This instrument, with its Art Nouveau inspired asymmetric body points and stylized scroll peg head looks as lyrical as the music often played upon it. I’ve worked to maintain the graceful look of the instrument, but I’ve also made some important structural improvements on the original. One reason for some of those changes has been the result of seeing where the originals have experienced structural failures over time. In other cases, I’ve made changes because the structural design of other instrument’s developed over the last one hundred years have demonstrated improvements in tone or volume. For both models, tops or faces are carved from red spruce sourced from the same people who supply companies like Collings Guitars and Steve Gilchrist Mandolins.
Backs, sides, and necks are usually, but not always, made from Red Maple, also sourced from the industry’s top supplier. The fretboards are ebony as well as the end graft, head plate, and edge binding. While it adds to the build time and subsequent cost, many people opt for paying a bit more for purfled binding. I prefer Waverly tuners as I’ve seen nothing but the highest quality from them with every set. The tailpiece is a cast Monteleone model. This instrument has mother of pearl or abalone position dots for the side and face of the fretboard on the base instruments but are often built with one of my many inlay designs.
