Richard Girard is a luthier currently living and working in St. Joseph, Missouri.
I met Richard many years ago when he was working with a band called 'City'.
He was attending Missouri Western State College studying classical guitar at the time. 

Richard has studied with Paul Jacobson and shares a similar philosophy in his work.
His instruments are hand-crafted, one at a time, with attention paid to the requirements
of the buyer.

Richard listened to my wants and appeared at my doorstep one day with
two instruments for me to try.

The instrument I purchased was built in 1998. I had specific requests including
a Fishman pickup system to allow the instrument to be played in a
live situation without losing the tone, feel or look of the instrument.
I did not want any electronics showing except for the single jack at the endpin.

My particular instrument has Cocobola sides and back and a Western Red
Cedar top, a solid Mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard.
It is 640 mm scale and the neck itself is a wide 2.25 in. at the nut.
And you gotta love the headstock and nut!