Modern fan bracing Cedar/Ziricote

This is my second in a series of guitars which take inspiration from the work of Dominique Field, this time in Red Cedar and 640 scale. With the addition of an elevated neck and a discreet soundport, I believe these offer an excellent blend of tone, volume, projection and playability, perfectly bridging the gap between purely traditional guitars and modern, heavy body lattice braced soundboards.

This set of Ziricote has been in my possession for more than 10 years. Perfectly quartersawn and virtually impossible to improve upon. Finest quality old rosewood headplate and bridge, matched in figure to the ziricote, ziricote headstock back, maple binding, African blackwood fingerboard, steel frets, cedrella neck, Gotoh premium tuners. 

I am including a couple videos, as always the pure sound as it came from the microphones, without any silly reverb or any other enhancement. First with zero finish (raw wood) and second with partial finish on, giving a more polished, closer to final sample. Also including a video from when I was bending the sides, quite terrified at the prospect of anything going wrong, as ziricote has a reputation of being extremely delicate. These actually bent like butter with zero distortions or any other of the usual bending issues.

A special Cedar/Amazon rosewood lattice

I have been fantasizing for a few years about using one of the special extra dark Amazon rosewood sets in my collection so building this guitar has been a real experience. It has also proved to be hard to fill and finish in the traditional way, I needed a few healthy months to get a thick flat shellac film (I really don’t want to deliver those superficial finishes that burn and flake off after 2 weeks of use)

The title is lattice braced but the soundboard is actually in the traditional range of thicknesses while the spruce lattice is discreet in influence. The body of the guitar however is stiff and heavy as I believe this is the right alternative (NB alternative, not replacement) to the traditional light build.

Other details are Brazilian rosewood bridge, armrest and internal elements, Sipo mahogany elevated neck, African blackwood fingerboard with stainless steel frets, Gotoh premium tuners and an unobtrusive yet slightly beneficial soundport.

Below the (many) photos, two beautifully played videos took mid-way during the polishing process.

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Fan braced Austrian spruce – Romanian maple

Traditional bracing, Austrian spruce soundboard with Romanian maple body
Brazilian rosewood bridge, African Blackwood fingerboard and headplate
Spanish cedar neck, Gotoh Deluxe tuners.

 

I’m very happy with the sound of this guitar.  Sweet and transparent tone, with a deep bass and fat trebles when asked for.  It also seems quite microphone-friendly.

Raw recordings before french polishing: