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Aaron Green luthier interview

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:47:19 CST

Hi Folks, Aaron Green has been quietly making concert level classical guitars having learnt his skills from the awesome Alan Carruth. Following that he has been honing his aesthetics and techniques from the great guitars of the ages. His sometimes unusual choice of woods and aesthetics caught my eye and he kindly took time out of his busy schedule to speak to us. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full presentation, please check it out here: http://www.guitarbench.com/2010/03/10/aaron-green-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Aaron Green Guitars. | 2009 | Luthier Interview TT: Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, Aaron. I was wondering if you like to share with us how you got started building guitars? AG: I started building guitars in July of 1991 just before my senior year in high school. My teacher was Alan Carruth, whom I had the very good fortune of meeting at a folk festival that was conveniently held at the school I was attending. The festival rented out the space during the spring vacation and I decided to check it out when I found a flier laying in the gutter while I was walking downtown. I saw Alan’s name listed in the crafts exhibition hall and I headed over to the school as fast as I could. I ended up sneaking in as the admission fee was well beyond what I had in my pocket. I was 16 at the time and flat broke. One of the benefits of going to school there is I knew all the ways in and out, esp. if one preferred to do so without being noticed. Previous to this event I had heard from a friend who sounded like he knew what he was talking about that custom guitars cost a lot of money and therefore custom guitar makers made lots of money. I played electric and steelstring guitar but didn’t have the impetus to really pursue that avenue and was looking for something I could do that would allow me to be self employed. My first job was when I was 10 years old and I worked pretty much after school and weekend jobs since then so I had enough experience to know that I didn’t really like working for someone else. Making tons of money was never a strong desire but making a living was so I started doing all the research I could. I even did a report for English Class on guitarmaking when I was assigned one of those “what do you want to do with your life” kind of things they throw at you. The upshot was I got very little by the way of real information and lots of discouragement. I called all the local music stores and spoke with their resident “luthiers” and was told to forget it. I did find out about the Roberto Venn School of Lutherie and that seemed like a likely choice for me, until I met Alan that is. When I met Alan it was the first day of the festival which lasted for three days. He had a booth full of instruments, not just guitars but lap dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, a harp, violins, violas as well as flat top and an archtop guitar. I introduced myself and pretty much spent the next three days in his booth. I kind of feel bad about that now, but it was like my prayers had been answered and I just couldn’t stop asking him questions and playing his guitars. He was and is the most generous person I have ever met and by the end of the festival I finally asked him to teach me and he said yes.. TT: So you were informally apprenticed to Al? AG: In the traditional sense I guess you would call it informal. I didn’t live with him and his family, I didn’t marry his daughter and I didn’t work on his instruments. However he was my teacher and I was his student and the instruction I received was one on one. The first year I was still in school so I would come to his shop on friday afternoon and work until it was time to go home. He lived in a town about a half hour car ride from where I lived so once I got my drivers license that summer after our first meeting, I began building a guitar. It was the highlight of my life at that point, I couldn’t wait for friday afternoon to come around and I would think a lot about things to talk about with him. Alan is an incredibly well educated man and our conversations while we worked ranged all over from politics, history, art, music, literature and of course instruments and acoustics. Our conversations are what I loved and miss most about my time with him. His shop was tiny, in a kind of basement addition to his house which he heated with a woodstove (and always dressed a lot warmer than me so I got used to being cold in the winter) and was mostly devoid of the machinery, jigs and fixtures that you normally see in luthier’s shops. He had a bandsaw, a drill press and a jointer, which was always super sharp. He worked in a machine shop back in time in the Navy so he knew a lot about machinery but mostly we used handtools. It took me a long time to build that first guitar but I really knew how to use a plane, chisels and how to keep them sharp. Alan was and is heavily involved in the science of instrument acoustics, his violin making teacher having been the late Carleen Hutchins. So on top of the physical education I got in actually how to put an instrument together, I got a very in depth education about what makes them tick and how to control that. In a nutshell he always stressed flexibility in one’s work, being able to adjust your approach to the materials you are using and the needs of the musician you are working for. He also is very practical and doesn’t get swept away with his theories to the point of trying to make reality conform to them, which is all too often the case and where we get the term “pseudo-science”. Alan is a very good scientist. The next summer (in 1992) Alan was to give a lecture on acoustics at the Guild of American Luthiers convention in Vermilion, South Dakota. I just graduated from high school and had decided to put off college and continue building guitars. I asked if I could come along and this was the real turning point in my own lutherie pursuits as it was there that I discovered the classical guitar and my desire to build them. The trip out to the convention took four days and we camped at night along the way. Our first stop was in New Jersey to see Carleen and pick up some of her instruments for the convention. The convention itself was such a blast I can’t even convey it in words. I had never met any other instrument makers besides my teacher and now I was surrounded by them. I met lots of great people, saw lots of guitars, lots of wood and had the time of my life. TT: And after learning from Al you started out on your own? AG: I stayed on with Al for three years. The first one was in his home shop but after the GAL convention he and another builder were talking about joining forces and renting a shop space with some kind of commercial visibility. Alan talked about it with me when I was with him and kept me up to date on the spaces they checked out. It was obvious to him that I wanted to continue building and he was making this new venture available to me, at least in the sense that I would have some bench space and keep on working. That shop came to be in Waltham Mass. which is a town about a half hour from Boston. It was a rundown mill town that has come up a lot in the world since then but there was plenty of space to be had and it was relatively cheap. As a result there were (and are) a lot of artists there and a few other luthiers (all violin makers) as well. I was out of high school now so I had a day job at a retail store and built guitars in the evenings and weekends. After a couple of years there it was time to go and start out on my own. I was sorry to leave but it forced me to get serious and give it my all to try and make a go of guitarmaking. I had many side jobs to support my guitarmaking habit. I am pretty sure that from age 18 to 25 I didn’t have a single day off where I wasn’t either working on guitars or working for someone else. I looked for jobs that would allow me to spend as much time in the shop as I could. I worked in halfway houses for the mentally ill (and challenged), delivered newspapers at 4 in the morning, telemarketed for a month or two before my conscience caught up with me, worked for some friends in a startup high end chocolate shop among other things. I found shop space right up the street from Al, which made me very happy, on the top floor corner of an old office building right in the middle of Waltham center. It was a fairly big space (750 sq feet) for me and was entirely walled with these huge floor to ceiling arched windows overlooking the town common and the busiest intersection in the known universe. My windows faced east and south so it got awfully warm up there, which was great in the winter and less so in the summer. I took to working without a shirt in the summer as it was often 100 degrees in there. I was on constant display to the other office buildings and the traffic so I heard a lot of stories about myself. I was in this space from 1994 to 2008. As I had dedicated myself to classical and flamenco guitars it became evident that I needed exposure to good musicians to help me develop my guitars. I joined the Boston Classical Guitar Society and took a spot on the board of directors putting together the calendar for the newsletter. I got to meet a lot of the local players and took part in the guitar festivals the Society would put on. At one meeting we were discussing an upcoming concert we were promoting. The artist was Dennis Koster, the famous classical and flamenco guitarist. I was excited to meet him, or at least trying to meet him. I didn’t want the others to think I was pushing myself onto unsuspecting artists but when the conversation came around about how to get him up to Boston from New York City, I said I was going to be in New York anyways and would be happy to give him a ride. Complete lie but I guess no one cared as it was saving the society a plane ticket (there and back). I got in touch with Dennis and went to New York in the spring of 1995 to get him. This was singularly the smartest thing I have done in my career. Dennis became my second teacher, he made it possible for me to see on a regular basis some of the finest guitars made by some of the finest luthiers, he can dissect how a guitar sounds and plays better than anyone I have ever met and through him I have met countless guitarists many of whom are my clients, good friends or both. He is my partner in all things guitars and one of my closest friends in life. New York has become my center of activity and though I build guitars for people all over the world now, I can trace many of them back to my circle in New York. My trips are nonstop action packed with delivering and showing guitars to people, going to see great guitars when the opportunity comes around, going to concerts and museums, hanging out with the likes of Fred Hand, Ben Verdery, David Leisner,. Gene Bertoncini, people who form the core of the New York guitar scene. It is always inspiring for me and makes me happy that I do what I do. TT: Most of our readers are steel string players, and having seen some of the great classical guitars, would you mind telling us a little about some of the schools of constuction and how your guitars have been influenced by them? AG: Sure, it is important to remember that today what we call classical and flamenco guitars, regardless of the design or country of origin is directly influenced by the Spanish guitar. Prior to this guitars being built in Europe were very different, good examples would be Lacote, from France, Panormo, from England and even the guitars of C.F Martin senior. In the mid 1800’s a builder named Antonio de Torres came to be regarded as the premier builder in Spain and credited with bringing together a number of aspects of what was going on around him, to create the guitar as we see it today. You can find guitars by other builders in his time, Soto y Solares for example, that look very similar and have the same general size, scale length etc. as Torres. So he can’t be called the inventor of the modern guitar but he certainly took it to the highest level in his lifetime. It took Andres Segovia though to really solidify the Spanish guitar as the modern classical guitar. Early in his career Hermann Hauser built European style guitars (among other instruments), until a meeting with Segovia in the 1920’s, I believe. He studied Segovia’s Manuel Ramirez guitar, which was directly influenced by the guitars of Antonio de Torres and began building in the Spanish style. Hauser guitars are considered to cornerstone of the German school of guitarmaking. Or at least the “traditional” school. When talking about schools of guitarmaking you quickly realize the enormous amount of cross fertilization that goes on. A great example of this cross fertilization I am referring to would be what is known as the Granada school. The dean, as it were, of that region is Antonio Marin Montero. There are many builders in that area who build guitars very similar in body shape and overall characteristics to his. However his guitars, since the late 70’s are directly influenced by Robert Bouchet, the most important French builder of the 20th century. I once had my hands on one of his (Marin) guitars that was a very obvious Ramirez copy, prior to his switch to his interpretation of Bouchet’s style. It was an amazing guitar too, one of the best I have seen. Bouchet was self taught but he hung out with a Spanish guitarmaker working in Paris named Ramirez, although he was not related, directly anyways, to the famous Ramirez family of Madrid. These days we have many modern takes on the “classical” guitar, from elevated fingerboard, to composite tops to carbon fiber reinforced lattice braced guitars. There is always one maker with whom these innovations are associated, in that order you would say, Thomas Humphrey, Mattias Dammann and Greg Smallman. In all three cases you find a very unique instrument that has gained acceptance and has inspired other builders around the world. In some cases other builders will copy them faithfully or use them as a point of departure. Personally I like what Tom Humphrey once said, to paraphrase, “The tradition of the guitar is change. And that is because the musicians are saying “give us more”. You can’t really put it any better than that. In the end, the impetus is always (or should be) to build the best instrument for the musicians, who are the final arbiter in what works and what doesn’t. I don’t necessarily think this means you have to throw out what went on before or even make discernible physical changes to the design to come up with something that is unique, you just need to listen to the guitarists who you are either working for or want to work for. So for me that meant going to NYC early in my career and studying lots of guitars and showing my work to the very best guitarists I can find. New York is the perfect place for this as the guitarists there have the biggest choices of guitars out there and as such, don’t cut you any slack, or anyone else for that matter. So I knew whatever feedback I was getting was the real thing. At this point I have very definite opinions about the kind of guitar I want to build I believe that the best guitar is the most balanced guitar, this not only refers to the response across the registers of the instrument but balanced in such a way that all it’s characteristics come out and are in a harmonious relationship to each other. I don’t want a loud guitar just for the sake of volume nor do I want a beautiful sounding guitar that is quiet. A great tone is nice but if it doesn’t come with a broad palette that the guitarist can make use of then you have what I call a “one trick pony”. The very best guitars I have seen have always been extremely flexible in this regard. I have a client who owns a very famous guitar, the maker is Barbero and it was the guitar that Sabicas used to record “Flamenco Puro”, a landmark album by the greatest flamenco guitarist of all time, in my opinion. This instrument is so alive and so inspiring. When Dennis played it for me he went from a really fast and aggressive Bulerias ( a form of flamenco) straight into the famous Chaccone by J.S Bach. Not only did the guitar not miss a beat but the sound was transformed by how Dennis was playing it. It went from razor sharp machine gun attack to this great bloom of profound tone and color. It also demonstrated to me that whatever you call the guitar, classical, flamenco, whatever….is solely dictated by the guitarist. I build guitars for guitarists and try my best to suit their needs and wants. As far as the names that get attached to them ,I try not to let get in the way of seeing clearly what it is I need to do. TT: So really the best of the best can do everything and do it well? AG: Well, yes and no. Yes in that a great instrument, in my opinion, will have the qualities needed for whatever music is being played on it, within reason of course. Even so you would be hard pressed to find a guitar that all guitarists would agree upon or at least not put in one category or another. I often build guitars for people who play both classical and flamenco music and this question often comes up. I tell them I don’t know any classical guitarists who wouldn’t want a guitar that was as fast and immediate as a flamenco or for that matter, had the clarity and separation of voices you find in the best flamenco guitars. I also don’t think many flamenco guitarists would object to a guitar that had the depth, flexibility and profundity of tone that you find in a great classical guitar. This isn’t to say though that one size can fit all. There is always the matter of how well that particular instrument works for that particular player. When I build a guitar I have to consider very deeply my client’s approach to playing and what he or she needs and wants to hear. Every guitar will have it’s own natural center of sound and when building for the individual you have to understand where that needs to be for the guitar to work for them. The flexibility of an instrument is in how far away from that center the guitarist can take the sound of the guitar. This obviously is equally dependent on the skill of the guitarist. They have to know what they want to hear and how to get it. Julian Bream once said that about great Hauser (senior) guitars. He said they will do whatever you want them to do provided you know how to do it. In the end there is an enormous amount of room in all of this for personal taste and opinion, which is a very good thing. This is why we see so many fine builders and a great deal of individuality out there in the world of the guitar. Without that things would be much more restricted and homogenized. TT: Thank you for that. I suppose it’s about time to ask you about tonewoods and the finish you prefer… AG: I am a pretty conservative builder in both regards. When it comes to the woods I use, my preference is not entirely dependent on any specific species rather the mechanical and acoustic properties of the individual piece of wood I am considering using. One thing I can say across the board is the woods must be very well cut and very well seasoned. However there is a good reason that certain woods are traditionally used for guitars and that is they are very well suited for the task. They work for how the design of the guitar has evolved and what people want to hear. But in the end I pick them based on how they sound when I tap them, how they feel when I handle them and how well they will endure the stresses of being guitars. I love Brazilian rosewood for the backs and sides of my guitars but frankly most of what you find is not really well suited for guitars. It is a notoriously unstable wood to begin with so unless you are dealing with well cut wood that has been around long enough to do whatever it is going to do, be it warp or crack, it probably does not have the acoustic properties that will make it a superior tonewood. Whatever woods you use the trick is realizing the maximum potential of that piece of wood and bringing all the components of the guitar together in a harmonious relationship. Long story short, it’s really easy to screw up great and expensive wood, so using them brings no promises. So it’s untrue that you have to use the most expensive and rare woods to create a masterpiece. I just had my hands on a Fleta today that is the very best guitar by that maker I have ever seen and it’s plain Indian rosewood for the back and sides with a nice but nothing special cedar top. Still and all it’s an inspired guitar and all the stars aligned as it were. So I have spent a lot of time gathering my materials, trying always to make sure that they are superior tonewoods. As I said, I love great Brazilian rosewood, but I also use Madagascar rosewood and Indian rosewood and have a few sets of Honduran rosewood as well as African Blackwood. I build a lot of guitars out of Mediterranean Cypress which can build a great classical guitar as well as being the traditional wood for flamenco. I have also used Koa, Maple and Walnut in the past. For my tops I use either European spruce or Engelmann spruce and Western red cedar. All these materials can bring something special to the table and the job of the luthier is to adjust his or her approach to realize each piece’s maximum potential for whatever the desired end result is. For the last 16 years or so I have french polished my guitars, which is an alcohol based shellac finish applied with a rag, basically. It is a very beautiful finish and can be quite strong if the shellac is high quality and unrefined, as well as given the time to fully cure. It is a very labor intensive finish to say the least. It has the advantage of being very easy to fix and being non toxic, which is important to me. I have never worked in a shop with great ventilation certainly not what you would need if you were working with lacquer so it was not a hard choice to learn to french polish. I also really like the process although I am looking for something quicker as long as it is beautiful and durable. Once I move into my new studio, which will have a dedicated finishing room, I will look into an oil based varnish for the back, sides and necks of my guitars. I will also french polish the tops as I think it has the least acoustical impact and the top is where it counts the most. Oil based varnishes are very strong and beautiful and I am looking forward to eventually making the switch. TT: I gather that Classical players are quite conservative so I was wondering how the koa and walnut guitars have sounded and been received? AG: You see some use of alternative woods, ie not rosewood in classical guitars these days but they still are the exception. I have never used walnut for a classical, although I did build a steelstring guitar in walnut years ago. I’ve built three steelstring guitars so far, I don’t really see myself building any more but you never know. I know from handling sets of walnut that in many ways it is similar to maple. I use a lot of walnut in furniture projects which I like to do for our home. For furniture walnut and flame maple is my all time favorite combination. It’s nice to do something in wood working where I don’t have to worry about how it is going to sound. I built one guitar in Koa and I found it to be a very nice wood, although it is very different than the usual rosewoods I use. I designed the guitar around it in many ways. It was a smaller bodied guitar and was a very sweet and full sounding guitar. The smaller shape I thought would help with the treble response and the set struck me as somewhat similar to mahogany in how it sounded when I tapped it. I was certain that building a round and rich sounding guitar was not going to be an issue but the power in the trebles might. The smaller shape also lends itself to very sensitive instruments, tonally speaking and as such the guitar had a fairly broad palette, which was another thing I was concerned about in using that set. The choice to use Koa at all was at the request of my client. He came up to my shop to visit when I was building a guitar for him, in Brazilian and spruce and saw this set of koa I happened to have. He has a real sense of aesthetics and fell in love with the way the set looked. He just left it up to me to figure out how best to make this set work for one of my guitars and I know him well enough to know in what direction I should go aesthetically as well. It’s a very fancy guitar and similar in it’s design to the maple guitar I built for La Bella strings, which is featured on their 2001 series string packs. In the end it is going to be the sound that sells the guitars. I know for a fact that any player who plays guitar for a living is only looking for the very best sounding (and playing) guitar they can find. If the guitar was made from an orange crate it wouldn’t matter one bit, as long as it delivered the goods. The larger guitar buying crowd is made of up people who listen with their ears, those who listen with their eyes or wallets and all those in between. The traditional woods as I said, are traditional for a very good reason but there are others out there that can be used with great success. As time passes they will most likely find more and more room in the world of the guitar. TT: With your experience working with steel strings, would you say that the construction behind the steel vs nylon is vastly different? AG: In my career I’ve built three steelstring guitars, all of them very early on. My first guitar was a huge 12 string with a cutaway, then my 3rd and 5th guitars were both small bodied steelstrings, one in walnut and the other maple. So from personal experience I don’t really have the ability to make any comparisons between the construction methods of the two with any sense of reality. Alan Carruth is probably most well known for his steel string guitars, although he builds everything under the sun. Obviously from him I got the genesis of my whole approach to building so I guess I could say that like any other instrument you have to understand what you are trying to do, who you are doing it for and what you are doing it with. In that sense there is no difference at all. In my area there are some real world class steel string builders who are friends of mine. T.J Thompson has his shop a few towns over from me and over the years I have learned a lot from his example. I have admired his work for years and hold him in very high regard. I met him very early in my career and it was from him I learned the absolute secret to doing precise and high level work. It was a lesson I’ll never forget and I don’t even think he was aware of it. I went to his shop and showed him a guitar that was probably my 15th or so. After chatting a bit he started working again while we continued to talk. After a little bit of working on this guitar part, he turned on his shop vac and sucked up the tiny amount of shavings, put the hose down and got back to work. I looked around his shop and saw it was very neat and organized, esp, considering the amount of stuff in there and overall it has a very nice feeling to it, not chaotic or distracting at all. I went back to my shop, cleaned it from top to bottom, organized the hell out of it and kept my shop vac on permanent standby. My work got a lot better, not by accident but by changing my attitude and creating an environment that was conducive to allowing me to get into that zone. Bill Tippin is a friend who does beautiful work. I have shopped out work to him on a few occasions over the years, mostly spray work on some repairs. His shop is in Marblehead, which is on the coast and it is always a great learning experience to see how other guys work. He is very dedicated and has a great sense of aesthetics, which I love. He built a guitar for my Aikido teacher a few years back and it is just magnificent. Julius Borges is another buddy of mine and he is in the same town as me. He moved here a year or so before I did and we were both unaware that we lived and worked in the same town till we bumped into each other at the local wine shop. Which was a great way to come up with an excuse to hang out. He does great work and we have talked a lot about our work and how to do things better and quicker. His guitars are just gorgeous. He recently finished a shop conversion project very similar to mine and was a wealth of information in that process. My new shop will hopefully be done in the not too distant future and I am very grateful to Julius for all the insight and information he shared, which kept me from making at least one huge mistake and probably a few others as well. What I have learned from all these guys from watching how they approach building steelstring guitars is that if you desire to do the very best you can, it is going to take a lot of sweat and experience. The challenges of building a great steelstring guitar may be a little different than the challenges you face with classicals, simply because of the difference between steel and nylon strings. I’ve had my hands on some very early Martins, when the labels read “Martin and Coupa” with their NYC address with the distinction that they were “upstairs”. Those guitars were intended for gut strings, built in the European tradition, and a couple of them have been really great instruments. The X brace design that Martin later became known for didn’t work as well for gut as it did for steel. If I remember correctly switch came about so the guitars could compete, volume wise, with banjos in ensemble situations or maybe is was so they could replace banjos, I don’t remember. In any case it is a classic example of a need and the most successful attempt at satisfying that need. Which is how evolution works. The very best steelstrings I have seen have been real orchestral instruments, very complex tonally and flexible to changes in tone and dynamics. Which simply means they are great instruments. I can’t imagine that it is any easier to do that in steel strings than it is in nylon. TT: Thanks for that Aaron, how would advise a player who is looking to order a guitar for the first time? AG: My advice would be to become as clear as possible in your own mind exactly what it is you are looking for in a guitar. Listen to lots of guitarists, try lots of guitars. If you find one that you love, then that’s the guitar for you, regardless of what the label says. In terms of commissioning a guitar, that is where my first piece of advice is the most important, as the success of the venture has a lot to do with the communication between the player and builder. I spend a lot of time establishing with my clients what it is they have in mind. I try to do it in person whenever possible as having guitars in hand remove the subjective nature of words but I have a way of getting around that when I am working with clients in other countries or over distances that make hanging out in person impossible. I talk about music, what they like to listen to, who’s tone, style of playing they admire or don’t, what guitars they have tried that felt or sounded good to them… or not. I find that by talking about other guitarists and guitars we inject a little more reality into the conversation. I’ll say, what do you think of so and so’s sound? I may call it bright, you may call it metallic, it doesn’t matter because we both can hear it and all you have to say is I like that or I don’t. My other piece of advice is when dealing with the luthier you have decided upon, listen to them and go with their suggestions. There is enough information out there on materials and such to be extremely misleading. Every luthier, with enough experience, knows for themselves what they get from various materials and how to bring them all together to come up with the desired end result. You as the client are looking for the guitar that fits you best and unless you are also the builder, you have to put your trust in the person who is building the guitar to make the right decisions. All the more reason to be very clear as to what you are expecting, sonically and well as how it will play. TT: Thanks for speaking to us Aaron. Before we go, I was wondering if you wanted to add anything to our interview? AG: The only thing I can think of is to thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts on this instrument we all love and to thank all the people, both those mentioned and those I haven’t, who have helped me along this path. I have been very fortunate and am grateful that I can spend my days building guitars for people. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures & MP3s courtesy of Aaron Green © individuals 2009

