I tend to prefer understated ornamentation, in this case a simple but elegant inlay at the 12th fret.
This is my four year old son Sawyer, sanding out a double neck electric prototype that came through the shop last year.
A European Maple/ Sitka Mandola and an Indian Rosewood/Cedar Legacy ready for wet sanding and buffing.
Cocobolo and Brazilian bindings are bent in batches of 6. I offer other materials but bend them individually.
All the materials in the shop have been in a climate controlled enviornment for a minimum of three years before I will use them. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Aged wood is key in the construction of heirloom quality instruments.
This is the (pre-finish)headstock of a custom 5-string Bass for Tony Richardson, a musician based in Nashville.
A recent custom Telecaster with Rio Grands. Yeah, I do that too.
Material thickness is measured in thousandths of an inch with a dial caliper.
I glue braces to the plates with either Cam Clamps or vacuum. In the background is a view that I love, the fields of my wife's Organic Farm.
I carve all braces by hand after they are glued onto the plates. I have braced hundreds of guitars this way. It is a stage in the process that has become very meditative for me. I turn off the music and I unplug the phone.
An oval soundhole graft. What is beautiful on the outside should be beautiful on the inside.
Traditional X-brace on a Meas model.
Modified Fan brace on a Fat Cat.
The back and sides of a Cocobolo Fat Cat await the top.
This is the bracing for my Monarch. I try to stay pretty close to the originals when reproducing a specific type of instrument.
A new Mahogany / Adirondack Fat Cat ready for finish.
Here is a detail of the Lacewood binding on the instrument to the left.
A Madagascar Rosewood side cooling on the bender,
Nice light at the end of a day. I find great satisfaction in the fact that a tonal endeavor yields such visually aesthetic results.
