John McQuarrie's relationship with the guitar began in 1972 when at the age of six he started guitar lessons at his local music store in Vancouver. He graduated to taking examinations with the Royal Conservatory of Music, and in high school, began playing guitar in local bands.

In woodwork classes, John soon found that the beauty and character of wood was an irresistible fascination. Using the school's tools, and referencing available literature, John decided to combine his interest in guitar with his love of wood. These forays into lutherie began an obsession with building the cleanest, best sounding, and easiest playing guitars possible. John spent many hours in the school woodwork room, coming up with the ways and means to achieve the necessary results.

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

In 1988, John was introduced to Jean Larrivee, a guitar builder in North Vancouver. Shortly after he was hired by Larrivee and spent seven years learning his craft. This was invaluable experience for John as he learnt all the aspects of guitar construction. Evenings were spent in his sister's garage, which he had taken over as a workshop, and there he would take in repairs from the local music stores. His seven years of building at Larrivee and his reputation as a qualified guitar repairer, in turn, enabled him to take the plunge and start building guitars of his own.

In 1996 at the age of thirty, John began Northwood Guitars. John is now building some of the worlds finest all solid wood acoustic guitars.