Wood Selection
Bees Wing Classical
Wood is not a perfect material. It has been shown that spruce, one of the most homogenous woods used in guitar building, can vary in strength by 50% in the same log. Before I begin the next guitar, I determine if I am building a tank, conventional, or light instrument. Then I select wood to attain that quality from the large stock of sawn sets I have been acclimating to Arizona climate for over 20 years. I check the weight, stiffness and tone; then select the right bracing to compliment the tone the wood is producing. I never kit parts for a guitar in advance of building. While this would be a production expedient, it would not allow me control over the finished product, since I prefer to make every instrument the best it can be.
Musical instrument grade wood is largely a misnomer. When I started building, I assumed that instrument wood would be graded on its ability to produce music. In reality, wood is graded simply for appearance. For spruce, this is usually translates into tighter, more evenly spaced grain, (translating into a more exorbitant price), with no correlation to the quality of sound it will produce. For this reason I listen to the wood, looking for a bright, ringing response to being tapped. This is known as tap-tuning.
Musical instrument grade wood is largely a misnomer. When I started building, I assumed that instrument wood would be graded on its ability to produce music. In reality, wood is graded simply for appearance. For spruce, this is usually translates into tighter, more evenly spaced grain, (translating into a more exorbitant price), with no correlation to the quality of sound it will produce. For this reason I listen to the wood, looking for a bright, ringing response to being tapped. This is known as tap-tuning.
Top Bracing
I use tall, skinny, low-mass bracing. The side contacting the top is radiused to support the top in a dome shape for strength and longevity. A dome shaped top will contract and expand predictably with changes in humidity, where a flat top will just crack if it gets too dry, or buckle if it gets too humid. The top of the brace is shaped to a parabola to provide the best strength with the lowest amount of wood, allowing it to respond to the string attack better than a heavier brace would. I then take the time to thin the brace for each instrument to get the optimal balance of support and resonance without interfering with the way sound naturally radiates through the wood.
Back Bracing
The function of the back bracing is again to dome the back, allowing it to resonate. So here the arched brace again serves this function best. Historically back braces have extended to the sides. This would be okay if the braces were structural only, but this hinders the ability for the back to resonate. Also, as the instrument ages and the back wood shrinks and the brace doesn’t, it starts to push against the sides causing the instrument to split apart. My back bracing only extends to the lining, leaving the back free to resonate and withstand the test of time.
Neck Construction
I am appalled by the waste involved in one-piece and laminated necks. Using the Spanish method of a scarf joint in the headstock and a stacked heal, I can build four necks from the same piece of wood that a factory gets only two from. Laminated construction wastes less than a one-piece, but I really don’t want all that glue interfering with the natural resonance of my neck. The modified Spanish neck has all the advantages of the more common constructions with none of the drawbacks, as well as not wasting these beautiful, often endangered woods.
Honduran Mahogany has long been thought to be the best neck wood for guitars, and factories, especially in China, are using a lot of this precious resource. (Honduran Mahogany is headed towards the CITES Endangered Species list, even while there is much work going on to restore the trees in their natural habitat.)
For this reason I am working with alternative neck woods. I have used African Mahogany (Kyaha), Maple, Walnut, and Myrtlewood, all with excellent results. A side benefit is that I now have a much better understanding of tailoring the sound of an instrument through the use of different neck woods. I’ve also found that neck dimensions effect that stiffness of the neck and the amount of bass response I get from the instrument.
Honduran Mahogany has long been thought to be the best neck wood for guitars, and factories, especially in China, are using a lot of this precious resource. (Honduran Mahogany is headed towards the CITES Endangered Species list, even while there is much work going on to restore the trees in their natural habitat.)
For this reason I am working with alternative neck woods. I have used African Mahogany (Kyaha), Maple, Walnut, and Myrtlewood, all with excellent results. A side benefit is that I now have a much better understanding of tailoring the sound of an instrument through the use of different neck woods. I’ve also found that neck dimensions effect that stiffness of the neck and the amount of bass response I get from the instrument.
Decoration
I have done everything from traditional wood inlay sound rings on classical guitars, to the extensive Mother-of-Pearl and Abalone inlay on the Tree of Life series. For now I have settled on three decorations for my guitars and ukuleles: naked, turtles & palm trees, and stardust.
Glue
There is no one glue that has all the properties needed for every joint in the guitar, so I employ a variety of glues. In the guitar there are joints that will never want to come apart and others that would be useful to be able to disassemble. Some where glue creep is undesirable and some where a little creep is acceptable. I use hide glue for disassembly and non-creep joints, and aliphatic resin for everything else.
Finish
The perfect finish would protect the instrument, shrink and expand with the instrument without cracking, and let the sound out. This finish has been in use since the 1600s, it is oil varnish. It takes a lot longer to rub on a good oil varnish finish, so it is only available on my high-end instruments.