Super Jumbo

This jumbo steel string guitar is patterned after the well known Gibson SJ200, but with some modifications to suit the playing style of most guitarists.  Specifically, the neck and heel are considerably thinner. Also, the use of mahogany for the back and sides makes the guitar lighter in weight and more comfortable to hold.

This instrument was built with a torrefied Adirondack red spruce soundboard, curly Honduran mahogany back and sides and a one piece Honduran mahogany neck. The ebony fretboard holds a 25 1/2″ scale and has a 12″ radius of curvature.  The peghead veneer and bridge are also ebony.  The bindings are Indian rosewood. Abalone purfling lines are found throughout the instrument.  The body is 17″ wide and 4 3/4″ deep at the tail.

This guitar has  tremendous sustain compared to its maple cousins.  The bass notes are crystal clear without the booming sound one would hear in a similarly sized rosewood body. The balance from string to string is exceptional.  Due to its light construction, the instrument has a highly desirable bell-like quality when strummed and it has great projection without having to aggressively attack the strings.

7 String Nylon Guitar

This 7 string nylon/classical guitar has a lattice braced spruce soundboard, cocobolo back and sides and a Honduran mahogany neck with adjustable truss rod.  It holds Rubner ball bearing tuning machines and a Barbera piezoelectric bridge pickup.

The 650 mm scale is on an ebony fretboard with a 16″ radius.

The offset sound hole results in a greater active surface area for the soundboard because the lower tone bar can be positioned closer to the neck. This augments the lower frequencies, giving support to the additional bass string.

The Brazilian rosewood bridge has a 14 hole tie block. This feature increases the downward pressure on the saddle compared to a 7 hole tie block and this results in a more powerful voice.

This guitar was built for jazz guitarist Steve Herberman.

Concert Classical Guitar

This guitar has a fan braced redwood soundboard, matched with Grenadillo back and sides. It has a powerful voice with impressive projection, perfectly balanced across all strings and in all fret positions. The redwood soundboard combines the clarity of spruce with the warmth of red cedar, resulting in a tone color in between these two more traditional top woods.

The 12 hole bridge is made of Brazilian rosewood and has a bone saddle.

The guitar has a 650 mm scale. The neck is 52 mm wide at the bone nut.

The tuning machines are by Rubner and the rollers have ball bearing ends, resulting in effortless, friction free movement.

The soundhole ring and tie block overlay are made of Amboyna.  Bindings are birdseye maple. The 5 piece neck is made from mahogany, curly maple and ebonized holly.

 

“Everest” Archtop Guitar

This 18″ oval holed archtop guitar was constructed with a long-aged Sitka spruce soundboard, master grade curly red maple back and sides, and a curly maple neck.  The fretboard, bridge, tailpiece, binding, peghead overlay and diamond inlays are ebony. The yellow purfling and accent lines are Canary wood left in its natural state with some small flecks of red occurring in the bold yellow color. The soundboard is braced similar to my L7 style archtops. It has an X brace along with perpendicular braces at either end of the X.

There are two custom made, hand wound Kent Armstrong pickups with this guitar. In these photos, the humbucker is attached to the end of the fretboard. That pickup can be replaced with a P-90 style, which also conforms to the curvature of the fretboard and sound hole.

This instrument has a very open sound, somewhat like that of a great flattop guitar, while still offering the clarity and note separation of a great archtop. The attached video perfectly demonstrates these properties after a brief interview about the guitar.