Like most of my instrument designs, I take my aesthetic cues come from instruments built from roughly the 1920’s to the early 1950’s. I find a beauty and a grace there that’s hard to resist. For me, simple clean lines and fair curves hold an elegance and a musicality to their look. This small guitar is roughly modeled after the Terz guitar design, as did many of the American pre-war guitar companies like Martin. Mine differs in a couple of key ways but the most important is its bracing pattern. While that style of guitar has a remarkably large voice for a relatively small sized instrument, I strove to get an instrument that was more balanced between the treble and bass ends.
As a musician, this is the instrument I pick up whenever I’m learning a new piece and all because of how easy it is to play. The shorter scale length makes what might otherwise be difficult chord positions a secondary concern, letting me focus on the actual tune. The standard version of this instrument comes with either a slot head , a standard solid peg head, or a solid peg head with my “Rising Cloud,” motif, borrowing from the Arts and Crafts design aesthetic. Also, the bridge comes in a standard form but is also built with my signature “Bow tie” design, a reinterpretation of the old pyramid bridge.
