CONSTRUCTION

Each guitar is constructed to exploit the full potential of the chosen materials and design and, for a commissioned instrument, to bias the tonality and feel to suit the particular player's taste and technique. Ideally the model type and combination of woods must be chosen to suit the player's style and technique but within these parameters quite dramatic changes can be made by which particular pieces of wood are chosen and by strutting and thicknessing variations.

My starting point is to make a guitar which can transmit and enhance the full range of frequencies available from steel strings; from strong fundamental centers to each note, right up to the complex overtones they naturally produce. My guitars can be described as bright but even my most sparkling instruments are never thin or brittle sounding, they just have the full range available in each note. This makes for a guitar that is very responsive to the way it is played; if you play with a bright sounding technique the guitar will sound bright, if you dig in big warm tones will come from the same guitar.

Above: Eric Roche's custom Orchestra Model having its top purflings and bindings fitted.

Soundboard

I generally build my soundboards in what is, in many ways, a very traditional style. An X-brace system is used with two tone-bars behind the bridge and two finger-braces either side. Main struts are either shaped with a central scallop (scooped out central section), with a parabolic shape (high point in strut's center with a gradual tapering to the ends and no central scallop) or just with end scallops and no central scallop. Fully scalloped struts produce warmth, responsiveness and sustain without sacrificing control, whilst parabolic systems produce a faster, more explosive attack with more brightness and less lower midrange, unscalloped struts give a clean direct tone ideal for harder players, slack tunings and a balanced strummed sound. The main way I achieve the type of tone I am looking for is by using relatively high pointy struts whichever overall system of shaping I am going for, this helps a great deal with producing the higher overtones whilst still allowing openness and freedom to the sound.

Top thicknessing is generally uniform but sometimes I taper gradually from the central joint if I am trying to modify the relative lengthwise to crossways stiffness of a particular top. One major way my soundboard construction differs from the traditional is that I use a constant radius doming (25' or 30' diameter) across the top, with the top edges of the sides conforming to this dome (rather like most backs). Commonly a flat top edge is used which causes the doming to flatten out considerably in some places; making for a weaker and less vibrant soundboard than constant radius doming.

The bridgeplate is usually European maple, although Indian rosewood can be specified to give extra sparkle but my guitars are usually plenty bright enough without. I use either a Brazilian rosewood or ebony bridge as standard; this can be based on cosmetic or tonal reasons; rosewood tends to give a richer edge to the sound, while ebony gives a little more focus and solidity. Stripy macassar ebony gives a tone somewhere between rosewood and the more traditional black ebonies.

So, to sum up, the main styles of soundboard construction I use most frequently are;

'Scalloped' Medium to thick top with standard scalloped struts. This produces a very good mix of all the available qualities with a great balance of depth, warmth, presence and brightness to produce a versatile instrument which will respond very easily to fingerstyle but still strum and flat-pick.

'Parabolic' Medium thickness top with parabolic X braces and tones, and parabolic fan struts instead of fingerbraces. This system produces a very explosive sound with less sustain in the lower mids, making a guitar that responds quickly and clearly for complex modern fingerstyle playing with plenty of string control for slack tunings such as DADGAD. The tone is rich and present with lots of harmonics, and modern techniques such as tapped harmonics jump out very readily. I will soon be offering this style with extra reinforcements to allow for some of the more physical soundboard percussive techniques employed by some of my customers.

Picture coming soon.

'Unscalloped' Medium to thin top with struts that only have end scallops and no central one. I also put the tone bars a little more parallel to the grain and the X more underneath the bridge. This system gives a direct and vibrant tone with a present bass and attacking trebles for very good separation and lots of clean headroom. Ideal if you use a thumb pick or mix strumming and fingerstyle or just want to really drive your guitar pretty hard.

Twelve-string guitars are generally strutted with a 'Double-X' system, where a second X-brace replaces the tone-bars behind the bridge for extra strength.

I have been experimenting with various bracing patterns for my Baritones and here is a latticework example used recently.

