The process I employ is guided by my sensibilities as a guitar player and the hundreds of guitars that I have ushered through the transformation from raw wood to finished instrument. Each guitar is built from the finest solid wood components, individually selected and matched for acoustic and aesthetic considerations. Both classical and steel-string models are built in the Spanish method with an integrated foot/heel, harnessing the string’s energy to maximize volume and sustain. The result is a meticulously crafted instrument designed to effortlessly produce an orchestral body of tones.

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Soundboard

Each top is quarter-sawn and selected for tight, even grain. The wood is tapped, flexed, and brought to optimal thickness which is usually then tapered toward the lower-bout’s periphery to maximize strength and minimize weight. Braces are hand-carved to suite the characteristics of the particular top that it is reinforcing in order to achieve just the right voicing. 

 

Spanish Foot

All the instruments I build employ the time honored method of classical lutherie from the Spanish guitar-making tradition. Prior to the mass produced guitar codified by Martin in the early part of the 20th century, the instrument was constructed so that the body and neck comprise an integrated structure. The neck would extend into the foot of the guitar’s body as a continuous whole. It wasn’t until guitars were mass produced that it became standard procedure to build the neck and body separately and then join the two at the end of construction to complete the instrument. While this method is certainly efficient for cranking out instruments on a large scale, the advent of a neck to body joint introduces a potential for loss in transference of energy harnessed by the neck via the nut. It is for this reason that I use the Spanish Foot in the construction of all guitar models. I am absolutely convinced that this technique yields a superior instrument, maximizing both volume and sustain.

 

Precision Bent Sides

When the sides come out of the bending frames, it is crucial that their shape be finalized by bending them precisely to the guitar’s pattern. The importance of this step is often overlooked, as is evidenced by the common use of spreaders to press the sides into their mold for construction. This technique builds tension into the instrument since the pressure used to press the ribs will then exert the same amount of pressure on the guitar’s top when the components are glued and the spreaders released. It is one of the reasons an instrument will sound better after years of aging: the wood relaxes and settles into its shape. This aspect of a guitar's aging can be sidestepped if the sides are bent precisely in the first place. For this reason, I hand-bend the sides to sit perfectly in the frame without the use of spreaders. They exert no tension on the guitar’s top, allowing for a relaxed, resonant instrument.