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Design Philosophy

A Unique Instrument catering to each of your desires

 

I specialize in building custom stringed instruments: steel-string guitars, classical guitars, archtop guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles.  In each case, I strive to combine proven designs with leading-edge engineering in order to achieve an optimal instrument.

 

Most musicians believe they have two basic choices for their instrument — production or custom. Production models come in just a few variations and are manufactured to an exact design, with little or no custom tuning to compensate for the inevitable acoustic variations in different pieces of wood. Production instruments tend to be over braced, causing drastic reduction in volume and tone.  In contrast, custom instruments are made in much smaller volume, allowing for a wider variety of designs, and giving the luthier the opportunity to hand-shape the bracing in order to bring out the best that the instrument can offer.

 

But, most custom instruments are made to sell "off the rack" with no opportunity for the musician to affect the design. In contrast, I specialize in working with each musician before the instrument is built. Together, we will discuss your acoustic, aesthetic and musical preferences. Based on these discussions, I adjust over 20 different design elements, resulting in a unique instrument that caters to your specific desires.

 

In each case, I start with a proven foundation:  the X-braced steel-string guitars designed by C.F. Martin in the early 1900s, the archtop jazz guitar honed by  Robert Benedetto, the world-renowned mandolin made by Lloyd Loar in the 1920s, and the traditional classical guitar perfected by Hauser in the 1930s.

 

The ukulele is a bit of a special case.  It is a traditional folk instrument which often suffers from poor construction and little attention to detail.  My goal has been to bring the ukulele up to the standard of the other instruments by perfecting the bracing, enhancing the construction techniques, and adding a number of aesthetic elements.

 

Building upon this optimal base, I offer a plethora of design options, all of which greatly affect the instrument’s acoustics, aesthetics and playability. When purchasing an instrument, every aspect, from the wood for the back and sides, to the thickness of the neck and string action, should suit your preferences exactly.  The thickness of the top and back, combined with the hand-shaved braces results in an instrument that always seems to have power and volume to spare.

 

To create the instrument, you and I will consider several design elements, each of which affects at least one of the following features:

• Acoustics: How will the it sound? Will it be bright, bassy or balanced? Will it have higher or lower volume? Will the notes sustain for a longer or shorter period?
• Playability:How does it feel to play the instrument? Is the neck thick or thin? Are the strings higher or lower from the fretboard? Are the strings closer together or further apart?
• Fit:How does it fit your hands, arms and body? How well does the neck fit your hand? How well does the size of the body suit your own tastes?

• Aesthetics: What kind of inlays, body binding, purfling, headplate, end graft, heel cap, and fretboard binding do you prefer?

Apart from the fundamental design, all elements of the instrument can be altered to ensure that it matches the musician’s preferences in acoustics, playability, fit and aesthetics. Altering one element of the instrument will affect at least one and frequently all four of these qualities. Following are the major elements that the musician and I will work with and the features that each element affects: