Caribbean 13

This is a very interesting guitar. It is a 13 fret to the body, 21 fret instument. Both of these design decisions place the soundhole and position the bridge more to the center and over the maximum volume area of the body. Gibson did this in the mid-thirties with some Nick Lucas models but quickly moved to a more conventional 12 fret to the body arrangement. Most who love this guitar believe it was for marketing reasons and some of those old 13 fret models are the most prized finger picking guitars in the world. After building one in that configuration, I understand why. The other main change in this instrument was to increase the sound hole dimension to 4 1/8" and increase the scale length to 25.4". I believe the larger soundhole greatly increases the bass response without damaging the treble response of the instrument. The longer scale on this small instrument makes the notes just "pop". At least on this guitar, these modifications make this guitar extremely loud yet articulate and precisely balanced. This particular instrument has a silky, sitka spruce top with an Indian Rosewood body. It's peghead overlay, fretboard and bridge are all from the same Brazilian Rosewood plank, making all of them match beautifully. The tuners are gold Grover Sta-Tite with an 18:1 ratio. The guitar is trimmed in mother of pearl with black/white/black purfling. It is bound in white plastic. The frets are semi-hemispherical, making the guitar very comfortable to play since there are no fret ends to contend with. The truss rod is adjusted from inside the soundhole. The neck is wider than normal at 1 13/16 at the nut. The string spacing is 2 3/8" at the bridge making this an ideal fingerpicking instrument.
Front
Front
This photo shows graphically how far the soundhole and bridge are moved when the body joins at the 13th fret and the fretboard has 21 total frets. The guitar, in my opinion, just looks perfectly balanced-and it musically is!
Front of the body
Front of the body
This picture demonstrates the beautiful, silky, sitka spruce top. Note the matching fingerboard and bridge! Just georgous!
Headstock
Headstock
A terrific, matching Brazilian rosewood overlay. The overlay matches the fingerboard and bridge to a "T"!
Bridge
Bridge
A beautiful, matching Brazilian rosewood bridge and compensated saddle for good intonation.
Top Detail
Top Detail
This shot clearly shows the mother of pearl inlay around the perimeter of the guitar. This is complimented by the nicely executed mother of pearl rosette and black/white/black purflings. Lastly, look at the bright red Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard and semi-hemispherical fret treatment!
The Back
The Back
The back and sides of this instrument are East Indian rosewood. The picture does not show it but the back is as straight grained as you can get!
Body Neck Joint
Body Neck Joint
The 5 ply neck capped with a matching piece of Brazilian Rosewood. This shot shows the straight grained Indian Rosewood back with white binding.
Back of Headstock
Back of Headstock
Note the 5 ply laminated (for strength) neck. Also the new Grover 18:1 tuners - some of the nicest tuners I have ever used!