About my guitars:
My goal is to build you an instrument that inspires you to make great music. I want my instruments to be responsive to a light touch and balanced across the strings, but more importantly I want them to inspire creativity. To that end I am always seeking to create instruments with their own voice and sound. I build my guitars one at a time and I am constantly trying new ideas to achieve different sonic goals. Music is art and art is about individuality and expression. I build the instruments but you get to explore the possibilities and make the music.
Tonewoods:
In New Hampshire, we are lucky to have access to many excellent tonewoods. Red spruce, aka Adirondack spruce grows locally in New Hampshire and Vermont and makes excellent instruments — there is a reason it was the choice of instrument companies in the early 20th century. After being overharvested, it is now available for instrument making. I am lucky to have a stash of red spruce grown in my hometown of Lyme. I also have local cherry, walnut, oak, maple and other tonewoods for backs and sides.
Individually built:
I build each instrument individually. In general factory-built guitars are built to “averages.” They use build specs that are repeatable, predictable, and work OK for an average spruce soundboard. Any instrument maker can tell you that each piece of material is different and the only way to optimize the sound is to “build to the wood”.
There are many benefits to building individually. First, this allows me to tune each instrument. The soundboard is by far the most important part of the instrument and this is where I begin. I evaluate soundboard material based on stiffness and density and I use frequency analysis, Chladni free plate tuning, deflection testing, as well as good-old tap tuning. This helps me select an appropriate use for each soundboard and after selecting a soundboard for a particular project, it allows me to optimize the thickness of the soundboard and tailor bracing for the goals of the instrument.
Second, I can tailor the instrument to you and your style of playing. I can build guitars suited to your style whether you are a fingerstyle player with a light touch or an aggressive bluegrass flatpicker. Other options include body shape and style, scale length, string spacing at the nut and saddle and string gauge, as well as tweaking the shape of the neck to suit your hands.
Third, I can customize the decoration of each instrument. In general every instrument is different and while I build some parts in bulk for efficiency, I try to achieve a different look for each guitar. I offer custom inlay to personalize your instrument.