Guitar Build - Bastogne Walnut and Bearclaw

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 15:10:42 CST

I thought I would share some pictures of the construction of a guitar I completed about a year and a half ago. The Bastogne walnut for the back and sides came from a pecan and walnut farmer I met at the SuperGrass Festival in Bakersfield about three years ago. I bought the bearclaw Sitka spruce for the top from a supplier I encountered on Ebay. The neck is a three-piece laminate of curly red maple and Bolivian rosewood, with a Macassar ebony fingerboard. I started taking pictures after the braces had been installed on the top. As you can see, the rosette has already been done as well. I use the StewMac rosette cutter with a Dremel to cut the channels for the rosette. [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7_Topsideoftop_01.JPG[/img] [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7_BackSideofTop_01.JPG[/img] The next two pictures are of the back after the braces and center strip had been done: [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7_BackofBack_01.JPG[/img] [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7_InsideofBack_01.JPG[/img] I started work on two guitars at the same time. These are the side sets for both; the other is Indian rosewood. [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7N8_SideSets_01.JPG[/img] The neck blanks for the two guitars - the other one is Honduran mahogany: [img]http://www.cyrguitars.com/N7N8_NeckBlanks_01.JPG[/img] --Steve

Bone Saddles, Pins

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 16:26:49 CST

Ive been toying with the idea of throwing a bone bridge my on guitar. I was wondering what your experiences are with changing out synthetic parts for bone parts. I have Blueridge Br-40. I used to have a Martin D-40 but had to sell it to pay something off. So I was trying to see if theres a way I can help open it up a little bit more. Wheres a good place to buy pre-cut saddles? Thanks All

Bridge pin bloggery

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:50:28 CST

For a bit of a change I decided to put ebony bridge pins back on the Workhorse, having used water buffalo horn for a while. The result was more richness and volume in the bass, losing a little bit of the high mid and presence in the process. Not better or worse, just different - I suppose this is where pick material also comes into play if I want to get some more of the "zing". Might keep these on for a while or swap back at the next string change. I could mix and match, but the pins are a different style and it looks odd. Yes, these things do matter. :D

string breakage

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:07:28 CST

I have a young friend who likes to use alternate tunings and keeps breaking the high e string. I suspect it is the way he is winding the string but could be the gauge he uses,any other possible causes? He has gotten fearful of tuning up to standard as he can't afford to keep replaceing it. P.s. it breaks above the or at the nut.

Re-gluing tuner buttons

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:56:18 CST

Hello Gentlemen, Does anyone have a recommended glue and/or method for re-gluing an old tuner button on an Old Kraftsman?

1939 Martin D28 profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:23:43 CST

For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on a 1939 Martin D28 as part of our guitar database. We would appreciate any improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences - we'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! This is by no means complete a profile, so feel free to add to what we already have. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to: http://www.guitarbench.com/2010/02/24/1939-martin-d-28-sn-72672-guitar-database/ for the full presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the profile for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Martin | D-28 | 1939 | SN:72672 All pictures – Click to enlarge!- Highly recommended Please email with any corrections/ additional info We aim to keep each entry as complete as possible & your help is appreciated! e Luthier Facts : Name: Martin Location: Nazereth, PA Wait list: Sockists Worldwide Taking Orders?: Yes, standard & customs RIYL: Martin have set the benchmark for a lot of builders and manufacturers. Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like space * Model: D-28 * Serial no: 72672 * Year: 1939 * Top: Adirondack Spruce * Back and sides: Brazilian Rosewood * Scalloped bracing * Neck: Mahogany * Purfling: Herringbone * Fingerboard: Ebony * Bridge: Ebony * Nut Width: 1 3/4#8243; * String Spacing: 2 1/4#8243; * Scale: 25.4#8243; * Body Length: 19 7/8#8243; * Lower Bout: 15 5/8#8243; * Upper Bout: 11 3/8#8243; * Body Depth: 3 3/4#8243;, 4 3/4#8243; spac sapce This is an early 1939 D-28 from Martin. The company has really built it’s reputation on this model and some 70 years after this particular guitar was built, the D28 is still one of Martin’s most popular models. The dealer who was selling the guitar had this to say:”.. is 100% original and repair free with the exception of a closed but not cleated 4 ½” hairline back crack that starts at the binding, 2 “ to the right of the center seam marketry at the bottom bout of the guitar as seen in the photo. There is also an untouched, fine hairline crack running lengthwise on the fingerboard under the D string running from the 14th fret to the end of the board. I couldn’t get it to show up with the flash but you can barely make it out in the macro shot. There is also an untouched tiny hairline, almost invisible crack going from string hole to string hole on the bridge that is barely perceptible both in the photo and to the naked eye. That being said, as you can see by the photos, the guitar is in wonderful original condition especially for a guitar that will be 80 years old next year. The playability is superlative and the action is “just right” for a flat picker. The guitar appears never to have had a neck set nor is it anywhere close to needing one having lots of height left on the saddle. This instrument is loud and proud and will send banjos running for cover. The owner and I have had the chance to compare it to several other wonderful D28s including a one of a kind magical sounding 66 D-28, a really nice 58 D28 and a 44 D28. It was evident why 39’s are held in such high esteem. It crushed every one of them including the 44 which hung its head in shame.”

Belongs In The Dumpster

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:44:20 CST

How do I (gently) explain this diagnosis to the owner? I agreed to restring a guitar for an aquaintance. Fine. She provided a $20 set of strings. 1. I took all the strings off so I could use a dish rag to wipe the dirt and food off the front and fretboard. Pick guard long gone except for the glue profile. 2. The fretboard is BADLY, BADLY grooved to #5+ and the so are all the frets to maybe #7 or #10. 3. Several of the tuners were loose, one tuner peg badly bent. So I flipped the git over to snug up the tuner screws (Gibson Deluxe retrofit). 4. 5 of the tuner collars and the nut fell on the floor. Saddle stayed on the table pad. So I washed the back and sides. 5. Reseated the collars, a dab of glue on the nut and restrung the "thing". 6. G (3) string nut slot so worn that the string rests on the first fret! 7. You don't need much imagination to picture the cosmetic appearance of this. Guitar is a 40(?) yr old Yamaha 140 series. How can I tell her is would be a mercy killing?

Legend of the Golden Spruce

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:58:33 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a article on the Golden Spruce as part of my ongoing tonewood database. Any improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/02/17/the-legend-of-the-golden-spruce-final-needs-amazon-and-internal-links/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the article for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Six String Nation Guitar & the Golden Spruce | Feature Article In 1997, a mentally unstable, unemployed forest engineer committed murder by the lonely banks of the Yakoun River in British Columbia. Thomas Grant Hadwin didn’t murder a man, but rather he murdered a tree and the hopes of a generation. That tree was Kiidk’yaas (”ancient tree”) or better known as the Golden Spruce. It was Sitka Spruce tree with a rare genetic mutation: it lacked 80% of a normal tree’s chlorophyll. The resulting needles were yellow-gold, producing a stunning golden foliage visible for all to see. This was remarkable enough to be granted a special scientific name: Picea sitchensis ‘Aurea.’ The Kiidk’yaas grew in Haida Gawii, British Columbia and was revered by the Haida First Nation living there. In a tale mirroring the Biblical events in which Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt, the Haida tell, of an old man and a young boy running from their village, buried with snow as punishment for its inhabitant’s wicked actions. Against the old man’s warnings, the boy, like Lot’s wife, looked back upon the destruction and was turned into Kiidk’yaas. The legend also stated that the tree would be admired until the last generation. It’s felling at the hands of Hadwin provoked shock within the Haida community. Thomas Grant Hadwin was a Canadian forest engineer. Hadwin was born in 1948, British Columbia into a family was active in the logging industry. Hadwin himself became a logger and subsequently, a logging engineer. He made a living surveying logging road but soon saw ecological impacts of the logging industry. He became disillusioned. His form of environmentalism, despite advocating sustainable forestry was consisted of abrasive and antagonistic letters to politicians and lumber company management. As his protests reached fever pitch, to the worry of his family and friends, he began to behave bizzarely and began to exhibit signs of mental instability. In Hadwin’s mind, the public was missing the forest for the tree. And that tree was the Kiidk’yaas. His plan was to fell that tree to call attention to this error and provoke protest against the lumber companies. On January of 1997, Hadwin made a trip to Queen Charlotte Islands. In the early hours of the morning of January 20th, 1997, Hadwin executed his plan. Swimming across the Yakoun river he made a series of deep cuts in the Golden Spruce. Triumphant, Hadwin faxed and mailed his confession to news agencies and lumber companied. He called it a ‘wake-up call’. Held only by a thin colum, the Kiidk’yaas fell two days later in strong winds. The act of eco-terrorism provoked outrage and protest, but not against the lumber companies but against Hadwin. Amidst blazing media coverage, Hadwin was arrested and ordered to stand trial on the islands. He was released on bail but failed to appear for his court appointment. Hadwin had tried to cross the Hecate Strait by kayak. He was last seen on the 14th of February, near Prince Rupert in rough weather. In June 1997, his empty kayak and gear were found on an uninhabited island 110 km northwest of Prince Rupert leading to speculation he faked his own death. Thomas Grant Hadwin, he man who killed the Kiidk’yaas was never seen again. The Kiidk’yaas lives on. New Trees That was not the end of the Golden Spruce though. Two decades earlier, a group of botanists from the University of British Columbia had taken cuttings from Kiidk’yaas and grafted them onto an ordinary sitka spruce. The resulting saplings had, like their parent, golden needles. The trees were grown in the Botanical Garden and centre for plant research. News of the tree’s destruction lead to the centre offering one of the young trees to the Haida. The Haida accepted, planting it nearby the original Kiidk’yaas. As music In 1995, radio host and writier Jowi Taylor and luthier George Rizsanyi started a project known as the Six String Nation. In the form of a guitar, Taylor and Rizsanyi have incorporated over sixty pieces of historically significant materials from Canada. These include Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle; Rocket Richard’s Stanley Cup ring and of course, the Kiidk’yaas. A section of the trunk was cut and used for the soundboard of the guitar… read more on the Six String Nation guitar in our upcoming feature article.

