I thought I would start off with a few pictures of a guitar I just delivered to Paul Lee in New York. This instrument is in Honduras Rosewood and a heavily bearclawed Italian Spruce Double Top. It has the latest in the Art Nouveau Rosette now featuring a three-segment design in Desert Ironwood burl. The bindings are in my new standard, which is Macassar Ebony with Quilted Mahogany and maple purflings. There are no dyed woods in the guitar.
The challenge with this instrument was to keep strong basses with a 640mm scale and I can report that it has no problem at all. The sound was everything I hope for in these guitars and is the first Double Top instrument that didn't have some new development in the soundboard or bracing. My goal in this coming year is to continue to consolidate all of the research and refine the Grand Legacy to the highest possible state.
New Woods in the Inventory
I may have mentioned before that I have some very good new top woods in the inventory. There is some terrific European Spruce from St. Moritz Tonewoods in Switzerland and some Chocolate Cedar from Gordon Pearson in Canada. Along with the 200-year-old Redwood from old Fort Ross in California, I have a tough time with recommendations for clients. That's a good thing! I also have a set of Malaysian Blackwood thanks to Andrew Teoh in Singapore and some highly figured Brazilian Rosewood sets from Allied Lutherie. This is the legal old growth Brazilian that has been harvested from decades old stumps in Brazil. I was a little skeptical about the tap tone and stability, but the first set has been on stickers in my shop for about a year and it has really grown in it's sound. I'm pretty excited to offer this wood, as the quality is very high.
12-hole Bridge
You can see from the pictures above that I have returned to the 12-hole bridge. The latest redesigned version seems to really hold everything securely and as usual with these bridges they offer longer "D" string life and less wear and tear on the tieblock, not to mention the advantages in restringing.
The WoodSong
The WoodSong is a Steel String guitar based on a Classical body size it is a 12fret cutaway intended for fingerstyle players. I'm happy to report that a Colorado Springs player, Phil Volan used a Cocobolo/Redwood WoodSong to take second place at the National Fingerstyle Championships in Winfield, Kansas. Phil is a master player obviously and a real guitar expert as well. He has a great ear and is very discriminating in terms of sound and playability. He plays in a lot of amplified settings and has recorded several CD's with a new instrumental effort beginning soon. Congratulations, Phil!
The New Millenium Guitar On-line Magazine
Larry Cooperman is the guiding light of this online guitar magazine and you can check out his work at: http://www.newmillguitar.com/ Larry has taken delivery of his new Reynolds Grand legacy Double Top guitar in Brazilian and Italian Spruce and has written a review of the guitar which is posted on his website. He uses some pretty strong language so be prepared! Larry is a concert guitarist and teaches Classical Guitar at Fresno State College. He is also a well-respected composer and you can become more familiar with his work at New Millenium Guitar Magazine. Please visit!
New Web Site
I have a new web site under design and it should be greatly expanded having quite a few more pages and articles, etc. I will be including an archive of these newsletters, care and feeding of your guitar, etc. If anyone has suggestions for articles that would be helpful to them let me know and I'll see if I can't work it up to post on the web site.
Chatting on the Internet
I check on several CG chat sites daily and I am amazed at the amount of information being exchanged by players and luthiers alike. It seems that are two types of guitar aficionados to be found. One group is very traditional and is distressed if there is any departure at all while the other group seems fascinated by every trend being introduced by contemporary luthiers. There seems to be a great dissemination of guitars from around the world and even here in America's high mountain west I get to see exotic guitars from Germany, Amsterdam, Australia and South America.
I must say there is a great amount of innovation being focused on the classical guitar and the creativity is astounding to say the least. I have slowly come to the conclusion however that the greatest benefit to guitar sound other than the Double Top soundboard is age and fresh strings. Old guitars just sound great and in my own work I observe the effects of maturity as the guitars gain a great mellow sonority and become quite a musical companion.
See you next time!
Randy