ORDERING AND OPTIONS
I custom build guitars of several varieties to order. Current Price is $3000 plus the cost of a case, tax, and shipping. Contact me for wait time. I'm also interested in designing and trying new concepts and ideas. So, a few guitars a year will be available without having to wait.
WOOD SELECTION
I hand select the best tops available in order to get the best sound. Some tops that look good may be lacking in the qualities that will produce a great instrument. Therefore the species of wood is not as important as the properties of the individual piece of wood, how it is braced internally, and what is done during construction to get the most from it. Tops are available in European Spruce, Western Red Cedar, Port Orford Cedar, Lutz Spruce, Engleman Spruce, or Sitka Spruce. Each has their advantages and will produce different sounds.
Backs are available in Indian Rosewood, Granadillo, Pumaquiro, Maple, Cypress, and Padauk.
Some woods are better suited to a particular model or pair better with a certain species of wood. I'd love to talk to you about what woods would be best suited to the kind of guitar you want.
Necks are Spanish Cedar, Kaya, or Sapele. I prefer Kaya and Sapele for their stability and high density though they tend to be more difficult to work with due to the interlocking grain of the wood.
Fingerboards are traditionally Ebony, though Granadillo or other hard, dense woods can be used and offer a more interesting visual aesthetic.
ELEVATED FINGERBOARD
As an option I build with an elevated fingerboard because it offers a few advantages to the player. It allows easier access to notes above the 12th fret. It has the added benefit of adding mass and stiffness to the neck/body joint, which helps more of the string energy to act on the sound board. Finally, it allows me to build the entire top of the guitar as a continual curved surface. This improves treble response and allows the guitar to better respond to changes in humidity. Building this way is more work and risk than using the traditional Spanish solera but I feel it's well worth the effort. An elevated fingerboard costs an additional $500.
SCALE LENGTH AND STRING SPACING
After sound, being easy to play is the most important thing in a guitar. Not everyone's hands are the same size. My hands are a bit on the small side of average and, while i have no trouble playing a 650 scale length guitar, a shorter scale length of 635 with slightly closer string spacing is noticeably easier for me to play. Conversely I have a friend with large, thick hands that need more space between the strings.
Scale length: 635 or 650 mm
String spacing at nut: 40, 42.5, or 45 mm
String spacing at bridge: 57 or 59 mm