Humidity

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:26:28 CST

Anyone have a good rule of thumb on keeping my Seagull humidified...I am in Reno, NV and it goes from 50% to 22% at the drop of a hat... Have been keeping a green weenie inside. Just wanting some additional input to keep my sweet sounding Gull from cracking. Thanks, Reno

Sitka Spruce tonewood Profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:25:39 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on Sitka Spruce as part of my ongoing tonewood database. Any improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/02/10/sitka-spruce-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the article for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Picea Sitchensis | Tonewood Profile | ”Sitka Spruce” Quick Facts Scientific name: Picea Sitchensis Trade names: Sitka Spruce Janka: 510 Uses: Tops RIYL: Spruce Bling factor: Can have bearclaw Availability: Good at present CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Bling factor rated out of a maximum of 10, based on the most highly figured sets we have seen. Natural History Sitka spruce is a coniferous evergreen tree ranging from Western Alaska to California. It is the third largest conifer topped only by the Coastal Redwood and Douglas-fir and is the largest spruce in the world. Heights up to 100m and trunk diameters to 7m have been recorded. Sitka spruce can be long lived with trees over 700 years old documented. However, large size does not indicate age as it can grow rapidly. One individual, the Queets Spruce is 350-450 years old and adds grows more than a cubic meter of wood annually. Famous trees Kiidk’yaas (”ancient tree”) also known as the Golden Spruce. This was a Sitka spruce growing on the Banks of the Yakoun River in Haida Gawii, British Columbia. Due to a rare genetic mutation, it’s needles were golden instead of green in color. Although revered by the Haida First Nation living on the island, it was felled by an unemployed logger to highlight the damage caused by logging companies. Read more about the Golden Spruce in my upcoming article, Golden Spruce and the Six String Nation. Queets Spruce This is a Sitka spruce tree growing near the Queets River in Olympic National Park. It is the largest spruce in the world with a trunk volume of 337 m³ (11,901 cubic feet) and an estimate age of 350-450 years. Status Heavily logged for more than a century, only a remnant of the sitka spruce forest remains along the Northwest coast of the United States. However, it has been successfully introduced into Britain and northern Europe where it is now widely grown for lumber. Physical properties Sitka spruce is creamy white with a pink tinge. It has long wood fibers, great resonance, dimensional stability and good gluing properties. These provide it with resilience and elasticity. It has a Janka rating of 510 lbf and a spefici gravity of 0.35. As a tonewood… Sitka spruce is stiff along and across the grain with a characteristically light weight. This creates a high velocity of sound. It is currently the industry standard wood and is widely used by most major and small shop companies. Subjective tone… My experience with Sitka spruce is that it has a strong fundamental tone with relatively few overtones. This leads to a direct, punchy tone with great headroom. Dana Bourgeois wrote: “Sitka is an excellent choice of topwood, then, for players whose style demands a wide dynamic response and a robust, meaty tone. On the other side of the balance sheet, the lack of a strong overtone component can result in a “thin” tone when played with a relatively light touch-depending, of course, upon the design of the guitar and the other woods used in its construction. The break-in period for a new Sitka guitar can also be longer than that of other spruces.” Availability Although it’s range is limited, good management and current stands of planted trees ensure a relatively good supply at present.

Bright Sounding String for Mahogany Martin

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 04:19:45 CST

Lately I haven't been happy with the sound of my 000-15 Martin. Could just be a mood or time for a change. I think a brighter sounding string would sound better for the tunes I am playing at this time. Anyone playing a HOG out there have any String recommendations for bright sounding strings for Mahogany guitars. Thanks Julie[:)]

truss rod, which way to turn

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sat, 6 Feb 2010 18:11:19 CST

i got a new blueridge br 140. plays and sounds great from the open postion. when i capo up to the 3rd fret to play in Bb or F or if i capo higher i start gettin buzz from the bass strings, looks like the rod needs to loosen to to allow the neck to bow a lil. would this be the correct way to fix this problem or would a better solution be a taller saddle? its barely touching so i figure it can be solved through truss rod adjustment but i get nervous when tightening and loosening them. which was would loosen this model guitar?

Kent Everret - luthier interview

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 15:22:40 CST

Hi Folks, Kent Everett is a veteran Luthier who has been working with guitars since 1977. From repairs to semi-production work to high end guitars, Kent has constantly developed and worked with various models, materials and philosophies. His guitars are characterized by an elegant, sculptural aesthetics and a balanced, ringing tone. We caught up with Kent recently to speak about his past experiences and his current builds. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/02/03/everett-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Kent Everett. Everett Guitars. 2009. Luthier Interview TT: Thanks for speaking to us, Kent! I know you’ve been building for a long time now, I was wondering if you could relate your journey in lutherie? KE: Well, as you said it has been a long time. So here is 33 years in a few sentences: The first step that I took was the same step that I see so many new builders on. The step of strong desire. That lasted about 3 years as I did carpentry work , cooked pizzas, worked in a cabinet shop, etc to make enough money to buy parts to build my guitars. Then I finally found a job working in a guitar repair shop. At first I was still working 2 jobs at a time. That made for long days! But I saw the quality of the work they were doing , and I was determined to be a part of it. The good news was the guys in the guitar shop were super talented. The bad part was they were very strict and very demanding. I went home many days with my "tail between my legs". But what a wonderful learning experience and right from the very beginning I was working on high end guitars. After 5 years of that, I then I had the desire coupled with some serious training. I already had a strong work ethic. (I never have worked less than 50 hours a week. Usually much more.) Then after a decade of that, I ended up owning the shop. At which point I gradually moved to building full time. About 1990, this evolved into a micro-production. I started building 4 per month, then 5 , then 6 (which was completely insane for one guy - inlay, finish- the whole enchilada), then back to 5 per month which I maintained for many years. Then in the late 1990s, due to market adjustment and health / aging realizations, I responded to an offer to build a line of guitars in Japan. So I put in 3 years building those guitars while still making 40 per year by myself in my shop. 9/11 put an end to the guitar importing business as being reasonable for a little fish like me ...long story... So now I find myself building 8 to 10 high end guitars per year. I build one at a time , for specific clients, and I am devoting more time to teaching luthiery. TT: How was the arrangement with the Japanese folks? I remember it was a shared building arrangement? KE: They actually contacted me about it. Later I learned that made a big difference in the relationship. The fact that I was contacted instead of being the one initiating the business. I had a few guitars in the hands of Japanese collectors, so they had heard of me. They sent a folder with a bunch of info and models. But I wrote a nice letter and said, "No thank you." Then about 2 months later, I started thinking, "Why not?". We got into it more than I think they were expecting. I changed the bracing, the materials, appearance, etc quite a bit from their spec models. They later said, "We have learned a lot for Everett-san." I designed this guitar so that I could do the final top tuning through the sound hole and by shaping the bridge. Sometimes the guitars would be just fine right out of the box. But sometimes I would have to fight with the guitar for hours through that 4" hole to get the guitar to have the voice it needed to have. I think both sides of the Pacific learned a good deal from this. And what a guitar! $1500 and a real instrument that had personality and voice. Wow! Even today I have been kicking around ideas of working with an established factory to develop a new mid priced model. A factory can do much more than I can do as a solo builder. And I can do much more as an individual than a factory can do. So that combination is very intriguing to me. TT: Must have been hard to tune through the soundhole…. KE: Well with my name on the peg head, it had to have a certain voice associated with my guitars. It was a pain. TT: I’m assuming it was through brace shaping that you attained the voicing? But how about the bridge? KE: The bridge is your final opportunity to tune the top. Think of It as a top brace placed on the outside of the top. :-). So its profile (ie shape) can effect the tone. A stiff top would enjoy a lighter bridge while a bouncy top could benefit from a stiffer one. TT: So you stopped your collaboration a couple of years ago and focused on building your own? KE: The collaboration was only a part time thing that did not pan out for the long run. My main gig has always been my own guitars. Even during the Laurel Series days, I was still building 40 guitars a year. But ,"yes " is the short answer. Now I am only building about 10 guitars a year. That allows me to have more contact with the customer and to get them involved with the building process. They get to choose the exact pieces of wood for their guitars. I listen carefully to their tonal desires, etc... In short I get to be the kind of guitar builder that both of us enjoy. TT: And these guitars you’re now building- I’m hearing great things about your new models- like the metrocaster KE: Thanks… I find myself in a wonderful position to push the luthiery envelop - in my own way. The Metrocaster is a hybrid style guitar. The idea was to build an acoustic/electric, with the emphasis on the acoustic end. The Valentinos mix my wife's and my love of art with sculpture and guitar building. All fo these ideas get cross-trained over to the regular guitars that I offer (the Alienzo and the Catalina). When I come up with a cool design idea for the Metro or Alienzo, I do not hesitate to use it on the other guitars. What fun! TT: And how does the Metrocaster straddle the acoustic and the electric world? Maybe you could give us a run down of the model? KE: It started out as a guitar for me. To help the ageing guitar player play longer. So I made the body thinner with a large armbevel. Then I made it a 25"scale to get the left hand closer to the players body. Then I voiced the top as if it were a full bodied guitar and made a large sound port with the thought that 90% of the time one spends practicing with the guitar in the lap. So I wanted this guitar to sound great at 0 - 3 feet , fit the body well, and be easier to play. As a result, my dealer in Texas - Danny Brevard - thought it would make a fantastic acoustic electric. He plays one himself and says it is the best plugged in guitar that he has ever played. (He has played a lot of guitars.) Since then he has been selling them as acoustic/electrics, and they have been getting kown as acoustic electrics. But the initial idea was full acoustic. It is a unique guitar, something new for the market. A picture is worth a thousand words ; www.everettguitars.com/metrocaster.html The unique neck joint idea comes from an old Macaferi plastic guitar that I have. It has this type of neck joint, and I looked at it for years thinking it could be cool for one of my guitars. TT: I noticed that you also have a lot of innovative aesthetics and features like the stairstep headstock… KE: Thanks for noticing. I like to add the sculpture element to my work when I see the opportunity. In terms of the stepped classical peghead, that is to add a little extra tension to the g-string. It can tend to feel a bit floppy next to the d-string. TT: Maybe you would to share with us some of your build and bracing philosophies? KE: Built for structural integrity and braced for an open full voice. Other than that we would need a few days. There is the fine line between being built too lightly so that the guitar's voice "craps out" in a few years. And being built too heavy, so that it is not open sounding. The wood is on average 3/32" thick and has to support 175 lbs of tension 24/7. Then it has to be prepared to be able to survive reasonable temperature and humidity changes. This gives you a hint at why building guitars is so interesting. I actually have just completed a 2 disk dvd set on the guitar's voice and my approach to achieving it. It was filmed over a two day class that I gave to advanced guitars builders on voicing your guitar. Then it took almost a year to complete, with editing and follow up info and filming... So there is only so much I can say in a few sentences. TT: And then there are warranty issues too…. KE: It is important to build a stable and a responsive guitar. One might think that the lighter the guitar ,the better it sounds. But that is not always the case. As the guitar becomes lighter and less stable, it looses it's clarity and tonal life expectancy too. So, yes there is a fine line that the builder learns with experience. TT: Ah. With your experience in building guitars I was wondering which tonewoods you prefer? KE: German (Italian, Sitka , Red, or Engleman) Spruce and Brazilian Rosewood - of course :-). TT: Would you mind sharing with us the characteristics of the various tonewoods you achieve in your guitars? KE: There is a lot more to tone than just the woods. But my relationship tonally to the various types of wood is pretty much the same as everyone else. Sitka -crisp clean voice / Engleman - warmer edge / German - clarity with warmth / Cedar - dark and lush, ... But what you do with the colors on the palate, now that is the value of control and experience. How the builder learns to work with the wood and different wood impedance combinations,... now you are talking. Bob Taylor exemplified this nicely with his palate guitar. He took a wooden palate from his factory and built a guitar out of it, nail holes and all. He was trying to show it was the skill that really made the guitar, not just expensive wood. You know, it did not sound bad! TT: So is it easier to aim for a certain sound and choose the woods to suit rather than trying to predict the tone from mixing and matching tonewoods? KE: Bingo. The short answer to your question is Brazilian and German. But that is a horrendous waste of good wood if the builder does not understand top and back radius and how they effect the tone. How body size, bracing variations, proper voicing of the materials, ...effect the tone and how it all works together. Why throw away limited precious materials. There is just a lot more to it than buying wood. Even aiming for a specific sound can be a fool's game. I teach to aim for tonal quality. Then after learning to squeeze musicality out of: the wood, the body size, the particular bracing pattern, ... then you really have something, and dialing in the tone is not so elusive. TT: So actually if I would order a guitar, it would be better to ask for a wood combo and get the luthier to optimize that tone? KE: I think of it a little differently. It would be best to find the luthier, then talk about how to build the guitar. If you find the right guitar builder with experience in the type of guitar you want and skill to back it up, then the battle is won. You will end up with the guitar you are hoping for. TT: And how do you feel about the soundport/ multiscale neck and bevel features? Do they really improve the playing experience significantly? KE: Sure the soundport points the guitar's voice at the player and can actually help a mediocre guitar improve in tone. Although I only put them in about 30% of my guitars. I do like the sound for the guy having the guitar on his knee. The multi scale I have not incorporated. I do offer 3 different scales for an Everett, but the fan frets etc, I have not used. The arm bevel actually came from a need that one of Grit Laskin's customers had. Grit had a classical player who had some arm problems. He asked for the body bevel on a custom order. Of course it originated with the Fender Strat, but Grit was the first to do it on a n acoustic guitar (as far as I know.) Then in 1992, I had an order from the Indigo Girls and wanted to use the arm bevel. I phoned Grit to ask his permission and ended up using my version of the bevel on a steel string. So Grit did it first; I may have been the first to do a smooth bevel on a steel string. But the idea is all Grit Laskin's. Funny how people claim inventions and ideas that they really did not have. I think it reflects in their work. Crummy guitar with a bunch of good ideas badly executed,... oh well. TT: Maybe we should speak about your lutherie classes a bit more…. KE: Right now I am looking for a good location to offer the week long class that I used to give. With 6 days in the shop, we can build up a momentum that the student will remember. My current shop is too small to have the 3 to 4 students that I need to do the classes. My wife and I are shopping a new home north of Atlanta about an hour - in the mountains. So I hope by latter next year to have a great location to be able to offer the classes. During eh class the studnets watch me build a guitar from materials to string tension. Of course it takes me about 2 weeks to prep for the class and have all the parts lined up ready to go. It is a great class, and I have had several students take the class more than once. As they get better they are able to learn more. I do not pull any punches. So the beginner can get an idea of what is envolved in building a guitar and the intermediate or advanced student learns voicing,, work flow, ... more of the details of luthiery. Good information is simply good information.... no matter where you are on the learning curve Space TT: Do most of your students come from a crafts background? KE: Most of them come from a curiosity background or from a guitar building background. I really get the two extremes. But to answer your question, not really. They come from all "walks of life". The thing in common is the love of the guitar. So it is usually a really fun class of students. A good bunch of folk. The ages vary too. 25- 70. Most students are professionals of some kind: doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, ... and everyone wants to learn about the guitar. Also I have had quite a few professional guitar builders come. They want to learn my techniques and process. Many have gone on to be good guitar builders. I always enjoy that level of instruction. But like I have said, good info is simply good info. Where ever the student is on the learning curve determines what they take home. And because of that I have had lots of repeat studnets. That is probably the biggest compliment I can get , when they come back for a second or third time. TT: Well, thank you for speaking to us, Kent. Before you go, would you have words of wisdom for folks looking to custom order their first handmade guitar? KE: Happy to try and help out. Advice? Well there are so many builders out there, both professional and part time, I think the buyer could really enjoy learning about and trying different guitars. To do that, one needs to keep trade in value in mind, so that the buyer doesnot loose too much money in trying teh next instrument. Also a lot of young or new builders would be interested in a barter to help get their instruemtns 'out there', so that could be a good venue too. There is a rich crop of guitars to choose from. What fun! BUT when someone is spending over $5000 on a guitar, the story changes. At that point it becomes an investment. So it is important to buy from an established builder who has weathered some difficult times and whose instrument value has gone up and continues to go up. So my 3 tier advice for guying a high end guitar buyer is: 1) Buy from a builder who has been in business fulltime building at least 10 years. That person has proven that they are in it long term and can keep building guitars even when times get difficult. 2) From a builder who has built at least 100 guitars. At that point the luthier has better control of the tools and has developed (or near ) his own voice, style , skill level, etc. At around 100 guitars the experimenting starts to taper off, and the builder starts to build their own guitars with their own voices. It is a valuable turning point in a career. 3) and last from a builder who is also a player. That really is the only way that a person can fully understand the end product, ... the subtleties. With those 3 simple points, the huge number of new luthiers gets trimmed down quite a bit. And I think your money would be better protected as well as you would end up with a killer guitar. Thanks for asking. ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Kent Everett ©2009 Any infringement of copyright or errors is entirely unintentional- although we try very hard not to make them. Any guitars represented remain property of their current owners. Any issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly.

