Steel String Guitars
I build smaller bodied steel stringed guitars designed mainly for finger-picking and light strumming playing styles. If you are looking for a flat picking or bluegrass guitar, you'll have to look elsewhere as I don't have an ear for that style of music. I have two basic models:
- A larger model of my own design with a body length of 508 mm, lower bout width of 384 mm, and upper bout width of 292 mm, and a scale length of 650 mm.
- A smaller model loosely based on the old Gibson-LG series with a body length of 482 MM, lower bout - 360 mm, upper bout - 282 mm, and a scale length of 630 mm.
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| Custom large model, Engelmann spruce top and Paper Birch back | Padauk back of small LG model | |
All my steel string guitars now use a hybrid X/lattice style bracing, as I have found this bracing to give excellent structural strength with less mass than the traditional X bracing. It seems to lessen the difference in timbre between the wound G string and the plain steel B string, which is an important consideration when playing a melody that crosses back and forth between these two strings. The larger model uses 4 transverse back braces, while the smaller model uses 3 back braces.
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| Back bracing, and two views of hybrid X/lattice bracing | |
Many options are available to customize my guitars, both in choice of
woods and in style and design.
Standard options available at no extra cost include:
- Choice of Englemann spruce, Western red cedar, Douglas fir, Western white pine, Yellow cedar, or SubAlpine Fir for the soundboard.
- Choice of East Indian rosewood, Pau Ferro, Padauk, Bubinga, Bigleaf maple, Paper birch, Mahogany, Walnut, or Cypress for back and sides. Other woods may be available.
- Choice of Spanish cedar, Mahogany, Douglas fir, or Yellow Cedar for the neck wood.
- Wood bindings and purflings
- Carbon fibre stiffeners and adjustable truss rod embedded in the neck .
- Schaller tuning machines
- Choice of scale length, nut width, and string spread, and general setup.
- Choice of 12th or 14th fret neck-to-body join.
- Choice of french polish, TruOil, or water based lacquer finishes.
Custom options available for an extra fee include:
- German or red spruce soundboard.
- Brazilian rosewood, or other rare special order back and side woods.
- Custom inlays or carvings on the headstock, neck or heel, or bridge.
- Cutaway body shape.
- Installed electronics/pickups
- Custom Calton case, or other heavy duty case.
- Your choice of tuning machines.
To get details on pricing options, please visit the Instrument Pricing page.