John McQuarrie's relationship with guitars began at the age of six with music lessons at local music shops in the Vancouver area. In time, he graduated to examinations with the Royal Conservatory of Music. During an adolescent accident, John severely injured the little finger of his fretting hand and put down the guitar for several years.

In high-school he began playing guitar again in local bands. It was then he discovered he couldn't afford the guitar he wanted, so he decided to build one for himself. Using the school's shop tools, alongside Dan Zaklan, his shop teacher, and the book Complete Guitar Repair as a reference, these forays into stringed-instrument making began an obsession with building the best sounding, easiest playing guitars possible. John spent many hours in the woodshop, coming up with the ways and means to achieve the necessary results.

The following years were spent dabbling with repairs and building up the collection of specialized tools required to work with stringed-instruments efficiently.

In 1988, John was introduced to Jean Larrivee, who was building electric and steel-string acoustic guitars in North Vancouver, British Columbia. He was hired on shortly thereafter. The 7-year tenure that resulted was an invaluable experience and John was fortunate to be able to work on all aspects of guitar construction during this time.

John McQuarrie, as Northwood Guitars, is now building solid-wood, steel-string guitars and currently offers 4 body designs; cutaway, mini-jumbo, OM and dreadnought. There are several choices for body-woods including mahogany, rosewood and beautifully figured maple.

All instruments are assembled in a climate controlled atmosphere with a relative humidity of 34 percent.This helps to reduce the incidence of cracks appearing, should the guitar be exposed to prolonged arid conditions. The quartersawn mahogany neck is dovetailed into the body, features an adjustable truss rod accessed through the soundhole, and is hand-carved to a very comfortable profile.