1948 Martin D18 profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:39:48 CST

Today we have a distinguished 1948 Martin D18 added to our guitardatabase for your pleasure: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/01/30/1948-martin-d-18-sn106550-guitar-database/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com This is a 1945 D18 which conforms to the usual specs with the Spruce/Mahogany tonewood combination, mahogany neck. These instruments can be exceptionally powerful and articulate! The prior owner had this to say:”This is a Magnificent Guitar, a Vintage 1948 D-18, and yes it is played a lot! It originates from the Professional players-side of my family and despite her “played” looks the guitar is in terrific condition. The Guitar is Adirondack topped, and has two (repaired) superficial surface/finish cracks one of them is more likely a deep scratch. both very old. The finish is all the way original. This guitar sounds incredible and is by far the best D-18 i ever layed my hands on. It’s an icon of the family and it took me ten years to get hold of it. Her Loud, deep and resonant tones filled with sparkling high end chime and dynamics are sensations you will only have with very old guitars. It simply runs through your bones, it is that old time magic everybody’s talking about. This is the way some 60 yr old look, its 100% rockandroll looks!( a lot like me in 10 years from now i guess) It’s played, used, battered but solid as a rock and ready to complete her first century! The guitar is equipped with Waverly tuners and has newer frets. Still has the original tortoise pickguard, Darkest brazilian fingerboard i ever seen, it actually looks like ebony! The finish wear and buckle/button scars to the back and lower side are pretty clearly documented in the photos. No need for a reset of the neckreset yet. Still it is 61 yr old and soon she needs one in the near future. The neck however is straight and the string height is just right for flatpickers. SN#106550 Equipped with a highlander and comes with a 60s bluecase.”

Ziricote tonewood Profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:50:25 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on Ziricote as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/01/27/ziricote-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the article for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Cordia dodecandra | Tonewood Profile | ”Ziricote” All pictures - Click to enlarge! Please email with any corrections/ additional info We aim to keep each profile as complete as possible & your help is appreciated! Quick Facts Scientific name: Cordia dodecandra Trade names: Ziricote Janka: 1750 approx Uses: Back and sides veneer RIYL: Rosewoods Bling factor: Spiderwebbing is common Availability: Rare CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Natural History Ziricote is a deciduous tree native to the Yucatán Peninsula thriving in calcium-rich soils with outcropping rocks where it attains hights of up to 30 meters. The trunk is straight and short, with a large, rounded, dense crown. It produces bright orange flowers. Physical properties The timber has a similar appearance to Brazilian rosewood in olive green and black shades. It is often found with spiderwebbing and is heavier than most rosewoods. It is said to be comparable to ebony when worked and can be brittle. The janka of Ziricote is around 1750 and it has a specific gravity of 0.85 As a tonewood… It is used for back an sides for guitars, in particular classicals but it has found favour with Tim Mcknight for it’s beauty and tonality. Tim says:”"Personally I find Zircote to be one of the most visually appealing woods on the planet. It has wonderful colors that intertwine vivid black ink lines with grays, golds, browns, olives and rust colors. It is one of my most favorite woods to build with. I find the wood has a more rosewood-ish tone, although it is not a member of the dalbergia family. It has excellent low dampening qualities similar to most rosewoods with a clean resonant reverb-ery characteristic. Zircote pairs well with almost any top to bring a wide tonal variety to the builders pallet. This wood has a reputation for more tangential movement and can therefore be at risk for cracking if certain conditions are not adhered to. If the builder seasons the wood well and builds when the wood is between 6% - 8% MC in a controlled humidity environment then delivers it to a customer who can [accurately] maintain a 40% - 55% RH range in their home then I have not found it to any more unstable than other woods. However, if the builder rushes the build or can’t accurately control his shop’s humidity or the end user can not accurately control their humidity then perhaps another tone-wood should be considered.” Subjective tone… I would broadly characterise the tone of Ziricote as falling between Indian rosewood and Macassar Ebony- it has more clarity than Indian but provides more overtones than Macassar. Availability Good stocks of Ziricote are limited. ©2008 Terence Tan. Pictures copyright individual holders. Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly.

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:45:52 CST

"Common attributes and outstanding features of pickers' personal guitars"

That's what I want to talk about. What guitar youplay and why. Was it a good deal? What would you fix? What did you change? Basically, "Meet my guitar." Who's out there and why you are or aren't playing it.

minor ding repair on Martins

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:02:31 CST

Hi, I'm a newcomer to this site. I just traded a gibson banjo for a D28 that has a few dings in the finish on the top. they don't appear to go in the wood. I have had success filling small dings in nitro finishes on banjos with CA glue, but the thickness of the finish on the D28 top looks thinner. Has anybody here tried this technique on guitars? Ray

Ebony or Rosewood fingerboard???

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:10:24 CST

Hey guys, i'm thinking about getting a Blueridge 240 over a 140A because the 240 has an ebony fingerboard. I prefer ebony over rosewood because rosewood is too grainy for a fingerboard, and ebony is very smooth and non-grainy. Which do yall prefer, and why?

Refretting in UK

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:18:16 CST

My old and much-loved Gibson needs new frets - can anyone recommend a luthier here in the UK please? I'm in the Midlands. John

Sheppard Guitars. Luthier Interview

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:33:06 CST

Hi Folks, Gerald Sheppard is a Luthier who has made a name for himself building exquisite fingerstyle guitars with an emphasis on playability and detailing. His guitars are characterized by an elegant, understated aesthetics and a balanced, ringing tone. We caught up with Gerald recently to speak about his build philosophies. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2010/01/13/sheppard-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Gerald Sheppard. Sheppard Guitars. | 2009 | Luthier Interview TT: I was wondering if you might tell us a little about how you took up lutherie? GS:I grew up playing music in the1950’s, first the harmonica, then the guitar. My father was a handyman and did all of our home maintenance. He taught me to use tools – we even rebuilt auto engines. I have a B.S. degree in Industrial Technology, and I worked much of my career in a professional engineering environment. The combination of all of these gave me an understanding of mechanics. As a young man, I applied my dad’s do-it-yourself approach to my guitars and did set-ups, repairs and even refinished guitars. In the late 80’s I discovered guitar making via Irving Slone’s books. I started reading everything I could find and joined the Association for Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) and The Guild of American Luthiers (GAL). I then built a guitar kit from Ed McGlincy (who built Gordon Lightfoot’s guitar) who owned “The Kit Factory.” It turned out very well and I was hooked, so I built a second kit. I then built three guitars from scratch, which sold quickly. That’s when I bought a manufacturing business license. I initially did not understand the high-end guitar business and sold locally, trying to compete with Martin and Gibson. Acoustic Guitar magazine introduced me to the larger world of custom making. I then attended an ASIA conference and submitted a guitar into the “critique forum” where I got much encouragement from the panel. As a fingerstyle player I was drawn to guitars made for that type of play and started focusing my business toward that client base. With the advice of Luthier John Greven, I placed a small ad in Acoustic Guitar and orders eventually came. It was tough at first. I was dedicated to making great guitars; but I had not developed client recognition and, more importantly, client confidence. That took time; and with all the great competition out there, it took discipline. It still does!! TT: So you learned lutherie on your own? I don’t have an opinion on wedge shaped guitars. I have not researched them. GS: Yes, pretty much, with the help of books, and affiliation with the guilds. As you know, the guitar makers tend to share with one another. Truth is, after sixteen years I’m still learning. When I quit learning, I’ll quit making guitars and move on to something else. That’s why I prefer to do custom builds. My clients have great ideas. It’s always a creative venture to work with individuals. That creativity is refreshing and renewing! TT: Would you mind letting us in on your build philosophies and preferences? GS: I am a pretty conservative builder with a focus toward fingerstyle players. I have been a rather active guitar player for over forty years — nearly all has been acoustic fingerstyle. I play gigs that are sometimes long and grueling. As a result, I can empathize when a client tells me his/her ergonomic or playing issues. I also have an artistic eye and tend to prefer elegant aesthetics. I prefer to work directly with clients and involve them in the process from the very beginning. I want to help create a great memory for my client that starts on the first day they call. The building project is part of the journey for them so that they have already had an exciting experience by the time they receive the guitar. As a fingerstyle guitar builder, I focus on light designs built for light gauge strings (although medium gauge designs are available). I use only the best materials available, and my least expensive guitar is built to the same tonal specs as my most expensive one. I focus on volume, but clarity and balance of tone are key to a fingerstyle player. Instruments with too much jingle-jangle, or with difficult-to-control dynamics, are a nightmare for a fingerstyle player who is trying to keep the melody above the harmony. Many disciplined players use the dynamic elements of volume change, muting, and even silence to build their songs. They need to be able to do this effortlessly so that the only thing they are thinking about is the emotion of the song – not trying to goose the gas or ride the brakes of an out-of-control instrument. TT: So what you’re after is an instrument which responds but is easy to control? GS: Yes, the ability to present a piece with full confidence that the instrument will be true to the way you want to express it is very important. Control is only one aspect of design which helps to optimize a player’s confidence. Other key attributes are the aforementioned tonal aspects as well as the ability to negotiate the fingerboard. Regarding the fingerboard, some players believe that the lower the action, the better. I believe that action height must be based upon the players average attack and his/her approach to presenting music – especially the dynamic elements of volume change, as I mentioned before. Designing guitar playability around ergonomic attributes and limitations has become a prominent issue for many of my clients. A person’s physical size, arm and finger lengths, finger girth, and issues with age are often discussed with my clients. These are just another example of the value of a custom approach, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach of cookie cutting. TT: Not to mention a vast choice in tonewoods… GS: Yes, with regard to tone and control of the instrument, I am somewhat biased toward rosewoods and spruces. The ebonies and Koa usually do a fine job as well, but have different tonal characteristics. I think Engelmann Spruce is under-rated; it works well for fingerstyle play, but my first choice for top wood is usually European Spruce. TT: Could I ask you to outline the differences you hear when you build with European vs. other spruces? GS: To keep it simple; generally speaking, European Spruces and Engelmann Spruce respond well to fingerstyle play. They provide a nice tonal balance and are responsive enough to react to most player’s fingers, or finger picks without breaking up when the player bears down for loud passages. You get a nice ability to finesse the soft passages but still get plenty of headroom for the louder passages. Again, generally speaking, Adirondack and Sitka Spruce are better for people who play rather loudly, usually using picks because they are a little harder to open up but once you get them going they have a lot of headroom. TT: How about back and sides woods? GS: In general, I am a rosewood fan. For me, rosewoods offer the best tonal balance and prettiest tone from the get-go, that is, without having to compensate in the building process to get that tone. Bubinga is a very good alternative tonewood for a person on a tight budget, but just a little more can purchase rosewood. I am a big fan of Brazilian Rosewood, but some wonderful rosewood alternatives are Cocobolo, African Blackwood, and Madagascar Rosewood. Ebonies such as Macassar, Asian, and Malaysian Blackwood are a great choice for those for those who like plenty of bass but a quicker decay. TT: And alternative top woods? Cedar? Redwood? GS: I mostly build for fingerstyle players which means I usually use Euro-spruce or sometimes Engelmann Spruce. Sometimes, if a player has a strong attack and or uses picks, I’ll suggest Adirondack or Sitka. It the player uses only the pads of his fingers or generally plays softly I recommend Cedar. I prefer the European Spruces because I’ve found they impart a nice clear tone across the whole spectrum and have enough volume to project well in fingerstyle type play. There is a wealth of information on the internet about top woods and the uses they are best suited for so I stop there. TT: The internet is also full of stuff about soundports and bevels too…. GS: Yes, I’ve finally started using bevels and soundports myself. I waited for several years and watched the market to be sure they a trend rather than a fad. In that time I played many guitars that had both. Both have value, and both are certainly popular now. It seems to me a lot of “lore” (a nice way of saying bull) is surfacing about them – some even in marketing. Regarding soundports, it’s a subjective matter, but I prefer a small port on in the lower bout. I can certainly tell that the soundport allows air to flow in and out of the guitar easier when it is played. I can hear an increase in sustain and a touch more volume from the guitar. Again, subjective, but the large soundports give me more “in my face” volume than I want, and if that energy is coming to me, it’s not going to my audience. Regarding bevels, I think they are a great ergonomic tool. I play out from time to time and the bevels certainly make those two-set-gigs more comfortable. My bevels add almost no weight to the guitar. I’ve heard people say bevels reduce tone quality and sustain, I’ve even seen ads that say one kind of bevel hurts sound less than another. More lore as far as I’m concerned – I’ve never been able to hear a difference that I could attribute to the bevel on anyone’s guitars. Even if there way, for players who lay long gigs, they are a life saver. TT: Can you give us your thoughts what a client should expect when starting a new relationship with luthier… GS: First, of course, the luthier should be reputable, capable yet humble, and professional in his/her demeanor. Secondly, the client should expect the luthier be play an impartial role as a consultant – to be able to impart knowledge to help a client make appropriate decisions. I’ve noticed an alarming trend by a few to depart from what may be best for the client and move to a “selling” posture. For example, telling people that their design provides a better sound or more sustain when it is either not true or can’t be measured objectively. Another example is selling a client the wood the luthier has on his/her shelf rather than a better choice for the player’s needs. This is sometimes done by developing an artificial reputation of mystique about the wood. I believe that, for the most part, corporately, as an industry, we must work together to prove ourselves worthy of the esteem this industry seems to hold. We demand very high prices for our product and our clients often place both their trust and money with us without question. We must continually raise the bar above “selling” and provide our clients with the best, unbiased, and unexaggerated points of view possible. As a custom maker, it’s as important to empathize with a guitarist’s needs, whether it be from and ergonomic point of view or a from a tone, or playability point of view; and then recommend the best approach to solve those problems as he/she knows it. If I were a player looking for find a luthier, I’d be looking for someone who could help me come to conclusions I need to ensure that I am well satisfied with the outcome. Third, there should be great communication between the maker and the client. Phone calls are much better than emails for the most part. It’s not uncommon to spend hours hashing out a designing on the front end, if that’s what the client needs. This should follow all through the building process as well. Progress reports should be expected by the client and seen by the luthier as an opportunity to enhance the experience of the client. There are others of course but I believe these to be key. TT: Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, Gerald. Before we go is there anything you would like to add? space GS: I appreciate this opportunity to speak directly to everyone, Terence – thanks for asking me to do it. ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Gerald Sheppard ©2009

Bone?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:42:34 CST

Stupid question: From what animal is the bone for nuts and saddles made of? I've always wondered. Anybody know?

String slack?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 06:03:32 CST

I've been stringing my guitar, banjo, dobro, etc for years by myself, and I always seem to get lucky and they always string right but I was wondering, mainly with guitar, is there an actual measurement as to how much slack you need? or give? How do you all tell when you put enough slack and start stringing it? any advice or help is appreciated, Many Thanks Ben

Pair spacing on a 12 string

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:36:14 CST

Apologies if I reveal my ignorance. What, if anything, determines the spacing within each pair of strings on a 12 string guitar, or on a mando?

Need Your Opinions!

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:36:00 CST

Back before Christmas, I had made a couple of visits to my local music store. I played a bunch of Epiphone's to determine which dreadnought I wanted. I finally decided on the DR-500 after a lot of strumming and flatpicking. I also fell in love with the Epi EL-00 (a small, blues model). Both of these guitars played very well for my style of playing. I bought the dreadnought and had it re-strung with Martin light gauge. The action was fine, as it was, but I had the guitar tech remove the shim under the bridge. Now I'm getting a bit of a buzz, especially on the high E. My wife gave me the EL-00 for Christmas. She had asked me what, if anything, I wanted done to it as far as set-up. I had told her to tell them to do nothing except for changing the strings to Martin lights. Same deal as the DR-500. Now it buzzes! Would going to mediums cure the problem, or do I need to have the action adjusted. Never had a problem with string buzz from my 42 year old Gibson J-50, but I know the action is too high on that booger! Thanks, in advance, for any information!

Plek Pro, and Plek Station

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:40:38 CST

For those who haven't heard of it, its a CNC machine and process that reads your guitar neck and setup, and then dresses the frets to a super precise degree. Only a few shops have them. Runs $150-$250. The value-added, is it reads the neck while strung up, and can map a perfect surface on the frets, even if the neck is warped or the fretboard is uneven. Anyone had experience with it?

