Variety is the Spice of Life

They say “variety is the spice of life” and I have to agree. I haven’t posted anything in a while so here is a potpourri of pictures. I have been enjoying a good mix of building and repair work as of late and have had all kinds of interesting instruments in for repair and customers come to me with interesting build ideas.

As far as the builds go, I got a chance to make a romantic era inspired guitar with a internal top or resonating plate (I’m not sure there is an official term for such a thing). It’s not a design that is common and I found it so very interesting as it bifurcated the air resonance into two equally strong notes. This is such a unique guitar in so many ways in that it uses Rickard Cyclone machines, a zero fret and an 18 hole tie bridge. I really love working with European Maple. It works wonderfully and the figure is eye catching.

The other build pictured is a lattice braced design for a customer. The back and sides will be Mediterranean Cypress and it has a new headstock shape as well. This lattice bracing was a sort of amalgam and tweak of things I’ve seen on other instruments. There are many different lattice braced guitars out there and I am hoping this combination of design elements results in something I really like the sound of and continue to pursue. In one of the pictures you can see the sled I made to cut the lattice with an expanding grid pattern.

Romantic Era Inspired Guitar Project

This was a Romantic era inspired build that was way too fun making and in the end I wish I could have kept for myself. The guitar itself was an amalgam of ideas inspired by guitars from the Romatic era and not a specific copy of any specific instrument. The template was taken from an anonymous Italian instrument c.1840 and I would say that the bridge and headstock shapes are René Lacôte inspired. It is ladder braced in the fashion of so many instruments of that era. The main materials are torrefied Swiss spruce for the top and European flamed maple for the back and sides.

While being Romantic inspired in look and sound, this plays more like a modern classical guitar. The scale length is 650 mm and the width at the nut is 52 mm. Most of the instruments from the period have much smaller dimensions and this setup is much less of an adjustment for classical players. We also went with a tie bridge with 18 holes instead of what would have more typically been a pin bridge from that era. From afar the 6 pearl dots on the bridge invoke the look of pins. The other very modern addition was the use of some Rickard Cyclone 10:1 tuning ratio machines. They are definitely heavier than pegs or the 4:1 planetary pegs but are very smooth and less finicky in use.

The guitar is shipped and I can’t wait for the customer to get it and get his feedback. Sorry there are no videos or recordings but hopefully some will get posted in the near future. Also, I’m taking orders for guitars to be completed next year so please feel free to contact me if you want to get on the list. Pictures are below.

…and here are some videos thanks to Cameron