Tone, Strength, Playability, Beauty

A guitar that looks beautiful but is challenging to play, just doesn’t feel good in your hands, is not the answer.  A guitar that sounds great, but lacks in aesthetics is not the answer.  A guitar that sounds great but doesn’t hold up over time is not the answer.  I seek balance between tone, strength, playability and beauty.   This is my approach to guitar building.

My History and Philosophy as a Luthier

I grew up as an artist, musician and woodworker in a family of artists, musicians, and carpenters, and have over 30 years experience in wood working and carpentry – so my approach to building is heavily influenced by these experiences.  I have strong interest and a passion for all these areas.  I don’t really know how to separate the various influences from my life and feel that they all contribute strongly to my guitars in overall design, wood selection, structural considerations, how the guitar feels when you play it and of course the tone of the guitar which first and foremost.  Building guitars seemed a way to bring it all together.  I cannot imagine my life now without building guitars.

 I am a self taught luthier and began building around 1995.  I’ve read every book or article I could find on guitar history, building and design while learning and I expect my learning will continue for as long as I live.  I have also been fortunate to count among my friends and mentors some of the finest guitar builders in North America.  We are always sharing ideas and swapping lies and generally have a good time when ever we all get together at various gatherings and shows.   I owe a great debt to all of them for their friendship, support and advice through the years.

There Are Many Schools of Thought Among Today’s Luthiers

There are various schools of thought today in guitar building ranging from highly scientific to strongly intuitive.  They are all wonderful and very valid ways to approach guitar building and there are incredible guitars coming out of both camps.  But hand building an instrument is a highly individual thing, what works for one luthier doesn’t necessarily work for another.  In the end it is the guitar that matters. 

 I am not a builder in the ‘scientific’ camp, but neither am I totally an ‘intuitive builder’.  When it comes to the overall design and artistic touches – my art training & background influences my intuition in the selection of the individual woods for each guitar, but my understanding of structural mechanics and the properties of wood influences the overall shape, bracing and design of the guitar.  

Maximizing Tone and Enhancing Structural integrity

Through my years of learning – and I am sure there will be many more to come – I focused first of the voice of the guitar.  I wanted to achieve a tone that was rich and balanced, with strong bass response, fat trebles and a good mid-range to fill out the overall sound.  It’s the tone that is pleasing to my ears.    My bridge is designed with the same fundamentals in mind.  It is an integral part of the tone

Braces as an Integral Part of the Guitar’s Voice

I use Cumpiano’s theory in bracing which I’ve tailored to maximize the tone I want while maintaining strong structural integrity.  Cumpiano’s theory (which I believe is of the Gurian camp) was the one that made complete sense to me given my background in woodworking and my experience in structural design.

 For example, for me the bracing fills two equally important functions – to form the strength needed in the instrument – and also to be an integral part of the top and therefore the guitar’s voice.  In my mind they are inseparable.  My ‘flat top’ acoustic guitar is not truly flat. The braces are carved to a shallow curve that the top is then adhered to prior to joining the sides to the top and back.  This is used by many builders today and has been for many years.  This arch adds strength (think of arches in architecture) but it also enhances the tone of the guitar.  The arch creates tension in the top, and demands bracing which supports this tension.  So, for example I do not scallop my braces in order to the boost bass response, my understanding of structure tells me that this compromises the strength – guitars with sagging tops at the bridge confirms this to me.  Instead I make the braces with a parabolic shape both in length and cross-section. Then I hand carve the sides of the braces to be as thin as possible leaving the height to maintain their strength and to maximize the overall response of the top (bass to treble) while maintaining its structural integrity.  I think of braces as tone bars, much as you would in an arch top guitar.  I am seeking a tone that is equally balanced from bass to treble.  I have been told by many clients and other luthiers that my guitars have a district voice.  My method of carving the braces and focus on the braces as ‘tone bars’ probably has a lot to do with it.

 Playability – A Guitar That Feels Right

I also build my guitars with playability in mind.  I want a guitar that feels good in your hands, so I carve the necks with this in mind.  I mainly use mahogany for the necks for it stability, and an oil finish because it has a natural feel to the hand and avoids the sticky feel a lacquered neck can sometimes have.  I also build my guitars with a stacked heel for the same reason – it’s stronger – and that’s important to me.  I stack the pieces in sequence from the same board as the neck for aesthetics.  It also saves wood! To my way of thinking a guitar should look beautiful, but it also needs to be strong and give years and years of enjoyment.  I want my guitars to be around long after I am gone.

 

And then - overall aesthetics. I mention them last – but I can’t really say they are last in my mind.  It’s a challenge to rank them all.  My background as an artist and also as a woodworker plays to this strongly.  I love the rich variety of wood; the beauty in nature is endless. I like to let the wood speak for itself and so do not use any stains for example.   Although I have done a number of guitars with inlays and such in the past,  I find I am moving strongly away from this in search of a simpler elegance.  So, I tend not to decorate my guitars with inlays – but rather respond to each piece of wood individually, selecting companion woods that enhance one another.  

 Each piece of wood has its own personality.  As I see it my job is to respond to this and allow the wood to tell me what it wants for rosettes, binding, etc.  I find myself in awe as I select the various woods, and as I am finishing the guitars.  The challenge here is to remain humble – and let the wood speak.  The end result is what I hope is not only a work of art, but also a musical instrument that sounds and plays as beautiful as it looks.

 I suppose I am on a never ending quest for balance in tone, strength, playability and beauty.  And of course, the perfect cat chow.