Bridge is pulling op top of guitar how 2 fix?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:39:37 CST

After years of strings attached to Guitar an Old Dreadnought style, where the bridge mounts to guitar is pulling upwards and tilting the bridge forward causing the string action to be way to high. What would be the best way to correct this problem short of getting a new Guitar? any help would be appreciated. Thanx. Terry

Stew-Mac Dreadnought kit dovetail or bolt on?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:10:24 CST

I mainly play banjo, but in the last year or so I have started to play guitar after a friend showed me some scales, well anyways I have a cheap acoustic for the time being, but I would like to maybe get a kit. For a dreadnought style what would be the best choice dovetail or bolt on?

Humidifiers

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:47:46 CST

When the winter weather gets cold and dry, I normally make sure my guitars each have humidifiers. But which humidifier style is best? I called Martin and they recommended the ones with the plastic cap over the soundhole, and the green snakey thing. The cap is supposed to trap the moisture. I've used those, and also the one with the sponge that sits on the strings and the one that time-releases moisture into the case. I humidify the room, but even so sometimes the room moisture is in the 30's so also like to have the humidifiers handy. Any comment on the best ones? So far the cap/green ones last much longer than the spongy one BUT it touches wood inside the guitar. Any preferences[?] Paul Ryan www.ryantunes.com

Cheap Guitar

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:13:35 CST

My girlfriend just bought me a cheap acoustic guitar from craigslist, and I must say its the best sounding guitar I've had to date, It's a Signature Series SA41BKCH in black. I believe It's made by Gibson in China, The strings were rusty and one was broken so I strung it up with Martin Mediums, It just sounds fantastic and loud with good action, she got it for $50.00 with a gig bag, Not a bad deal, even though the tuners are a little sloppy and the fretboard had some overspray on it Does anyone have any info on this guitar? Does it have a solid top? Mahogany back and sides? Just curious. Thanks Don A.

Gold Hardware

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:25:25 CST

I have a guitar and banjo with gold hardware. They show some tarnish. How can I clean it? I've been reluctant to do anything except wipe it.

Koa tonewood Profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 9 Dec 2009 04:20:01 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on the acacia also known as Koa as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/12/09/koa-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the article for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Acacia Koa | Tonewood Profile | "Koa" All pictures - Click to enlarge! Please email with any corrections/ additional info We aim to keep each profile as complete as possible & your help is appreciated! Quick Facts Scientific name: Acacia Koa Trade names: Koa Janka: 1250 Uses: Tops, Veneer, Back and sides RIYL: Walnut, Mahogany Bling factor: Curl and colour variation is not uncommon Availability: Uncommon CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Natural History Koa is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands attaining heights of 30 metres and 6 metres in diameter. It is found thriving in forest zones of 100–2,300 metres on all 6 major Hawaiian Islands. As a nitrogen fixing species, it is able to thrive in very young volcanic soils. Status koa was used by ancient Hawaiians for a variety of uses from to build dugout canoes to surfboards. During the Hawaiian music craze of the 20's it's similarity in strength and weight to that of black walnut led it to be extensively logged for use in wood carving and furniture. Today only 10% of the original Koa forests survive but due to conservation efforts and it's hardy nature, Koa is not endangered. Physical properties The wood is fine-grained can display a number of figure: plain, straight, banded, fiddleback and in one instance quilted. Heartwood can vary from a rich crimson-brown to golden yellow and can vary greatly from log to log. The janka of Koa is around 12250 and it has a specific gravity of 0.55. As a tonewood... Koa guitars can vary tonally, in accordance with density and weight. They are most often described as a warm sounding Mahogany to a brighter sounding Rosewood. A lower density koa guitar tends to produce a more mahogany tone, whereas denser sets tend towards the rosewood spectrum. Subjective tone... I would broadly characterise the tone of Koa as being similar to Australian Blackwood, with a woody, open tone somewhere between mahogany and rosewood Availability As a managed species, Koa stocks are still available and tonewood stocks look limited by healthy. Alternatives exist, namely close cousins Australian and Vanuatu Blackwood. Read more about Australian Blackwood here.

install pickup?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sun, 6 Dec 2009 20:21:13 CST

I realize there are many different prices and styles of pickups for acoustics. Just to throw the topic out there...how much would be involved to get have a guitar (such as a Martin) fitted with a pickup and how would it plug in, etc.? How would it be compared to one of the guitars with a pre-installed "barn door" electronics pkg.? Just asking.. I know next to nothing about this topic. If I decided to do it, i'd have to have it professionally done, would just like to have an idea what it might entail. Merry Christmas... BJ/Indiana

upgrading

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sat, 5 Dec 2009 22:11:59 CST

How hard would it be to replace a fretboard and a bridge on a martin dread? I want to replace the rosewood with ebony.

Vanuatu Blackwood tonewood Profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 01:59:44 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on the acacia also known as Vanuatu Blackwood as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/12/02/vanuatu-blackwood-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the interview for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Acacia Heterophylla | Tonewood Profile | ”Vanuatu Blackwood” Tonewoods Database All pictures - Click to enlarge! Please email with any corrections/ additional info We aim to keep each profile as complete as possible & your help is appreciated! Quick Facts Scientific name: Acacia Heterophylla Trade names: Vanuatu Blackwood, Highland Tamarid Janka: 1200 approx Uses: Tops, Veneer, Back and sides RIYL: Walnut, Mahogany Bling factor: Curl and colour variation is not uncommon Availability: Uncommon CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Natural History Vanuatu Blackwood is endemic to Reunion Island thriving in humid forests between 1000 to 2000 metres altitude. It has relatively quick growth of about 1 meter per annum and is often planted as an ornamental along roads, the flowers also provide nectar for honey bees. Status The wood is valued for construction, joinery and handicrafts. In particular it was a key component in building small boats until recently. Important stands still remain in Reunion, covering around 7500 ha of natural and secondary growth forest. Physical properties The wood is fine-grained with heartwood of pink-yellow to orange-brown tones and often display fiddleback figure. The janka of Vanuatu Blackwood is around 1200 and it has a specific gravity of 0.55. As a tonewood… Unlike the more plentiful Koa, Vanutau Blackwood guitars are rare, although I recall playing a few in the UK. Richard Cross of Shapelywood guitars had this to say:”As far as my memory of working with the blackwood, well it is a long time ago, and it is the only time I have worked it. Having said that, I have just found a blank for a soprano ukulele that I jointed (at 15 degrees) for use some time, on the principle of never throwing any wood away if it could be useful. It is a very hard wood, but machines well, and can be made very thin. Routing makes a very clean edge with no tearing. Finishing takes a lot of fine sanding and virtually no filling is needed if the sanding is taken down to about 1000 grit or better. The whole panel will shine and have wonderful tactile features long before any finish is applied. The grain and the rays at right angles glisten as for good koa or curly maple.”. Subjective tone… I would broadly characterise the tone of Vanuatu Blackwood as being similar to Australian Blackwood & Koa, with a woody, open tone somewhere between mahogany and rosewood Availability As a rare semi-managed species, Vanuatu Blackwood stocks are still available although in very limited quantities. Alternatives exist, namely close cousins Australian and Koa. Read more about Australian Blackwood here and Koa here. ©2008 Terence Tan. References: Wikipedia Pictures copyright individual holders. F Shapelywood guitar courtesy of Richard Cross. Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly.

1930's euphonon square shoulder profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:45:46 CST

For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on Tony Klassen's rare 1930's Euphonon Square Shoulder as part of our new guitar database. This is the Square Shoulder Euphonon he speaks of in the fretboard Journal write up on the Larson Brothers. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! This is by no means complete a profile, so feel free to add to what I already have. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/11/24/1930s-euphonon-square-shoulder-sn-none-guitar-database-2/ for the full presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the profile for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Euphonon | Square Shoulder | 1930’s | SN:none Guitar Database Luthier Facts : Name: Larson Location: Milwaukie, Wis. Wait list: No longer in production RIYL: Larson Brothers are considered to have built excellent guitars during the prewar Golden peroid of Martin and Gibson guitars. Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Vintage 1930's Euphonon Square Shoulder guitar. SN none. Guitar Database. # Model: Square Shoulder # Serial no: N/A # Year: 1930’s # Top: Spruce # Back and sides: Brazilian Rosewood # Top Bracing: Laminated X brace and 1 upper bout. Solid Second upper bout and tonebars. # Back Bracing: 6, solid # Headstock: solid # Headstock inlay: flower pattern of pearl and abalone # Neck: Laminated Mahogany/ rosewood # Binding: Ivoroid # Fingerboard: Ebony # Fingerboard inlay: dot and engraved inlay # Bridge: flat pyramid bridge # Bridgeplate: small maple # Nut and saddle: bone # Nut Width: 1 11/16#8243; # Scale length: 25.5#8243; # Lower bout width: 16#8243; # Depth: 4 5/8#8243; # Notes: square , slightly asymmetrical body. “Shoulders canted forward from back to front: back of guitar is 19 1/4#8243; long, top is less than 19-18 3/8#8243; to left of fingerboard and 18 15/16#8243; to the right. Waist of the guitar narrower across the top by 1/8#8243;.” George Gruhn says of the tone “bluesy, twangy tone with lots of sustain”… Rare Bird. Maurer, Praisie State & Larson Bros. G Gruhn. Guitar player/november 1984. Tony Klassen of New Era guitars is the owner of this unusual and beautiful guitar. He credits it as being the impetus to collect and reproduce Larson Brothers guitars. Here’s what he says: “Prior to the summer of 1985 I had only been collecting for a bout 5 years, and most of those, if not all, were Martins and Gibson’s. Pretty plentiful then. My dream guitar was a pearly Martin. 12 fret or 14 fret, it really didn’t matter. By that summer, I’d finally saved up enough dough. With cash in hand and my 1929 000-28 in trade, I headed off to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville. George had a pearly 00-45 for sale, and I decided that was the one I would get. I was really excited. My first time in Nashville, and a chance to hang in one of the worlds premier vintage shops. That trip changed me forever… I got to George’s shop shortly before closing, and his hospitality was amazing. He locked the doors. He called his wife (“I’ll be home later”), and he let me spend the next two hours playing guitar after guitar. I played Martins, Gibsons, and Washburns, and I admired them all. What stuck in my mind was something called a Euphonon. What is this!? Who made it? I wasn’t quite sure… My immediate impression was the look. It hung among many guitars, but stood out and seemed to call to me. Very different then anything I was use to at that time. The pearl stars in the bridge, the wide band of abalone around the top, and the vine headstock inlay were stunning. The craftsmanship was equal to the best. The Brazilian was figured, and even had tiny knots in it. Something I think most builders at that time would pass on. One of the most visible characteristics was the guitars back was larger then the top! What was their intention! Nobody knew, but I couldn’t help but think these guys where not afraid to experiment, and push the limits. George placed a mirror in side to show me the laminated braces. WOW! I just grew more and more intrigued. The fact that this came from a 2 man shop, and not a factory was very impressing to me. It truly felt like a hand made instrument. Something up until then I had never encountered. George was totally excited about it. I wasn’t quite sure… odd shape….. George had to leave and we would hook up the next morning, so I had some thinking to do. That next day I spent 4 or more hours playing that Martin 00-45 I wanted, and the Euphonon that was getting more and more enchanting every time I picked it up. I was hidden away in a quite little listening room playing both for sound comparisons. Every time I picked up the Euphonon George would knock on the door, poke his head in and say “ I can here when your playing that one, right through the walls!” He was referring to of course, the Euphonon. So we talked more about the guitar, and it’s makers. George gave me the book Bob Hartman put together. The book was full of interesting instruments. The Brothers made everything from mandolins to mandocellos, and guitars up to 21” wide! This Euphonon just had a vibe I didn’t feel in the others. As for the sound, it too was very different, and ultimately what helped make the sale. Bright, lively, loud and very well balanced. It was much more suited to my style of playing compared to the more delicate Martin. This was a true steel string guitar! The deal got better. George offered me more for the 000-28 then he originally quoted, so now had a pretty easy decision. I left the shop with the Euphonon, George said spread the word! That was by far my best and most memorable guitar buying experience ever. It set in motion a quest to learn more about, and collect as many Larson made instruments I could find” Vintage 1930's Euphonon Square Shoulder guitar. SN none. Guitar Database. ©2009 Terence Tan & Tony Klassen

An Inside Look Into Thanh Cam Musical Instruments

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:35:37 CST

Hi Folks, I thought it would be a nice change from the single luthier shops to relate my experiences with Asian Pacific small shop/higher end makers. This week. I give you an inside tour in one of Vietnam's most famous atelier style workshops, Thanh Cam Musical Instruments. Asia-pac guitars have come along way from the poorly made laminates of the 80's. Nowadays luthiers study techniques from the West and incorporate their own ideas from traditional stringed instruments of the east to create higher end guitars. I can't link pics here so for the full presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/11/18/an-inside-look-into-thanh-cam-musical-instruments-terence-tan/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com An Inside Look Into Thanh Cam Musical Instruments | Terence Tan By terence | November 18, 2009 Thanh Cam Musical Instruments Factory Tour. Do Viet Dung luthier. Vietnam Asian crafted guitars are no longer associated with poor workmanship, sub optimal tone and dismal playability. In fact, instruments from the Pacific Rim are beginning to make an impact on the higher end of the flattop scene. Thanh Cam musical instruments in Vietnam is a family operated atelier style workshop. The workshop was started by Do Van Thuoc in 1953 at the tender age of fourteen. He learnt the art of the luthiery from his uncle who was a famous instrument maker in Ha Noi during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Prior to 1960 Van Thuoc learnt to build Guitars, Mandolins, Violins and traditional Vietnamese Instruments like the Dan Bau and Dan Tran. In 1976 he was sent to the Beijing Musical Instrument Enterprises in China where he studied the craft of constructing Chinese musical instruments. Three years later, he was promoted to the post of technical expert and manager. In 1990 he left to start his own shop, the Thanh Cam Workshop. “Thanh Cam” in Vietnamese means “Sound of the instrument”- a key philosophy he has passed down to his son, Do Viet Dung who now runs the family business. Dung has joined Guild of American Luthiers to improve and exchange ideas on instrument construction and is constantly elevating his craft. Thanh Cam Workshop occupies the top 3 levels of the 5 storey family property in Ha Noi. A group of luthiers produce around 400 instruments a month, the vast majority student grade. Dung is now expanding his own atelier style made high end guitars. These guitars are predominantly slated for export, for OEM sales or custom orders. The student grade instruments are constructed using locally sourced woods and produced to a high although not cosmetically perfect standard. Playability and sound of the student classical guitars are comparable to larger factory made instruments. The high end guitar are a different story altogether and I will concentrate on these. Timbers are sourced locally and internationally with Sitka spruce tops and Indian rosewood imported directly from source. Local timbers used for atelier guitars are of higher quality and rarer woods such as Vietnamese Rosewood, a true dalbergia with similar properties to cocobolo, and brazilian rosewood. It also possess a beautiful red hue and is often sound with spiderwebbing. The guitars I have seen and played at the workshop featured an X top. The tops were around 4mm thick and all joints were glued with white poly glue. Finishing was done with either shellac or nitrocellulose. Necks were dovetailed and the guitars were then setup in a dedicated room at around 50-60% humidity. More recently, Dung has been making Weissenborn guitars as an OEM supplier and finds that his long experience in building various traditional and western instruments invalubale in new projects such as this. Let me give a first hand account of my experiences in the workshop. The fit and finish are good with minor purfling and rosette bleed, the routing for the binding is clean and the joints are tight. The interiors are clean, with a few glue spills. Any pearl inlay work is outsourced to artisans. Vietnam has a long history in inlay and engraving work and the quality was very high with tight fits and delicate, accurate work. Setup and action on the 2 demo guitars I played were excellent, surpassing many high end guitars. The OM guitar I played was Sitka Spruce/ Vietnamese Rosewood. It featured a soft cutaway, which was well executed. The other demo was an archtop with 4 piece carved Sitka top and 2 piece Curly Maple back and sides. The fit and finish of the archtop was excellent…. Right, now to the hard part. The tone. I would stick my neck out and say that the tone is within the Martin influenced sphere. The tone of the OMc offers clarity and poise with crisp trebles and a balanced mid range. The Archtop has good chop with woody, but well balanced overtones. Throughout the tour, I found that the workmen were all focussed on the tone of the instruments and trying constantly to improve the aesthetics and playability of their instruments. warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

The Lucky Strike Redwood. Tonewood profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 04:56:21 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on the legendary Lucky Strike Redwood as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/11/04/the-lucky-strike-redwood-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the interview for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Sequoia sempervirens | Tonewood Profile | ”Lucky Strike” Tonewoods Database From the forward-thinking David Young dreadnoughts (redwood/indian rosewood) to modern jumbo/small jumbos usually redwood/walnut or /ziricote, redwood tops have proven to be durable in use. The Young Dreadnoughts have been in use since the 80s with no signs of playing out! Of all the Redwood tops on the market, the Lucky Strike tops from the Carters’ stash are the most famous and highly sought after. Harvested from a naturally storm downed redwood in California, these tops are reknown for their tonal excellence and aesthetic properties. Craig and Alica Carter, a remarkable husband and wife team were reknown for salvaging naturally fallen redwood trees. Often they would salvage logs from inhospitable terrain and private land to resaw into some of the finest redwood sets ever seen in the lutherie community. ‘Lucky Strike’ is the name Craig gave to a log he thought of as almost, if not truly perfect for guitar tops. Craig found the Lucky Strike log in north-facing easement in a redwood forest. It fell over a small depression, suspending a segment of the log, allowing it to naturally ‘air dry’. In Autumn of 1993, Craig started to salvage a portion approximately 60 feet long, 3 feet in diameter and the final harvesting was completed by Alicia carter and neighbours in 1997. Craig cut soundboards from the segments as early as 1994. Hank Mauel, luthier and friend of the Carters says: “Soundboards from this log have been made into fine steel string (including arch top) and classical guitars. Smaller billets have produced mandolins, as well. Stiffness to weight ratio is said to be excellent; grain pattern and coloration generally even, very straight, with lots of “silk.” Sound characteristics combine the warmth of cedar with the clarity and color of spruce with an added “sparkle”. This log set very high standards for redwood soundboards – ones almost impossible to match. Craig cut into over 100 downed logs before he found one – the LS - that met his exacting standards.” Almost every LS topped guitar I have played has exhibited astounding EQ and efficiency. The trebles in every model are spetacular with a liquid-silver like property. Links: Bashkin Guitars http://www.bashkinguitars.com/ Goodacoustics http://www.goodacoustics.com/ Acknowledgements: Michael Bashkin Craig & Alicia Carter I am particularly indebted to my friend Hank Mauel who taught me so much about the redwood tops! ©2009 Terence Tan. warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

Martin truss rods

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:38:56 CST

I have a 2003 HD28V and a D18GE 2006. If you tighten the rod (CW looking in sound hole at the rod) it lowers the neck relief. So if you loosen the rod will it turn completly out or will it actually start to back bow the neck? Just curious. I know a lot of banjos are made that way.

