I'm having a custom guitar built!

Something I've always wanted to do is build and acoustic guitar. But after I did a lot of research on the subject I realized that I didn't have the time, tools or patience to do the job right. Fortunately I've met up with a local builder, Jim at Jmac Guitars, who is willing to build "my guitar".

I will get into more specifics in future posts but
for starters the guitar will be a Martin style dreadnought sized guitar. The top or "soundboard" will be made from Adirondack Spruce. This particular Adirondack top was harvested by Smith Creek Mandolin from virgin forests in my home state of Maine. Back in the day Martin and other guitar makers used Adirondack for the tops of their guitars. Over time it became difficult to find trees large enough to make guitars out of. In the 40's the switch was made to Sitka spruce for the tops.

The back and sides will be made from Honduran Rosewood. I've heard a lot of great things about this wood as a tonewood so I thought I'd give it a shot. It is a little harder and more dense than other more common rosewoods. HR is said to be very "musical" and is the primary wood used to make marimba bars.

Honduran Rosewood back and sides.

The combination of these two not-so-common tonewoods should produce and great sounding guitar with plenty of power and strong clear bass tones.