” The difference between handmade and factory made guitars”
Quite simply, factories neither know the specific needs of their customers nor the environment in which the instrument will be played.
A useful analogy is the making of a suit. When buying a tailor made suit rather than one ‘off the peg’, you are buying a garment that both matches your individual requirements (fabric, colour, style etc) but also one that fits in all the right places. Perhaps after much searching and trial in the high street stores, an ‘off the peg’ suit can be found that closely matches your size and requirements, but is unlikely to be a perfect fit. A tailor made option should provide that perfect fit and so it is for a handmade classical guitar.
Factories need to make their instruments so they address the needs of the majority of their customers. They might be played in hot and steamy countries or just as likely in those that are dry and cold. And so factory made guitars need to be robust and capable of coping with most environments. Instruments that perform the best are not overbuilt and are made to ‘only just’ cope with the stresses from the use and environment in which they are put. In this way they are built just right. Any more and the instrument becomes unnecessarily constrained. Without knowing the customer before the instrument is made then factories cannot achieve this ‘just rightness’.
A Luthier making a handmade bespoke classical guitar will take time to learn about the needs of a player and the instruments intended use and environment. He is therefore able to make instruments that are better suited and more responsive to the needs of the customer.
Furthermore, guitars are primarily made from wood. Being a natural material then no two pieces are the same……even for the same species. In short, every piece of wood is different in density, stiffness, colour and aesthetics and these differences can have a material impact upon the success of an instrument.
A Luthier making handmade bespoke classical guitars will feel, flex, tap and measure to understand each unique piece of wood and adapt the design and construction accordingly. Tops, backs and sides might be thinner or braced differently according to the attributes of the selected wood. The result is a more responsive, better performing instrument. The very nature of mass produced instruments coming out of factories is their consistency with the process allowing little or no ability to make unique changes to suit the wood they use.
Comparing Handmade Bespoke Classical Guitars with those of mass produced factories is like comparing apples with pears…..both fruit but completely different in taste and texture.
And so it is for classical guitars.