Coastal Redwood. Tonewood profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:21:07 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on Coastal Redwood as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/10/28/coastal-redwood-tonewood-profile/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the interview for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com Sequoia sempervirens | Tonewood Profile | ”Coastal Redwood” Tonewoods Database All pictures - Click to enlarge! Please email with any corrections/ additional info We aim to keep each profile as complete as possible & your help is appreciated! Coastal/ California Redwood technically refers to the species Sequoia sempervirens. There are 2 other different, separate species are also referred to as Redwood: * Sequoiadendron giganteum- giant sequoia * Metasequoia- Dawn Redwood Quick Facts Scientific name: Sequoia sempervirens Trade names: Coastal or Clalifornia Redwood Janka: ~450 (no firm references) Uses: Tops, veneer RIYL: Cedar/ spruce Bling factor: Curly tops are not uncommon Availability: Rare CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like Natural History Costal Redwood is sole living example of the Sequoia genus with a natural range from to coastal California to southwestern Oregon. Sequoia sempervirens is a long lived, evergreen tree. It can live for a maximum of 2,200 years and can reach up to 115m high and 8 m in diameter. Redwood has a soft fibrous bark up to 30 cm thick and when exposed reveals a bright red-brown interior. Costal Redwoods reproduce both sexually, asexually and through burls. It’s burls are capable of sprouting into new trees once removed from the parent tree. Status The species as once subject to indiscriminate logging but now there are 899,000 acres (364,000 ha) of second growth redwood forest in California, managed for timber production. Notable Trees 1. Hyperion is currently the tallest tree measuring at 115.55 m high. it was discovered in the summer of 2006 by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor and has been measured as the world’s tallest living organism. 2. Lucky Strike is the most famous redwood tree amongst guitarists. Harvested by Craig and Alica Carter, ‘Lucky Strike’ is the name Craig gave to a log he thought of as almost, if not truly perfect for guitar tops. Read more about the lucky strike log next week in our Lucky Strike feature article Physical properties The timber has a deep red hue with straight grain and can often have curly grain. Coastal Redwood is valued for its straight grained beauty, light weight, and resistance to decay. The janka of redwood is around 450 and it has a specific gravity of 0.45. As a tonewood… Due to old age and large size of the logs, tops can vary greatly from soft to very stiff and whilst the very best tops can display an exceptional stiffness to weight ratio, some can physically resemble cardboard. It is used for soundboards for guitars and the burls as top plates for electrics. Noted luthier, Dana Bourgeois says: “Redwood is usually darker in color than cedar and often displays the same general tonal characteristics, leaning slightly toward darker tones, less definition in the bass, and lower velocity of sound.“ Subjective tone… I would broadly characterise the tone of Coastal redwood as being a crisper than Cedar with all the rich, complex overtones of cedar. Availability As a managed species, Redwood stocks are still limited and the best tonewoods are harvested from salvage. Links/ References: Bourgeois Guitars http://www.pantheonguitars.com/ LMI http://lmii.com ©2008 Terence Tan. Pictures copyright individual holders. Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly. warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

How Fast Do Your Frets Wear?

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:16:08 CST

When I bought my Martin D-28 used about a year ago, it showed very little playing wear. After about a year of daily use, the first, second and third frets have developed pretty deep grooves under the B string. The groove on the third fret is deep enough now to cause a slight buzz. I'm thinking about buying my own set of refretting tools and replacing the first five frets myself, with Martin fret wire. Normally I would get a professional to do it, but if this is going to be a yearly thing, I'd rather not have to leave the guitar with a luthier for a few weeks each time. Does anyone else wear out frets that quickly?

Optimal Action

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:49:29 CST

I know there will be many differing viewpoints on this but what do you all feel is optimal action for your playing style? I know many heavy handed players prefer a little higher, like 1/8 at the 12th fret under the E strings. So what do you like? "I am Irish, therefore I do not fear" ----- Anonymous

Prohaszka Guitars. Luthier Interview

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:24:03 CST

Hi Folks, Balazs Prohaszka is a Hungarian Luthier who had trained with well-known German bow maker Bernd Etzler as well as George Lowden. His guitars are unique in their aesthetics and form. Balazs has a special approach to aesthetics and building- he shared this with me when we caught up with him. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/10/14/prohaszka-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com TT - Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. I was wondering how your start in the Hungarian school of lutherie prepared you for working in Bernd Etzler’s and the Lowden workshop? . BP - I spent two years in the lutherie school. The education included: basic knowledge of history and structure of stringed musical instruments (guitar- , violin- and lute-family), graphic design and drawing, knowledge of acoustic physics (specified to musical instruments, other acoustic spaces and amplification), building and repair methods of musical instuments. The training started with the process of mastering how to use all the woodworking tools, and it was only the next step to work with actual instruments. We spent most of the week in the workshop working with all sorts of musical instruments and confronting a very wide range of problems solvable with sophisticated repair methods. We treated separately the repair and the restoration. Once a week we had our theory and drawing lessons. I will be always grateful to my master for his hardheadedness in the proper use of tools. We developed respect for craftsmanship, for the wood, for the sound. And we were always forced to achieve the highest quality in our work. Those were not easy years though… I stayed in my master’s workshop for a year after finishing the school working mostly with violin type of instruments. Then I went to work to a double bass workshop providing the highest grade of restoration on very old double basses from all over Europe. Thanks to my school I haven’t had any problem to accommodate to the new working environment and facing the new challenges double-basses can pose. It was the same case getting to Lowden guitars where the only thing I had to learn was the production situation: to provide a consistently good quality in a given range of time. Thanks to my well grounded training I had the chance to prove my abilities very quickly. Bow-making is a different matter though: it is meticulously precise what was not a surprise after working with violins but I have never felt I can use any creativity on this field. After all the school provided the tools how to build or repair any stringed musical instrument but it is up to anyone’s creativity and skills where can it develop, what extra can be added, what additional levels can be achieved. TT - So how was it like working at Lowden? BP - I got the experience at Lowden’s how to do a job quickly and properly. For example: Before that it took me a couple of hours to carve a neck. Nowadays it takes only half an hour after carving a few hundred of them. The quality even got better, nor I nor Lowden’s craftsmen would not compromise with the quality. Maybe the most useful knowledge I gained how to maximise the use of basic woodworking machinery, how to make a jig for each job. Every luthier uses machinery then lets do it properly! Lowden later separated to Lowden and Avalon guitars. I stayed at Avalon where I was able to use my creativity designing new range of guitars, new models, my inlaying skills to create intricate inlays. I worked in nearly all parts of the workshop and I learnt a lot from my excellent colleges who are all experts on their own field. TT - Are there any highlights from your work at Avalon you might like to share with us? BP - In 2005 I was responsible for the re-design a range of Zemaitis’s guitars for Kanda-Shokai in Japan produced by Avalon guitars. I was able to use only a few poor quality photos and develop intricate inlay techniques, delicate silver-work building the prototypes. In 2008 I designed an expensive range of guitars for another brand (Craftine guitars) built by Avalon again. I also was designing many features on several Avalon models: different bevel models, rosettes (celtic rosette, the “green” rosette), even an inlayed oak leaf, all the custom inlays. I work in many areas of the workshop (it is rather a workshop than a factory): neckcarving, neckjoint, bracing, binding, finishing, all the inlay work, etc. TT - How does all that inlay affect the sound? BP - The answer: Inlays, unless they are used extensively in the top, do not have any significant effect on the sound. On the top the traditional inlay area is around the soundhole (rosette) what has its structural reinforcement rule in that weakened area but if we use inlays on the other parts of the top we might disrupt the even resonating surface and make the top to withstand less to the string tension. Any other part on the guitar can be inlayed without any real effect on the sound although on the back and sides it would have structural issues again. We always have to consider that wood is not a stable material: it moves, shrinks… Therefore using any other material with different charasteristics can be risky. I even do not prefer inlays on the fingerboard as that part of the guitar definitely will require repair in the future and it can awkward with inlays. But it is all up to the customers… Inlays can lift the aesthetics of the guitar, make it more personal, unique, distinctive. TT - Speaking of tone, I was wondering what tonewoods you prefer? BP - I think we can achieve a satisfactory result using different types of wood. I do not agree with some stereotypes: like the cedar sound is “darker” than spruce, Brazilian rosewood always sounds fantastic, maple guitars sound bright. It is not only the wood what determines the sound: it is the composition of woods used, the construction, bracing, etc. I have my secret favourite for tops I would not like to reveal. Otherwise I like the good old european spruce combined with Mexican woods: cocobolo or ziricote. These are really amazing woods: their grain structure, hardness, oil contents: always sound nice. But it depends on the requirements: musicians have their own choices. My other favourite is Latin-american mahogany ( honduran, cuban…) for back and sides: very rich, powerful sound with fantastic bass… Even the neck material has a big effect on the tone and sometimes mahogany is not the best choice… But sound is always very subjective. I try achieve the best result whatever timber I use. TT - Would you like to describe to us how you think the various neck materials alter the tone? BP - The neck material can improve the sustain and compensate some of the typical sound characteristics of certain tonewoods. I do not like maple as a neck material especially for maple guitars, I prefer mahogany for archtops, the sound is richer. It works to eliminate the “spongyness” of the maple. For softer woods I like to use hardwood necks. Walnut can produce surprising dark tones but it has to be properly reinforced for a steel-string. I think fantastic sounding guitars with very quick response, long sustain, good balance could be built using harder coniferous species (some pine, larch) but it is difficult to find a market for such experiments so I stay on the beaten track at least in this matter. Although you can find classical guitars built using spruce necks: try them! Mostly cheap guitars but they sound good. It is a very obscure thing to describe a sound: it is absolutely subjective and everyone judges it differently. Therefore I would not like to go there… TT - Well I know of a couple of guys who use Port Orford Cedar for necks…. BP - I did not encounter that particular timber. It should work very well. I used cedar neck on classical guitar because of its weight and for fuller sound… I will check it out. TT - I notice that your guitars are very individual- am I right in saying that you have few “standard” models- like how Martin has the d28 line? BP - Well I tried to stick to a few standard models but somehow it does not want to happen. Luckily my customers always ask for new things, even shapes or it is me who is too adventorous. And whenever I start to make a “standard” guitar using one of my old shapes the final result is usually something absolutely new. What is the point to make the same all the time after all? The guitars are personalised, customised this way. Maybe my only standard model would be the more traditional archtop what I used to call LA model, as I had to make quite a few of them. But I gave up naming my shapes or styles as I have so many models now and more to come. Maybe in the future… TT - So do you hand bend your sides and work as inspiration takes you? BP - Yes, I hand bend my sides but I do not build my instruments freely. I prepare molds for all my shapes. Most of my guitars are completely designed before I start to build them. I am only struggling with the intended simple ones. I always try to find a way to put something interesting on them and often ideas come during the working process. And yes, work can be inspiring. I am not afraid to try new approaches even if it means a lot of extra work. In some cases I have a picture what I want to achieve but a few final details will be finalised when I sit with the actual piece of wood in my hand. TT - Could you give us an example of when that has happened? When something new hit you during a build? BP - Sometimes I change some details during the building process, I can do some changes on the bracing even if I feel it looks better than on the drawing. It happened that I designed a new headstock instead of using an old design because it would suit better the guitar. On the “mickey mouse” guitar I could not resist to make the headstock “three dimensional” with the tuners sitting slightly tilted. Occasionally I encounter some problems how to inlay something and it can lead to some changes in the inlay and then in other aspects too. (for example it happened with guitar with the celtic dog as I had to find a solution how to make the soundhole binding running around the inlay too…) But small details can be changed if I find a nice piece of wood with the proper figure and colour and use it rather than what I originally imagined. (this is how the guitar with faces got a ziricote fingerboard, etc). It was a real challenge to work out how to realise the soundhole on the guitar with that strange celtic style soundhole running into the fingerboard and the solutions came during the building. (I also designed a similar one for Avalon guitars) Bindings can add to the appeareance of the guitar and it was a sudden idea to use different bindings on the back and the top on one my guitars… And the list could go on. TT - What would you say the single luthier can offer the player that the bigger factories can’t- considering even Taylor have opened a custom shop? BP - Bigger factories do not have a real flexibilty to adapt to individual needs regarding sound, playability, looks. It is possible to produce good quality guitars in a factory environment but I haven’t ever seen checking tap tones of braces picking the best bracing material… An individual luthier have a greater quality control, freedom, flexibilty. I believe a guitar will reflect the attitude used to build it and will be grateful if we approach it with care and attention. TT - Thanks for speaking to us, I was wondering if there was anything you would like to add before we go? BP - Well, I do not like to talk much about guitarmaking, I prefer to make them. I hope I could enlighten the my approach on this field and that I could bring some alternative views in this topic which is regarded highly traditionally what is far from me. “the only tradition in guitarmaking is inventiveness…”- but this is not my thought. Thank you for the opportunity. ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Prohaszka Brothers ©2009 warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

The Tree Mahogany Profile

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 7 Oct 2009 04:06:13 CST

Hi Folks! For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on The Tree Mahogany as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful. I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/10/07/the-tree-mahogany-feature-article/ for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the interview for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics! Warmest regards, Terence http://www.guitarbench.com warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

Slinky frets

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 12:26:53 CST

Some of you may find this interesting. They are called True Temperament Guitar Necks and claim to note out all up and down the fingerboard with as near perfect notes as possible for a fretted instrument. I’ve never seen or played one before, but I love to test one out sometime. My old Gibson could use a fingerboard like that if it works! http://www.truetemperament.com/site/index.php Mitchell

