James Trussart is a musician-turned-luthier. His career began in the 1970s as a violin player in his native Paris. He turned his attention to making violins and then guitars in the 1980s. He is now a resident of southern California, where he makes custom steel-bodied guitars, basses and violins out of metal.

Instruments come in a variety of finishes: from shiny chrome to weathered and rusty. Trussart's "Rust-o-matic" technique involves leaving the guitar body exposed to the elements for several weeks, allowing it to corrode, then sanding it to replicate years of distress, and then finishing it with a clear satin coat. The metal construction leads to a distinctive tone: and many leading players have a Trussart metal guitar in their collection.

To date your Trussart guitar look at the serial number: the first two digits are the year the guitar was made, and the rest are the number of guitars produced to that date.