As my experience has grown so has my belief in the benefits of building guitars with a double top.There are those luthiers who adopt this style of instrument solely to produce a greater volume. Striving to produce the greatest volume results in a thin, nasal sound lacking in colour and character. My prime objective is to generate more volume but not to the point where the sound ceases to be traditionally ‘Spanish’ in character. Of equal importance to me is the enhancement of the dynamic range with deeper bass and more colourful trebles and a sound with enhanced projection, overtones and sustain, yielding excellent balance and note separation both across the strings and up/down the fingerboard. The top construction I offer is in the form of a composite ‘sandwich’ created from a 2.3mm thick spruce or cedar top, routed out to receive a 1.6mm nomex interlayer. The inner face is then encapsulated with a further thin (0.6mm) layer of spruce or cedar.This construction produces a top that is 20% lighter and 40% stronger than a traditionally built top. The added strength allows me to lighten the bracing and produce a top with less mass that responds better to the transmission of sound waves. They are a fiddle to make, but a delight to play due to the speed of response under the right hand.
In the past I used to build both traditional fan braced instruments( both 5 fan and 7 fan) in the style of those produced in the Province of Granada, Spain as well as instruments using the more modern lattice style of bracing. However, as both my interests and reputation have grown this has led me to focus solely upon the development and construction of double topped instruments with a carved asymmetric wood lattice bracing. For the back, depending upon the selection of the woods to be used, I adopt either a ‘live’ back bracing system incorporating two transverse ladder braces and a 3rd ladder brace surrounded by 4 radial finger braces or a more traditional 3 ladder braced system. The ‘live’ back is designed to add ‘tone’ and to couple effectively with the top to produce a more effective ‘pumping’ action within the sound box.
Classical guitars generate considerably less energy than steel strung guitars. Capturing all such energy is critical to maximising the power output and tone production of the instrument. Adopting the principle of a loud speaker (flexible front in a rigid case), I build my guitars with double thickness sides to ensure the minimum of energy is lost from the vibrating top into the sides. Single side option also available.
Bridges have a dramatic stiffening effect upon the vibrating top. I carve the lattice bracing to create a light easily vibrating top immediately beneath the centre of the bridge and make my bridges smaller and lighter than is often used. Whereas a standard bridge may weigh 23-28 gms I strive to make my bridges no heavier than 14-15 gms.