This instrument is the first of a new design for me. I wanted to try to address the problem of large guitars being very uncomfortable to play. Some builders have built an armrest into the lower bout; others have built a tapered side, i.e., the upper bout being severly thinner than the lower bout at the tail of the guitar. All of those solutions work, but I wanted to try something totally different. This is the result of that exploration. The guitar is what I call the “Reverse Wedge”. Very simply, it’s sides are essentially reversed, that is, the deepest part of the body is at the neck and the shallowest part of the body is at the tail. That description is not quite correct in that the deepest part of the body is directly under the bridge. The cubic volume of the entire instrument is the same as an ordinary dreadnaught. I hope the photographs give a good representation of the “reverse wedge” shape. Since this guitar was really a prototype design I did not have any concrete idea how it would sound. End result: the guitar is extremely loud and balanced not unlike other, more conventional instruments that I have built. The design is a definite keeper and another arrow in the quiver! The details are: Sitka Spruce top, East Indian Rosewood back and sides. Brazilian Rosewood headstock overlay, fingerboard and bridge. Herringbone purfling and white plastic binding. The neck is one piece honduran mahogany with an adjustable truss rod adjusted through the 4 1/8″ soundhole. This instrument has semi-hemispherical frets. This “state of the art” fret treament results in the smoothest possible, perfectly radiused fret ends with a totally clean, unblemished fingerboard. Frets don’t get any better than this! The nut and saddle are bone, with the saddle compensated for good intonation. A very pretty and unusual instrument!
