Not content to simply borrow from its wide range of musical influences, Chicago-based quartet Model N charts new musical territory with a sound built from the ground up: a booming acoustic bass, vintage deep-welled drums, deceptively simple guitar hooks, and powerful songwriting and singing.
If the Velvet Underground and Uncle Tupelo started a garage band, you'd get close to the vibe.
Family traditions of musical exploration — from polka to rock, folk to Italian classics — shaped each member deeply. Gia and Travis, along with his brother Rob, first formed Model N as an acoustic trio, writing and performing with passed-out kids in the next room and slow weekends on the banks of the Mississippi. In 2007, Mike joined behind the drums and opened up entirely new vistas for the band. Like its home city of Chicago: dynamic, eclectic, and solid.
Handbuilt instruments from Kiel, Wisconsin. Father and son. A machinist's precision and a musician's ear. Built for players who demand something more.
Model N Guitars is a family partnership led by designer Travis Rejman and luthier Dan Rejman. We are a small band of family and friends as close as family who share a love for music and a sense that creating something you care about is some of the most important work there is. Merging our acoustic roots with an obsession for craft and tone, you can feel the passion embedded in every component of a hand-made instrument.
Everyone in the family plays an instrument and we believe music is something everyone can make with a little encouragement. With wide ranging interests and tastes across the family — from polka and blues to DIY rock to experimental electronica, we are inspired by it all. We started with a line of guitars because those are the instruments we first fell in love with. Each one is built by hand using materials sourced as close to home as possible.
Dan grew up in Milwaukee, working days as a machinist at Froedtert Malt — supplier to Miller and Anheuser-Busch — and playing guitar nights in polka bands around town. He cut his first record at 17.
Around the time Rollie Fingers and Robin Yount were carrying the Brewers toward the 1982 World Series, Dan left for Waterloo, Iowa, to bring his machinist skills to the John Deere factory. That's where he met Bonnie.
By the early 2000s, Dan and Bonnie had settled in Kiel, Wisconsin — where his love of craft, wood, music, and guitars found its home. Award-winning furniture came first, then formal luthier training under Frank Finocchio and Dale Unger. His machinist's precision, artist's eye, musician's ear, and workingman's ethic produce our beautiful, resonant Midwest-made guitars.
Travis grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, where he spent his afternoons roaming the nature preserve and his summers on the sandbars and backwaters of the Mississippi River.
He's called Chicago home for over 30 years. He plays guitar in Model N and worked the door at Rosa's Blues Lounge for the free admission — and the free beer didn't hurt. Night after night he listened to world-class musicians play live, often heading upstairs for post-show, pre-dawn dinners with the band before going back to work in the morning.
A tone obsessive and vinyl junkie, he digs for records when he travels to cities around the world. Whether acoustic or electric, he's always on the hunt for great tone and exquisite design. The guitars begin as ideas that turn into drawings that Dan crafts into works of art.
A Model N guitar is built to last. No junky parts, no corners cut. The components we don't make ourselves come from other small builders who share our passion for doing things right.
With backgrounds in woodworking and machining, we know that high-quality materials plus great craftsmanship means great tone and longevity. Every detail matters — from the matched quilted tops to the hand-carved bone nuts.
And from our love of the forests and being out in nature, we care deeply about our impact on the environment. We're pushing the boundaries of sustainable building — sourcing our materials locally and with great care, striving to make as many components as possible from sustainable materials we can trace and stand behind.
The band that started it all. Chicago rock. House of Blues. Lincoln Hall. Hear what these guitars were built to play.