Edward Klein Guitars- An interview

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:54:25 CST

Hi Folks, Edward Klein has been building for a number of years now but is just beginning to become well known primarily for his unusual, moden guitar design and aesthetics. I caught up with Edward to chat about construction techniques and about his new designs. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full AV presentation, please check it out here:http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/09/30/klein-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence Edward Klein Guitars. | 2009 | Luthier Interview TT - Thanks for taking the time out from your busy schedule for this interview, Ed. I must admit I have only recently heard of your work, mostly through the Montreal show but I understand you’ve actually been building for quite some time now…. EK - Even though I have been to some degree active in lutherie for almost ten years now, and have maintained a website for the past four, most people have come to know of me through the last three Montreal Guitar Show exhibitions. A web magazine interview such as this will help to broaden the exposure of my work to an online audience, so I thank you Terence for this opportunity. I kinda feel what I am doing now is really an extension of what I started more than 20 years ago. I consider myself fortunate to have had a varied background before becoming a guitar maker. Prior to this I was involved in studio furniture making, and before that mechanical engineering. Since my education and experience had encompassed both technical as well as artistic pursuits, designing and building musical instruments was not too far of a sideways step. In fact I think ‘cross pollination’ in this regard is a good thing. The three years I spent studying crafts and design at Sheridan College in the late 80’s was most valuable as it influenced the way I see and think, offering a solid foundation in art and design fundamentals not to mention wood shop practice.. TT - So you’re more or less self taught? EK - Yes. I read as much as I can on the subject. The quarterly publication from the Guild of American Luthiers is a good resource, and there are decent books on the topic. I seek the opinion of accomplished players and fellow luthiers. Their feedback is important and it usually ends up in a nice dialogue, maybe even over a beer or two. Experimenting also teaches me a lot, and I always keep open minded about the possibilities. TT - Okay I guess it’s time to ask- you’re quite well known for unique and unusual designs and construction could you take us through some of them? EK - My current classicals adhere more to tradition, although I still impart my own aesthetic in details to this instrument with an emphasis on elegance. Work that I did on earlier nylon string instruments involved an offset soundhole, internal tubular support and sterling silver inlay. For any new project, I start with lots of sketching and lateral thinking. At this stage nothing is too crazy to discard immediately, and I try to avoid getting locked into a linear direction too quickly. After I decide on an idea the development can also take some time especially if there is supportive tooling to consider. I use the computer extensively for the working drawings. There may be some latitude in the acoustic guitar world for designs that challenge convention, as interest in my ‘ellipse’ and ‘evolution’ guitars are encouraging. For example, I was curious about the notion of having an adjustable neck for action, and wanted to offer my version of a cutaway, so one thing led to another and the ‘evolution’ guitar was the result. The neck rotates around the fastener axis, and has very good neck to body coupling due to surface area contact. Vacuum forming techniques were used to make the curved plywood access panel components which are strong and lightweight. The pinless bridge featured individual saddles and metal hold down studs. The ellipse is a lovely shape that worked well as a thematic repeating element in my latest guitar. A fanned fret fingerboard was central to the concept and so I had to come up with a jig to accurately cut these slots on my tablesaw. Using Steinberger tuning machines allowed the layout for the head I was after. Lacquer with transparent dyes complete the look with playful surface graphics. The prototype was introduced as a ‘crossover’ steel string appealing to classical players accustomed to a wider neck and lower tension. But this ellipse design can easily translate into a nylon or higher tension steel string model. TT - How about internally and structurally? Are your instrument more traditional in those respects- such use of an X brace for example? EK - I use scalloped X-bracing for acoustic steel string and fan bracing for classicals. I have adopted my own variations on these common bracing strategies. My linings are laminated to add stiffness to the body structure, and necks are reinforced with carbon fibre or a double acting truss rod. The ellipse guitar has a bolt-on neck that is absent of a heel, allowing the thumb of the fretting hand more room to travel up the neck when playing the higher frets. TT - and are your braces laminated vertically ie: stacked or horizontally ie: side by side? EK - It is my linings that I strip laminate, using core and cavity forms, into the curved plantilla shape. I prefer this over kerfed linings, although more work to make. They are not only stronger but look very nice inside the guitar when viewed through the soundhole. Actually, I use the same technique (gluing up thin layers of spruce side by side in forms) if I want to incorporate curved braces on the soundboard. Why should braces be limited to always being straight? TT - Sort of a sound is round concept? EK - No, I like to think of this simply as a viable alternative. I don’t currently use curved braces, but have tried it briefly in the past and may again in future. Looking at Kasha style bracing and what Steve Klein was doing with that, as well as the work of Gary Southwell and his A series guitar, prompted me to think about curved elements and how they can fit nicely into a bracing strategy. There are so many different ways to build a guitar it really is very interesting. TT - Okay so I guess it’s time to ask about your favored tonewoods… EK - I like using East Indian rosewood not only for the tonal properties, but because of good availability and still reasonable pricing. The surface graphics on the ellipse guitar called for a blonde wood, so curly maple was my first pick here. For tops I have used Western Red cedar, Sitka and Engelmann spruce. I would like to try other species, it’s all a matter of what I can get my hands on that I think is of outstanding quality. Having said that, I look to purchase from reputable suppliers and hope that what I end up building into my instruments is wood that comes from responsible logging practice. TT - So is Indian still your favorite back and sides wood? How about top woods? I have some friends who swear by cedar and others by spruce… EK - Presently Indian rosewood is a favourite and my standard for back and sides. I have never had the opportunity to build with Brazilian as the pre-cites stock remaining is ultra expensive and really good stuff hard to come by. I would like to construct at least one guitar in my life with this legendary wood just for the experience, but I would not encourage a commission. Koa and Ziricote are on my wish list. Perhaps in time I will develop stronger preferences, but for now I don’t have such biases towards spruce vs. cedar. Players will often have formed their own opinions and want one over the other. I try to be sensitive to the material chosen and build accordingly. More of my classicals to date have cedar tops. I do like the stability of cedar, and the more immediate openness with good volume. But greater care must be taken both during construction and in use as it is softer. And how can one not be thrilled with the remarkable figure in Bearclaw Sitka spruce! TT - Some luthiers are really keen on Bearclaw Sitka- some reckon it sounds better- what’s your take? EK - I too have achieved good results, and would like to believe there may be some correlation between this rare irregular growth pattern and its sonic properties, but hesitate to make such claims until I gather more experience using it. There is no denying the visual impact, yet the look can at times be ‘over the top’. It is not for everyone regardless of its tonal potential. TT - Ok, how about we move onto finishes…. EK - I finish with nitrocellulose lacquer and French Polish the tops on my classicals. I would like to move away from the solvent based lacquer and switch to waterborne in the near future for health and environmental reasons. Better products are being developed as industry moves in this direction. In any case, I think it is practical to use a finish that is repairable. TT - Do you feel that the finish contributes greatly to the tone? EK - The finish is an integral part of construction and its affect on tone needs to be considered. We necessarily put a finish on to enhance beauty and provide some protection, but add mass and stiffness in the process. Finishes continue to cure or harden over time, affecting to some degree the sound of the instrument with age. My aim when spraying lacquer is to build only enough finish to be able to level and buff. Too thick of a finish of any kind will dampen and restrict. The traditional French Polish is a very good choice from an acoustic point of view since the shellac film can be applied so thin, but needs to be handled with more care due to its delicate nature. TT - Thanks for that, Edward! I was wondering if you had any interesting projects coming up you might like to share with us? EK - This has really been a pleasure Terence. I am glad to share some of my experiences with you and your readers. Upcoming projects will have me working on building other versions of the Ellipse guitar, both steel string and nylon. I look forward to participating in future exhibitions with intention of showing these new developments. Thanks again for your interest in my work, it is most appreciated. ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Edward Klein ©2009 warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

Buck Curran guitars- luthier interview with mp3s

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:00:02 CST

Hi Folks, Buck Curran is primarily known for his musical output, Arborea. He also builds his own style of guitars and has vast experience through working for Dana Bourgeois. He creates his own style of guitar influenced by Vintage Martins as well as the work of English luthier, Stefan Sobell. I caught up with Buck to chat about construction techniques and about his experiences!. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full AV presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/09/23/curran-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence TT - Hi Buck, thanks for taking the time out from your busy schedule to speak to us. I was wondering if I might ask how you got into lutherie? BC - When I was a young boy my father bought a classical guitar and had a private tutor come to our house, so I’d say the guitar became a fascination and inspiration of mine from that point forward. Prior to that I was mostly drawn to singing, and I would sing a lot…often singing along with records by groups like Fleetwood Mac, The Beachboys, and The Beatles…my parents had a great record collection in our house that fueled my interest. One record in particular though was an instrumental record…and it was John Williams playing Bach. The rhythm and tone of his playing and the voice of the guitar itself was really an amazing thing to listen to…so incredibly beautiful to my young ears. Eventually my father gave up trying to learn how to play and the guitar went under his bed for a while…but I always knew it was there and eventually he let me use it and later on I took lessons. Even back then I could spend a long time just hitting notes and letting them ring out…and then when I got my first tape player I would spend a lot of time recording these sounds. My other great passion and something I started at a very young age was drawing…and by the time I turned 13, I was drawing very technical, blueprint style drawing of spaceships that I would dream up. By the time I turned 15 and started taking guitar lessons, and met some other boys my age who played guitar… I stopped drawing spaceships and started drawing and designing guitars. While I was attending high school I’d say guitar really became my primary focus and when I graduated I thought about going to study guitar in College….but eventually I joined the U.S. Navy to get school money to go the Guitar Institute of Technology in California. However, during the last year of my service I decided that I didn’t need school to learn how to be creative, and I figured the best place to learn how to play was in the real world… so I stayed in Virginia Beach and pursued my musical career in the Tidewater, Virginia area. Being in the Navy was a great experience for me because I got to travel to Europe and it also afforded me a lot of nice guitars…and it was during that time that I bought my first nice acoustic guitar, a new Martin HD-28. Only a few months out of the service I landed a job at a well know Instrument shop and Folklore center in Norfolk, Virginia called Ramblin’ Conrads. It was at Ramblin’ Conrads that I got my real education about folk music from the British Isles, and old-timey banjo music from the Appalachian mountains, and so much more. Aside from being an instrument shop, Ramblin’ Conrads was also a venue…so everyother week we’d have musicians like Ed Gerhard, The Battlefield Band, and Martin Simpson coming through to play. Eventually, I went on to manage Ramblin’ Conrads and run sound for many shows. The real turning point for me was in 1991 when we got a promo copy of Martin Simpson’s record ‘Leaves of Life’, which quickly became my favorite record to play at the shop. Eventually that year Martin Simpson came to play at the shop and he brought with him a brand new guitar made by Stefan Sobell that really floored me. After the show, and everyone had left I got an intimate look at the guitar…who’s voice he described as a “Choir of Angels”. The guitar also had a really unique body shape that I thought was really beautiful. After that day, I put the HD-28 up for sale and after it sold, I took the money and sent a deposit to Stefan. I’d say that was a pivotal time in my life…working a Ramblin’ Conrads, meeting Martin Simpson, etc. After that point, I thought about building an acoustic guitar for a very long time…and spent a lot of time educated myself. I did build an electric guitar while I was at Conrads. It wasn’t until I moved to Maine in December of 2000 however…and a year after that, when I had an extra room to work in, that I started to build my own guitar. At one point I even went to Pantheon guitars and talked with Dana Bourgeois and bought some brace wood from him. In the summer of 2002 I went to work for Pantheon guitars and soon after I started really focusing on making my Butterfly design become a reality.. TT - And how your time at Dana’s place? BC - Being at Dana’s shop over the past 7 years has been a really positive experience and has allowed me the opportunity to improve my guitar making and to work with and learn from skilled craftsmen like Cary Clements, and John Slobod. I came to Dana’s shop with a very specific mindset of how I prefer a guitar’s voice to be (which is quite different from Dana or say John Slobod) and that has not altered since those early experiences with that first Sobell guitar, and the sound of that Custard/Kistler guitar on Martin Simpson’s ‘Leaves of Life’ record. The greatest influence that Dana’s shop has had on me, is getting the opportunity everyday to be around a great amount of quality tone woods. Seeing and hearing endless variations of Spruce tops….Brazilian, Madagascar, and Indian Rosewoods, Mahoganies, etc and getting to see and hear how they translate into guitars has been an invaluable experience. Out of all these experiences…I cherish my close contact with thousands of Red Spruce tops…and comparing it with great Sitka, and European spruce. To my mind Red Spruce translates into the most powerful, and beautiful sounding guitars…and has become my personal favorite top wood. TT - so Red for tops- how about back and sides? BC - For my preferences the backs need to have a good density and a nice reflective quality. Over the years I’ve heard people say that they like mahogany for a drier tone…but I think that comes more from the mahogany (or any species of wood for that matter) being light in weight. I’ve heard a great many mahogany back and side sets that had great density, and had a glassy or metallic tap tone…and the finished guitar ended up sounding closer to a rosewood instrument. In the past I even chose a set of very responsive, but light weight set of Brazilian Rosewood for an OM. The finished guitar was very loud, but very dry…and although a great sounding guitar, definitely not my thing. Some of my very favorite sets of back and sides, has been sets of dense, well quartered Indian Rosewood with very distinctive blood red to fiery orange streaks running along the grain. It sounds a lot like really nice Madagascar Rosewood…dense stuff, with a very metallic (Reverby) tap tone. In this regard I’d say my goal is to build more of a ‘Classical style’ steel string guitar where as someone like John Slobod or Dana Bourgeois are trying to make ‘Flamenco style’ guitars…that is to say guitars that are light weight, with a quick response, and a great big fundamental. The way a bluegrass guitar player needs it to sound…like a machine gun. I’m more interested in a guitar with a strong fundamental…but equal to that it must have great sustain, and gorgeous overtones. Michi Matsuda had a great article in Acoustic Guitar magazine a few years ago where he spoke of the differences between the Western and the Eastern aesthetic…and how in the East the overtones and microtones are just as important as the fundamentals. I appreciate both, but tend to lean a bit more to the East. TT - So you’re generally aiming for a more complex tone and harmonic structure? Is that reflected in your music? BC - Absolutely! My goals are to build guitars for myself…instruments that can respond to all my demands as a guitar player and artist. This is the way I approach guitar making, and all the folks that have ended up with guitars that I have made seem very pleased. TT - What inspiration do you take from Sobell and Bourgeois? BC - I’m very much inspired by the lines, curves, and unique shapes of Sobell’s guitars…also the complexity of tone. I love Dana’s guitars for their attention to detail and I really love the catalyzed finish we use. I’ve had all my guitars finished at Pantheon guitars because I’m incredibly satisfied with the look and durability…and the way the finish effects the sound. The hardness of the finish definitely adds to the overall clarity in the voice of the guitar. All these things really help inspire my work. TT - Ah, with regards to Finish, how you find the varnish finishes? BC - Varnish finishes take a lot more time to harden so it takes longer to get the results I’m after. We have finished some guitars at Pantheon with Varnish, though they came out far too yellow in color for my tastes. I also don’t perceive a sound improvement with varnish on guitars that I have played…over the finishes that have ended up on my guitars. My friend Laurent Brondel has great success with his varnish finishes and he gets a very elegant and organic look with it on his guitars. As for myself, at this point in my life, I don’t have much of an interest in it. TT - We heard about your aesthetic and tonal influences- maybe you could give us an insight into the structural concepts behind your guitars? BC - There has always been a lot of theories about bracing…but my interest in bracing is ‘Secondary’. The function of bracing should be one of strength yet flexibility, and the back braces and back plate thickness is very important to the way the guitar moves air…in turn having a great influence on whether a guitar has a tight or loose sound. So, to my mind the ‘First’ important ingredient and vitality to the voice of a guitar is the quality of the plates (top and back). I think everybody is in agreement that well quartered tops are ‘Key’ to a superior steel string. For myself…voicing the guitar is getting that top thickness to be just right…not too thick and no too thin. Past feeling/flexing the top for strength…this is where having a good musical ear comes in handy. When I tap on an unbraced plate I can hear the musicality of it..the sustain, and the shade of it’s voice…it’s darkness or brightness, and in turn I make the decision on whether or not this is a top that suits the kind of guitar I’m after. Another thing is to think about the side structure or rim of the instrument as an important bracing structure itself. I believe that making a strong rim is important to the sound and longevity of the instrument (though I think it is important to make sure the rim is not too heavy). My experience comes from believing in the importance of history and ‘really’ listening to what other guitar makers have learned and from playing a great many world-class guitars over the last 20 years…and of course helping to build a great many incredible instruments. In the end however I must admit that I’m also a bit of a radical in that I feel that life is short and anything goes and people should have fun and experiment. One of my favorite guitar voices on record is an 18#8243; wide cedar topped instrument that Dan Hoffman (with assistance from Eric Aceto) made with experimental radial bracing. Martin Simpson used this guitar Beautifully on his instrumental recording ‘Leaves of Life’. Martin skillfully controls the dynamics of that guitar, yet really lets the guitar sing out and you can hear it’s rich and complex voice. Another interesting and beautiful sounding guitar (that I wrote about for the July 2005 issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine) is a guitar built by Ken duBourg which became Michael Hedges’ first hand-built guitar. Ken’s idea was to build a steel string acoustic that had the look and bracing of a classical, yet the size and playability of a dreadnought. TT - So am I right in saying that you believe in maximizing the individual characteristics of individual woods? BC - Definitely…interpreting and choosing the wood, and making decisions on what to do with it based on what kind of guitar I am visualizing! Of course the humbling fact is that wood can always surprise. TT - But do the overall tonal qualities remain the same within wood species? BC - My experience is that the tonal qualities are not necessarily the same within the same species of hard woods. Again it depends on the density and tapping voice of the chosen set of wood. A good example of this is having heard many sets of very dense mahogany that had a metallic or glassy tap tone that ended up sounding like great sets of rosewood in the finished guitars (great clarity, and lots of that ‘reverby’ character to it). My way of looking at tone woods for back and sides are that they’re sound reflectors and greatly influence the tonal shade of the guitar. To my ears Spruces within their own families (Red Spruce, Sitka, European) are more predictable. I’ve never heard Red Spruce tops that sound like Sitka…but I’ve heard Red Spruce from many different regions and it all seems to behave the same way. Western Red Cedar tops always respond and sound like Cedar. I’ve spent over 15 years listening to Sitka, European, and Western Red Cedar topped guitars and having been with Bourgeois guitars for over 7 years now I’ve heard thousands of sets of Red Spruce. I think Red Spruce is truly amazing and I prefer it for my own instruments. In the end though…they are too many variables and just when you think you’ve got something pegged…you can always be surprised. TT - In your experience is there much of difference between the best Indian and best Brazilian? BC - I feel Indian Rosewood and Brazilian are Apples and Oranges. I’ve tapped hundreds of Brazilian sets and played a great many Brazilian guitars over the past 20 years and I can’t say that Brazilian is superior to the best Indian. Though it is hard to get away from the fact that there are some really gorgeous looking sets of Brazilian. I will also say that occasionally I’ve played…and even owned a Brazilian guitar that sounded Truly Amazing! In those cases however I think that it just wasn’t the backs alone…but everything that was used in those guitars giving them their Elegant and Enigmatic qualities. I feel the sets of Indian Rosewood that I’ve used in my guitars…the kind with the blood red streaks, is just as Unique and Amazing sounding as the best Brazilian. For my preferences the absolute best sounding Brazilian sets were always well quartered, straight grained, with good weight, and metallic/glassy tap tone. I’ve been less impressed with Brazilian ‘Stump’ wood…though it sure can look stunning! TT - Here’s a question I’ve also been pondering- figured vs. non figured mahogany? I expect you handled a bunch of either right? Any truly discernable consistent tonal difference? BC - There are so many variances in the Mahogany I’ve seen over the years…it’s all pretty amazing tone wood. Again, the tonal differences I see comes down to the density and weight of the back and side set. If it’s a dense set, regardless of whether it’s straight grained or figured it always seems to approach the qualities of rosewood. The lighter weight mahoganies, whether straight or figured tends to give you that drier traditional ‘Mahogany’ sound. TT - Recently, there’s been some talk about how bridges and scale lengths can alter the tone of a guitar…. BC - Scale length definitely alters tone, but string tension and string size are definitely key factors. I spend a lot of time playing guitar on a 25.5 scale length guitar, but I have the strings tuned down to CGCGCD and it more closely approximates the sound of a short scale guitar in standard tuning. When you have strings tuned to standard and a longer scale length, the tone sounds more strident (to my ears) and their is more of dominant ‘fundamental’ voice to the guitar. To my mind this is not a bad thing, but just ‘Is’ and can be very useful to attain a certain muscial aesthetic. With shorter scale instruments their is more overtone content surrounding the fundamental…but less ability to cut through the mix if playing as part of an ensemble…definitely not ideal if you are playing Bluegrass for example. In my opinion shorter scale guitars are great for solo fingerstyle guitar playing and amazing for accompaniment if you are a singer. Obviously over the years…Eric Schoenberg and Dana Bourgeois have made a case for long scale OM’s and how they are perfect for fingerstyle guitar playing but I think that is a very particular aesthetic and should not be gospel. What should be gospel is…how comfortable is the particular guitar you are playing and how much are you attracted to it’s particular voice. No one should ever get caught up in the mindset that… ‘So and So plays it’ or ‘So and So says it’s the Only Way’… so it must be the Way to go! I think bridges are more of a mystery…but then again I’ve owned and made guitars with a lot of different bridge shapes and it almost always seems that the smaller the bridge (or the less mass you have)…that there is an increase in low end. I think these things however are subtle and may not really communicate themselves to a large degree in the big picture in the sound of a guitar. Waist sizes on guitar shapes are a huge factor in the sound, and I think a very overlooked part of guitar. All my guitars have pinched waists…something of a great value that I learned from Sobell’s guitars. With the tighter waist you have more mid-range response and the guitar starts to move towards that Dobro sound. I am really attracted to this sound! In the end the player is the biggest factor in tone, and touch and attack can vary greatly…putting three different people on the same guitar will yield very different results. TT - But how about those Ivory bridges I keep hearing about? BC - I have personally never used an Ivory bridge for one of my guitars, but I have had experience with a few that were made at Pantheon Guitars and by a couple other makers. Ivory definitely works as an alternate material for bridges and it’s sharp looking…but I have not been able to discern whether or not it really makes for tonal improvement. I will say I’ve certainly never heard a bad sounding guitar with an Ivory bridge. TT - Thanks, Buck- are there any new exciting projects you would like to share with us? BC - I’m slowly starting the first of a batch of guitars…it’s a Butterfly in Red Spruce and more of that ‘Red’ Indian Rosewood. I’m going to alter the bracing just slightly for this one….so it will be nice to see if I perceive a difference. Over the next two years I plan on building 4 ‘Very Special’ guitars to my own specs that I’ll offer for sale. I have also been planning for a couple of years now to build a guitar similar to Michael Hedges’ DuBourg guitar. That guitar has fan bracing like a Torres guitar. I’m not sure when I’ll tackle it however, as I’m in no hurry (and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to visit the actual guitar in California in the next year or two). I really like to ‘Realize’ guitars in my head for a long time before I try to make them become a reality. The cool thing about that guitar is that I got a rough tracing off the original from the gentleman who is taking care of Michael’s estate. Unfortunately the tracing in the upper bout ended up being really choppy and broken, so I couldn’t perfectly reproduce the lines of the original. It was incredible difficult to communicate with him through email, so I ended up having to draw my own lines in certain areas. It looks a little different but it will be close enough for my purposes. I’m not interested in making exact copies anyway…each instrument must be it’s own unique entity. I’ve also curated a compilation recording titled ‘Leaves of Life’ that’s available world-wide. It includes Alternative folk artists from the U.S., U.K., and Europe. All proceeds from the sales of that record are going to benefit important hunger relief programs run by the UN World Food Program. I spend a large portion of my time playing music with my wife Shanti in our duo Arborea. Our third cd ‘House of Sticks’ was released this year on Borne! Recordings and we did a session for the BBC in London this past May. Getting out and performing in Arborea, and helping promote ‘Leaves of Life’ and ‘House of Sticks’ is ‘Really’ one of the most exciting things I can do with my time. Thanks so very much for inviting me to talk about guitars! ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Buck Curran unless stated ©2009 www.guitarbench.com warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

