All guitars are handmade by myself, using woods I have personally selected. Left handed guitars follow the same specification and come at no extra cost.
Body:
European Spruce top, East Indian Rosewood back and sides (except "Treebeard" which comes in Cuban mahogany). Maple binding with black / white / black purfling where it meets the sides and top/back. The top is braced with spruce using my own pattern with the braces shaped to tune each top individually, has mahogany, sapele or lime neck and tail blocks and East Indian Rosewood bridge plate. The top is domed to provide strength and projection. My aim is to produce a balance of tone combined with volume, projection and sustain. I include a soundhole reinforcement piece, an A frame that interlocks with the neck block, and carbon-fibre "flying butress" braces from the sides into the back of the neck-block to stop the string pressure from flattening the back's arch through time and allows for lighter bracing in the upper bout as the neck and fingerboard are "free floating". The back is braced with spruce using a hybrid X/ladder bracing system, and the centre join reinforcement strip is the same wood as the back. I use mahogany or Spanish cedar reverse kerfed linings and mahogany or Spanish cedar side barces are inlet into these to give protection against side cracks. The end graft strip matches the body binding. The bridge is pinless or pinned and made from Macassar ebony, and has a split bone saddle for optimum intonation. The top, backs braces and bridge are glued using hot hide glue which gives the best acoustic coupling.
Rosette:
De Faoite Standard
Neck:
Mahogany with the headstock scarf jointed and the heel stacked. This gives maximum strength and stability and best use of scarce wood. The neck extends to all but the last couple of frets and gives solid support to the fingerboard and a straight playing surface.The neck is bolt on, and is built with a two-way adjustable truss rod and twin carbon fibre strenghtening rods. These not only provide extra structural stability but also add tonally to the guitar helping to eliminate dead spots. The headstock veneer is bookmatched East Indian Rosewood using the back wood off-cuts, and the heastock reverse is also veneered. The fingerboard is ebony, bound with ebony, together with black/white/black purfling where it joins the neck, and has a 20' radius. There are 2.5mm side MoP marker dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th (2 dots), 15th, 17th and 19th frets. The fingerboard is fretted with Japanese heavy frets (see here for a detailed specification). The nut is bone. Tuners on solid peghead instruments are gold Gotoh SG301's, with the smaller version of these used for "Suzanna", guitar bouzoukis/citterns and Red Kite. For slotted-peghead instruments, Gotoh SEP700 tuners are used. The heel-cap is ebony or Macassar ebony. The neck depth and profile, fingerboard radius, nut width and string spacing can be specified (within reason) by you at no extra charge. Gold strap-pins are mounted in the endblock and neck heel.
Side Sound Port:
I offer the option of a sound port in the bass side top upper bout at no extra charge. These are not to everyones taste, but I am a convert as they act as a "personal monitor" allowing the player to hear a lot more of the sound that people hear out front of the guitar. To my ears they enhance the bass and mids sound that the player hears and there is no impact on the projected sound of the instrument. Plus it's really cool to get an inside view of the guitar and it's bracing:
Finish:
Finishing is a major dilemna for a handmade guitar and I have developed a technique that uses the minimum possible finish to preserve tone but still makes a beautiful guitar where the wood shines through rather than sits like Snow White in a highly polished lacquer coffin. For instruments that are going to be played a lot (and I hope all of mine are) I use thin coats of pre-catalysed lacquer hand rubbed back to give a deep lustre. As an alternative I offer a French Polish topped of with a few thin coats of Tru-oil. The French Polish gives a beautiful thin coat that lets the guitar shine both visually and tonaly. The Tru-oil gives extra toughness against sweat and other things that can mark a French Polish finish. This is not as "robust" a finish - Tru-oil is tough (its main use is on gun stocks) but like French Polish will mark. However, it is very easy to repair. The neck is finished with Tru-oil to a semi gloss finish in both cases.
Other:
The instrument is set up to your specified action, and comes with D'Addario phosphor bronze strings, with the gauges specified in the Owner's Manual. Instruments depending on model, come with either a Hiscox liteflight case or gig-bag, and a microfibre cloth for cleaning the body. In addition I take photographs of the whole building process (see Here's One I prepared Earlier for an example) that appear on the website as the instrument is being made so that you can keep track with progress. These photographs are copied onto CD for you to keep when the instrument is delivered. If required the De Faoite label in the guitar can contain "Made for . . . ".
Warranty:
The guitar comes with a warranty to the original owner as long as he/she owns it in my lifetime, covering problems due to defective workmanship by me. The original owner is responsible for any shipping costs and this warranty does not cover any damage caused by climatic/heat/humidity changes.
