The Blue SwalloW
A turning point...
The "Blue Guitar book" was first published in 1998. It featured guitars commissioned to top luthiers by Scott Chinery. All masterpieces! To me, it was a turning point: this is where I wanted to go! Unfortunately, my beloved Blue Swallow suffered extensive dammage years ago and couldn't be fixed...
Felix Martin 14-Standard
Back to the future?
Something totally different here: a 14-string (solid body) commissioned by Felix Martin. Dual parallel ziricote flat fingerboards, 25.5" scale, SD full shred pickups and stereo output. Figured walnu top, mahogany body core and neck. A lot of strings and a lot of frets for 2 hands...VIDS coming soon..
Tele Jones
Tele's are here to stay...
You can never go wrong with a basic Tele body shape. Leo Fender got it right the first time. But I must admit that I've alwasy found the body to be a tad small from the aesthetic point of view. So my Teles are usually a tad larger than the original. Above is a good example. Hollowed out body, TV-Jones pickups, curly maple top , mahogany body core and curly maple neck.
tele Ron H.
A wider neck Tele...
Here's an example of a basic Tele model. At first sight, nothing special about thsi model, until you start measuring: the customer wanted a wider neck than usual: 1.875" wide at the nut. This is what custom builders do: build instruments that suit your needs!
The Kiss
Teles can be glitstzy too...
Here's an example of what happens when I get out of control wirt inlays and finish. You definitively can't miss the body inlay, a shameless replica of the main charaters in Gustav Klimt's famous painting, The Kiss. This is the kind of axe that will sure you get noticed on stage, even if your playing is average!!!
tHe siren
Klimt again ...
Couldn't resist blatantly re-interpreting one more of Klim't's characters. Here, quilted maple is used for the top and a nice contrast is established with the maple fingerboard. Lindy Fralin P92's take care of the tone.
dream Baby
A classic OM
Although most of my production is focused on archtops, I occasionally built acoustics, mostly OOO-size. I love their clean bright tone and their size is just right for most people. In this case, rosewood was used for back and sides, with a sitka top. Mahogany/maple bolt on neck, ebony fingerboard with tree of life inlay.
Hot Club
A traditional Gypsy...
I must admit that this is the only one that I've built so far but I'm really happy with the way it turned out (its owner too!). Built with the tradtional crease in the top, its tone can be mistaken: it sounds like the real thing. Some audio clips by Dave Barton, just for fun and a lovely song by Marty & Kevin Long.
Small dreadnought
Walnut is a mighty fine tonewood
Here's an example of an acoustic in which I've used figured claro walnut for back and sides. Amazingly deep and full spectrum tone. Too bad the big guys don't use it more often.
