Birth of a vision
It began back in 1974 with an inspired idea simply "to try to create the best acoustic guitar that could possibly be made". When George told his father that he would be making guitars as a career his dad's profound response was to simply say "well just make sure they are good"!
Working with the finest materials
While we have access to the same wood as other companies, it is a fact that we are well known for being willing to pay for those exceptional, and often rare pieces. We source these woods from many different parts of the world. This helps our guitars to be beautiful but mainly it also helps the guitars to have that very responsive sound full of sustain and character!
Reclaimed wood is our first choice as much as possible, so for example we frequently find soundboard wood from old bridges that have recently been replaced with a more modern construction. We also use wood from trees which have fallen down naturally or even from logs which have been submerged at the bottom of a river for more than 100 years (referred to as "sinker".) One of the woods we have the privilege of using on occasion is known as "bog oak" which is from logs which have been buried and carbon dated to more than 5000 years ago! This wood is close to being petrified. Beachcomber cedar is from logs washed up on beaches in British Columbia.
Workmanship
During a visit to Japan in 1980 George discovered Japanese hand tools. These chisels and planes were not available in Europe at the time. He learned how to sharpen them achieving an edge he had never experienced before and so enabling a level of workmanship not at all easy to achieve using more traditional European tools. He observed for the first time how a very high standard of workmanship could be realized using only hand tools, with very little dependence on woodworking machines. Taking a lot of pride in workmanship is a cornerstone of our culture within the workshops.
We even do crazy things sometimes - for example ensuring that each individual internal strut is first split to reveal the exact direction of the grain, before shaping it and gluing it in place. Doing these ‘crazy' things always has a specific purpose in mind and collectively they all combine to create a guitar with a very even balance, fast response and fine tone colour.
Assembly
without stress
Old and very fine violins often re-discover their True Tone quality through simply through a process of de-construction and re-assembly without changing anything.
This process reduces the stresses that have built up in the instrument over the years. The violin can Now breath again! In an acoustic guitar, unplanned for stress must be kept out of the assembly process. To do that each part of the guitar has to be made in such a way that it could be assembled with very light pressure having to be applied. The whole assembly process is time consuming to achieve at this level. There are very few shortcuts! Our guitars have to breathe - a light touch is only needed to bring out the music!
Unveiling the sound
A new acoustic guitar often can sound a little tight. The best acoustic guitars will need some time to fully warm up and mature. In the beginning the player will notice the guitars sound changing during the first 15 minutes even! As the guitar gets played more and more this change will become less noticeable.
What I want to hear are clear articulate and "fat" trebles, a deep but not heavy or woofy bass and of course plenty of volume and projection — all with a long sustain... not too much to ask?? I believe if the design is optimized and the workmanship is without compromise, then within a short space of time the True Tone will be revealed. If we have done our job right the sound will inspire new music.
