My workshop for the past 3 years. So long!
A guitar making train-of-thought to start the year. I’m entering the year 2023 with some very clear goals that I’m extremely keen about working on, mostly revolving around my concert guitar model.
I had a very busy end of 2022. I was able to keep hold of one of my concert guitars for a while, and show it and other guitars to many players, dealers, and excitingly, two of my guitar making heroes. It involved lots of exciting travelling up and down the country. While I was doing that I was also finishing of other commissions and moving workshop too. (I’m now in a place where it is much easier to control the temperature and humidity, which is crucial for guitar making. My past workshop was very spacious and beautiful, but particularly during the winter I got very cold working there).
So 2023 has come along and I’m very fixated upon the sound of my concert model. As the design is my own and not a copy, it feels far more personal. I feel that when I’ve built ‘Torres’ style guitars or ‘Fleta’ style guitars etc, I’ve felt slightly disassociated from the sound - it’s someone else’s sound after all. But every guitar maker has their own ideal. I feel that a guitar has two or probably more dimensions to it, the one is the physical guitar, how it looks and plays; the second aspect is that it is a sound sculpture. This is very appealing and magical, and my focus this year is very much continuing to craft my unique sound.
As I come into contact with more guitar makers, dealers, and players and gather feedback, I get a sense of progeny, of knowledge of the craft being past along, lessons taught by previous generations being past to me. And I like to think that in this way, the sound of my concert model goes back to the roots of not only English guitar making, but beyond in this very connected modern world. It is also a sound being developed in direct response to the current classical guitar taste, which is ever evolving.