C.F. Martin Thinline 332 pickup on eBay CHEAP!

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:15:20 CST

Only 6 cents so far! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140345963571&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Don't let it get away that cheap! Thanks! [:D] Richie Dotson Luthier, Teacher http://www.AcousticBox.com

An interview with Batson Guitars

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:38:24 CST

Hi Folks, Brothers Cory and Grant Batson are a new outfit building modern guitars with innovative and unusual features. When I tried a few of their guitars I felt here were some folks who are not afraid to innovate and move away from the mainstream in order to pursue their dreams.I caught up with Grant Batson to find out more about their background and building philosophies. I can't link pics or mp3s here so for the full AV presentation, please check it out here: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/09/16/batson-guitars-luthier-interview/ Warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com Grant Batson. Batson Guitars. | 2009 | Luthier Interview TT - Could you let us in on how you teamed up with your Brother to build guitars? GB - In the mid 90's, Cory and I both worked for a custom millwork company in Nashville making furniture and cabinets. We often stayed after hours to work on our pet projects, as there was an almost unlimited supply of scrap wood material that the employees were allowed to use for themselves. I had recently sold my '67 Mustang to buy a hand-made Lowden guitar and Cory had just had his guitar stolen. Cory had some serious envy of my new guitar and had no money to buy a decent guitar. He's a pretty sharp guy, so standing in the midst of dozens of power tools and large piles of wood, it didn't take him long to figure out that he should just make his own. He bought a book and got started. I was fascinated and would get involved from time to time and sometimes just hang around working on my own projects just so I could monitor his progress. Through the years, I continued to get more and more involved on the design end of things, from the logos, headstock and bridge shapes, etc. TT - So Cory and yourself are predominantly self taught? GB - In terms of not having an actual live person/mentor who instructs and assists throughout the process, yes. But I would say that we have had many teachers. Since we didn't invent the guitar, I would have to say that we learned a great deal from a great many sources. Cory started off by reading a book called "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology". It was his bible throughout theyears and is still sitting out on a workbench in our shop as a reference. Cory is also an insatiable researcher. He has spent countless hours reading about what other builders have done and how. To this day, he continues to learn of new theories and philosophies and then test them out. He generally ends up coming up with many of his own. TT - I understand a lot of your designs are unique- could you take us through a few of them? GB - We are basically doing four things to our guitars that not generally found in traditional acoustic guitar design. But, our bracing is really only thing about our guitars that is completely unique to us. The other things we are doing have been done before and some for centuries. When we began to "re-think" our design and construction, we had, essentially, one goal in mind: Allow the soundboard to do its job better. Cory started his musical journey on a set of drums and still categorizes himself, musically, as a drummer. He began to think of the guitar box as a drum and the soundboard as the "skin" or membrane. He thought that if we cut a hole in the center of his snare drum and then glued a heavy weight to the surface, the tone would not be very friendly to the ear. So, originally, the idea was that we could get rid of the things that hindered the tone from emanating off of the soundboard. So, getting back to your original question, we have cantilevered the fretboard, transferred the string tension to the "box" by incorporating a tailpiece, moved the soundhole to the "box" to regain that prime real estate on the top, and we created a lighter, more flexible, yet strong, bracing system. TT - What’s the philosophy behind the bracing system? Can you let us in on some specifics? GB - Pretty simple, really. We wanted something that that would be strong and yet flexible, too. We started thinking about bridge design and then remembered an old car-port our father built in Texas when we were young. With high winds that would often rip through the flat country-side, and desiring a large spanned opening, he took some 4" steel pipe and welded a 3/4" sucker rod to the ends. He bowed it open and welded spacers intermitently throughout the length. It spanned 30' and, as kids, we would get up on that tin roof (when dad wasn't around, of course) and jump on it like a trampoline. That thing still stands. We started out using the same concept. It's evolved a little since the first prototypes, but essentially the concept is the same. We wanted it lighter and more flexible, but with great strength. TT - And as a result do you guys prefer certain tonewoods to enhance this design? GB - Ervin Somoygi once noted (to paraphrase) that the perfect guitar would be constructed in a way that it would be on the verge of falling apart. This idea stays with us when we build with each selected tonewood. With our latest design we were hoping to allow the tonewoods to more freely pronounce their own voices. This would be in contrast to a guitar whose structural make-up was so over-stated that it's contribution to the sound could be heard throughout a guitar line up. To accomplish this, we want our "box" (back & sides) to be as rigid as possible, and our "top" to move as much as possible. The goal is to get the absolute best out of each set of tonewoods, no matter which ones are chosen. Having said that, we, of course, have our preferences, but those are essentially based upon the tastes of our own ears. I will say, though, that Oregon Myrtle, Cocobolo, East Indian Rosewood and Ziricote have all been universally popular with those who have played or purchased them. TT - I notice that you have a unique truss bracing system- I was wondering if that was confined to the top or does it go on the back too? This of course leads to the question: how much can the back contribute to the tone? Some folks believe it can be a secondary soundboard and use another topwood for the back.... GB - Theories are as numerous as political or religious views and most of them, in like fashion, have good credence and a group who can shoot holes in them. Our bracing has been one of our favorite things to play with. We have tried lots of construction techniques, designs and materials. The back certainly contributes to the tone. With our bracing experimentation, we have noticed small differences and large differences, and some have been with respect to tone, while others have affected sustain and volume. We have also used the truss bracing on the back, but more recently have been making them solid. To keep in line with our drum analogy, the stiffer, stronger and denser the "box" or "drum", the more "reflection" of the soundwaves will be in the "tone membrane" (the guitar top). We have noticed a significant difference in volume, as well as sustain, by making the box more rigid and the top more flexible. So, now we're simply playing with different variations of top bracing, which are dependent upon the choice of top wood. Simply put, we believe the top needs to move and the "box" needs to stay. We've never tried a "top wood" on a back, yet, but that might certainly be interesting. TT - How does the soundport fit into your drum philosophy? GB - Like any drum, the box needs an "air portal". Without this, the box is a vacuum, and thus, no movement of the top transpires. Like on a drum, we've place the hole in a place other than the "tone membrane". TT - and does it increase the feedback to the player or are the effects more complex than that? GB - There are definite sound waves escaping the hole and the player is given a front row seat for them. Its a nice playing experience. Feedback, in terms of the "Larsen effect" are actually diminished with this design, when in an amplified setting. In fact, that is one of the things that many travelling guitarists love about our guitars. The "true tone" is emanating from the board in the direction of the audience, which is what we wanted, but the sounds that the player is getting right in the face are, while perhaps a complex variety of overtones, very pleasing and a nice change from having to stick your head over the guitar to hear what's going on. TT - So your guitars are primarily aimed at jobbing fingerstyle players? GB - Not at all. The point is that this new design is bringing out the best in the guitar, no matter what style you play and for whom. I brought up the gigging fingerstyle player as an example, as the demands they place on a guitar are often higher than others. TT - How would you say the tone differs from a solid back to a truss back bracing? GB - I would describe it as more "open". Its funny how adjectives mean different things to people when trying to describe a sound. I guess by "open," I mean more pronounced... like the tone has been in a zip-lock bag and you finally took it out. TT - Are there any interesting projects you would like to share with us? GB - There is always something new with Cory around. He gets bored easily, so we have to give the monkey a new toy. That’s probably the reason we acquiesce to virtually every request of our clients. We are soon rolling out a few new models, which include the Batson Classico ( a nylon stringed, classical guitar, with our own twist), the Batson Crossover (a combination between the Classico and the Steel-String Batson guitar) and the SJ (a very traditional acoustic – soundhole in the middle and all that jazz). Under the radar are some personal projects of Cory’s. He’s begun building a weissenborn for himself, and also will soon be building a very special electric guitar for one of our best clients, who won’t stop begging. On my plate is a personal guitar that has a new hybrid bracing style. Should be interesting. I'll be finishing it up this week. TT - hanks guys for speaking to us. Before I let you go, I was wondering if you had any advice for folks looking towards their first custom ordered guitar? GB - A guitar purchase, particularly, a custom build, is such a personal and sometimes even emotional thing. I am often asked by friends and family to help find a guitar to fit their teenager or a beginner. I usually go with them to a couple of guitar shops and begin by picking up bunch of guitars with varying body sizes and neck widths and shapes. In a short period we can narrow down to what feels good to them. From there, its all about what they hear and see, and if they like it or not. This is, of course, rudimentary, but this is where I always start. With so many wonderful builders and so many great woods and other options, a custom order can be overwhelming. From parlours to jumbos, narrow to wide nut widths, 6 to 12 or even 7 strings, "fanned frets," Koa to Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle... you name it. There is always something for everyone. My main bit of advice would be to really do your homework and determine who you are as a player, what types of guitars fit you and what things you really enjoy and feel comfortable to your individual style and body make-up. From there, one needs to know what tones are most pleasing to their ear and last, but not least, what catches their eye... what do they find beautiful in a guitar... That's where we start. If you take a look at our options list, it can be overwhelming, but we walk through the entire process with each of our clients to partner with them in what will turn out to be their ultimate dream guitar. It's been a pleasure, Terrance. Thanks for taking an interest in what we're doing. Feel free to drop us a line anytime. Cheers! ©2009 Terence Tan. Pictures courtesy of Batson Brothers ©2009 Check out the great Batson website: link Any infringement of copyright or errors is entirely unintentional- although we try very hard not to make them. Any guitars represented remain property of their current owners. Any issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly. warmest regards, Terence www.guitarbench.com

Bellying & the JDL Bridge Doctor

eric@flatpickerhangout.com — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:33:30 CST

A buddy just emailed me this. Anybody know about this? Comments?

quote:
My old Sigma has pulled up the bridge so bad that it's almost unplayable. Term is 'bellying' which I just learned. Anyhow I've found a really neat invention called the JDL Bridge Doctor (see link) that appears to offer solution. Read many reviews and almost all are positive. Do you know of this device or of anyone who has used it? For only $30 it's worth a try, I'll let you know outcome. http://www.jldguitar.net/warped_tops/fixtop.html If this works as well as I hope it's a good deal to save what might be an otherwise unusable guitar. Your bluegrass list may want to know of it. I had to dig to find it on web.