This guitar was a real joy to design and build. My college academic advisor got in touch to request a guitar that would play jazz chords with clarity and aplomb and look imaginative yet crisp and classy. My advisor is a fine arts professor, a printmaker who had a tremendous impact on my development as a visual artist–I was thrilled to collaborate with him to design a guitar that looks as good as it sounds. We selected an Adirondack spruce top with sugar maple back and sides for fat, clear trebles paired with African blackwood appointments to increase the visual contrast. We chose a dyed color scheme that resonated with the deep purples of African blackwood. Finally, this guitar got a one-of-a-kind twelfth-fret inlay, designed by the customer, that is the perfect exclamation point.
Dye interacts with the wood, yielding a multilayered look.
Sugar maple is one of my favorites because the curl is amazing, but the medullary flecks don’t accept dye as readily, so they seem to float over the curl.
Here’s a closeup–the medullary flecks are visible in the top right corner of the image.
This is the sugar maple back showing the whole color range.
Here’s another photo of the back, toward the upper bout.
The J45 (underneath) is the largest guitar I’ve ever built. The soundboard on top is for a grand concert, which is not exactly a small guitar.
I’m currently building a pair of commissioned guitars and having a great time because the two instruments have such different goals.
The first is a jazz machine: I’m shooting for the strong, independent voicings and fat, certain trebles I’ve seen in several of my previous builds. This one is a Grand Concert size 12-fret with a red spruce top over a double-wall sugar maple rim and back, one of my all-time favorite combinations.
The other is a street fighter, with plenty of confidence and swagger, lots of low-end thump and a devil-may-care attitude about clean trebles. It is inspired by the best J45 I have ever played, a maple-or-maybe-birch-backed “Banner era” belonging to one of the best old-time guitarists around. My build is a red spruce top over a red maple rim and back.
Serial Number 26, a grand concert in sugar maple
The rosette features African blackwood and sugar maple.
This guitar uses the fan/X hybrid bracing that I’ve found produces a very balanced sounding guitar.
Using this style of bracing makes it easier to control the pitch of the back.
The red spruce bracing material I use is very stiff and requires a light touch.
Laminated braces add a great deal of stiffness to the rim.
Number 26 uses a laminated rim with laminated solid linings. The neck will be adjustable.
Maple sides, basswood linings and a red spruce top make a striking set.
I use go-bars to glue the plates to the rim.
Serial Number 27, a J45-style guitar in red maple
The rosette features Honduran rosewood and red maple.
I used a pretty traditional X brace with belly bars on this guitar, to get more of that characteristic J45 sound.
I chose to brace the back like my other guitars because it gives me more control over the end result.
Number 27 uses a single-ply rim with laminated solid linings. The neck will be adjustable.
In addition to being stiff, laminated solid linings look quite elegant.
Here I’m gluing the top on, though the visible pressure is on the back, which is up.