Update Nov '05. As my making experience has developed I have adopted a more and more fluid approach to strut shaping and putting a given guitar's strutting style into a particular category becomes less and less relevant. I now combine many ideas and forms into any one instrument seeking to balance the particular pieces of wood and the desired response for a particular player. The dissection into styles does however help to explain to some extent what's going on!

Above; my tapered cross section bridge with ebony pins and compensated bone saddle.

Back

My backs are again built using a constant radius dome (15') which produces a tighter doming lengthwise than many guitars. This helps with projection and focus a lot in my opinion and also gives a lovely flowing look to a guitar combined with the constant domed front.

Strutting at present is four transverse bars, usually made from spruce for strong projection. I have found that the positioning and height of the back bars can significantly affect the evenness of a guitar and 'wolf-notes' can often be controlled by variations in back strutting for a given design. For most instruments all the bars are 'church arch' in cross section and with medium deep scallops at each end to give a good combination of depth, warmth and richness to the guitars tone without boominess. For Dreadnought models I often use two low, wide bars across the lower bout which can give the lower notes more punch and a little less sustain; helping them stand out when flat picking.

Neck

Above; neck with joint and trussrod slot machined, slotted fingerboard and inlayed head facing plus general mid-job clutter!

Necks are always made from 'Honduras' mahogany and I very carefully select this scarce resource to get very stiff pieces without the very high density sometimes found in this species and it's close relatives. I am currently using only plantation grown and sustainably harvested mahogany or reclaimed old stocks if possible. I generally use a one piece head and shaft with a separate heel block, or two or three piece laminated construction depending on what dimensions of timber are available in the quality I require. This is done to get the best use of the rare timber and laminated necks are also stiffer and less likely to break if subjected to things they shouldn't be.

I use a bolt-on neck joint system with a moderately large mortise and tenon, only the fingerboard tongue is glued to the soundboard. This allows reasonably simple neck removal without a ridiculously complex neck joint, combined with very good solidity and energy transfer, unlike some other bolt-on systems. I use this system because I feel it is better all round not because it is easier to do than a dovetail joint or 'Spanish heel' and I use very strong 'barrel' nuts inserted from the side of the tenon rather than inserts threaded into its weaker end grain as most makers do. The bolts add very little weight to the instrument and the much greater strength of the joint is tonally very advantageous for steel string guitars in my experience.

News Nov '05. I have recently been experimenting with butt jointed necks using threaded inserts and may well convert fully to this method. It's simplicity is reminiscent of many early stringed instruments and this distillation of function appeals to me. I have done tests using some very good inserts and was very pleased with their strength.
Update: I have been using butt jointed necks with treaded inserts eversince! They work very well.

Ebony is used as standard for fingerboards, with very old and definitely legal brazilian rosewood as an option (please inquire for availability). The rosewood is slightly softer than ebony but can be more resonant and can help add overtones to an instrument, especially when lower density back and sides woods are used, such as walnut, the down side is of course slightly increased wear. I am now very happy to offer stripy macassar ebony as a further option, it seems to offer the best of both worlds; it is hard and resonant!

Head facing varies with decoration scheme with ebony and rosewood as standard, other figured woods such as burl thuya can be specified.

Trussrod is an adjustable high quality aluminium U-channel type with central rod. I modify this slightly to get more possible crank and adjustment is through the soundhole. Dual carbon fibre rods supplement the standard rod on 12 string models and basses.

I supply guitars with a nice hard medium fretwire as standard but any size can be specified.

Standard scale lengths for each model are listed on their pages although I am open to discussion if you require something different.


Finish

I have tried many different finishes in the search for the most appropriate type for using on small numbers of handmade guitars, including; french polish, oil, acrylic, alkyd varnish, oil varnish, etc., etc., and have finally come round to offering a satin nitrocellulose lacquer as standard. Having tried the rest I feel this form of finish offers the ideal compromise between durability, flexibility (for good tone) and look, and I will be using Mohawk's 'Classic Instrument Lacquer' exclusively from now on. I also offer a high gloss version for those who like a less woody look.