This design went down rather better with the jazz muso's.  In fact, well known archtop guru, Bob Benedetto, said of this instrument [see quote below].
 
I've now moved on to making electric guitars as well.  This genre, more than any other, gives me more opportunity, to add my own personal artistic input to original design instruments.
 
Made to measure
All my instruments are custom made, by hand, with great attention to detail, to suit each individual client/musician. The concept of "boutique", custom made guitars has become a popular phenomenon in many overseas major countries and is slowly catching on here in SA too.

Bob Benedetto, Chairman - Benedetto Guitars, Inc, on one of Murray Kuun's Norma Jean Jazz Archtop guitars:

Thank you for sending the photos of your beautiful archtop guitar.You have an enviable feel for design apart from traditional parameters. As we both know, it's easy to do something different....for the sake of being different. But your exceptional feel for design legitimately sets you apart from the pack. Bravo!! I have no doubt the guitar sounds as good as it looks. Keep up the good work!