All Things Guitar – In Another Lifetime… Country Blues & Retirement in the Quotidian World…

November 20, 2024November 22, 2024

I Swap Out a Larger Irish Guitar for a Smaller More Comfortable One… I Review the Lowden S-50

Introduction:

During the Summer of 2023, right after I moved to North Carolina, on the way to visit my daughter in Wilmington, I stopped along the route at the small town of Southern Pines and visited Casino Guitars. I’d become aware of Casino Guitars because of the owner, Baxter Clement’s omnipresence on YouTube and, most importantly, I also knew that they were one of the rare U.S. dealers of Lowden guitars. I’d owned an all Koa Lowden many years ago and regretted trading it in and wanted to explore reacquiring one. With me along for the ride was my Collings 0002H as a potential trade item. I wrote at length about the purchase process of my Lowden F-50 on that trip and the blog article can be found here.

Me and my Lowden F-50 that I purchased in early June 2023.

Though I wrote enthusiastically about the F-50 when I published my review, I’d since become somewhat disaffected by the guitar. I’d written about the guitar’s playability and how I struggled with it, and finally took it to my local shop for a set-up. I was initially pleased with the set-up, but in time came to the conclusion that the guitar was just too difficult to play. When compared to my Martin 1937 Authentic and my Santa Cruz H-13, it was just not in the same league of playability. Consequently, I was playing it less and less, mostly because it was too difficult to fret the strings. Perhaps it was the long scale length, but more likely the string action.

Further, one evening a friend who is an accomplished guitarist, played the F-50 while I sat in front to the guitar’s sound hole. Unlike me, he really digs in with a pick, which is more aggressive than I ever play, and to my disappointment the instrument just sounded so harsh to my ear. Even though I play finger style with a lighter touch, I was deeply affected, and not in a good way by what I had heard. Still, I stuck with the guitar for a year, but I knew it was a serious problem for me when I finally put extra light strings on it, which was an admission that this guitar was just too difficult to play the way it was intended. Finally, the large lower bout, on occasion, resulted in shoulder soreness because of the “reach over” of my right arm required to play it. As I’ve written before, at the time of this guitar’s purchase my enthusiasm overrode my sense of good judgement.

I Return to Casino Guitars

On occasion, I check out Casino’s guitar inventory on their website and one day, I discovered that they’d stocked a new Lowden S-50! This is a smaller more intimate guitar than the F-50 that I currently owned. In addition, the guitar was built with Sinker Redwood over Cocobolo, which I thought would offer a warmer sound then the Spruce over Cocobolo F-50. Further, the guitar had a shorter scale length which in theory makes it easier to play. I was interested in auditioning this guitar.

I watched the S-50 from a distance for quite a while, holding my breath every time I dialed into the Casino website, hoping it was not sold. It was only after I crawled out of a month’s long medical rabbit hole that I decided to celebrate life and make a pilgrimage to Southern Pines to audition the S-50, and along with me was the F-50 to see if I could trade it in exchange.

The Lowden S-50, Baxter Clement and me….

It was a typical visit to Casino Guitars. The guys who work there were exceptionally helpful and when Baxter became aware I was lurking around the store, he came down from his apartment, which is upstairs above the shop. He made time to visit with me despite the fact that it was his son’s birthday and it was a Saturday. We played some music together and he auditioned the guitar for me too so that I could hear it directly. As you probably know, the acoustic guitar sound hole projects the guitar’s sound away from the player, so it’s nice for someone else to play the guitar as you sit in front of it. In the meantime, Sean gave the F-50 a once over and arrived at a reasonable trade in value.

In sum, the S-50 really suited my sensibilities and we closed the deal. Afterwards I met my wife for ice cream across the street from the shop and then we headed back home.

An Initial Comparison Between My New Lowden S-50 to the Older F-50

George Lowden in his shop in Northern Ireland

I drove into Southern Pines with a large bodied Lowden guitar, built with Cocobolo on the sides and Lutz Spruce on the top. Later, I returned home with a smaller bodied Lowden guitar with Cocobolo back and sides and Sinker Redwood on top. Obviously, a tonal variation would be expected based on size and wood differences between the old and new guitars.

On the other hand, a key commonality between the two guitars was Lowden artisanship. Lowden guitars are exquisite instruments that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and made with obsessive attention to detail, which is why they’re expensive. According to George Lowden, what might appear to be small trifling details in guitar manufacturing, add up over the course of the build, finally making a considerable impact on the instrument’s performance. In addition, both guitars were designated style “50” models, which means they were built with the very best master grade tone woods in the Lowden inventory.

Partial bracing pattern under the sound board with example of dolphin shaping

Both of the Lowdens were braced similarly with what is referred to as an “A-frame” design. According to Lowden, the A-frame design stiffens the guitar around the sound hole and up through the neck so no sound is lost to unnecessary movement, but leaves the lower bout to vibrate freely, which creates the guitar’s sound. The braces themselves, which support the sound board, are individually hand carved in the form of a dolphin cresting the waves to give maximum stiffness with minimum mass for efficient sound transmission. As a result, Lowden guitars are known throughout the industry as being exceptionally powerful with extraordinary sustain. In other words, with a Lowden it is possible to get a loud sound without having to work the guitar hard and the sound lasts or sustains for a long time. It’s quite marvelous to behold when you strum a Lowden or pluck an individual string.

Other common design features between the two Lowden’s are the headstock, neck construction and neck join to the body of the guitar. The headstock of both guitars is similarly sized, shaped, and adorned with an attractive veneer on both sides, though the veneer differs between the two guitars. It’s a bit of a mystery what the wood veneer is on the newer S-50, but I suspect it is Sinker Redwood to match the guitar’s top. The tuners are Gotoh 510’s with Ebony buttons. There are lots of effective guitar tuners out in the world, but the high-tuning-ratio Gotoh 510’s are, in my judgement, the best. While they probably are not congruent with the aesthetic of a traditional (Martin-like) guitar, for a “contemporary” guitar like the Lowden, they are a perfect complement.

Lowden five piece neck and dovetail join to the body

Both the S-50 and the F-50 were built with a five piece mahogany and rosewood laminated neck, which lends to stability and resistance to twisting torque. I’ve owned a guitar with a twisted neck and it’s not pretty. A twisted neck will render a guitar largely unplayable.

The necks of the Lowden F and S models are joined at the body with a traditional dovetail join “which offers excellent transfer of vibrations from the neck to the body due to the tight fit, producing a warm, rich tone with good sustain, and offers tonal depth and resonance.” (ChatGPT)

Lowden S-50 with 12 fret neck, Ebony fretboard and Sinker Redwood soundboard

Finally, the S-50’s neck is built with an ebony fingerboard, but unlike the F-50, the newer guitar has an old school, more traditional 12 fret length, generally offering a warmer, fuller tone, which is what I was looking for in the F-50’s replacement. With 12 frets as opposed to the more common 14, the bridge is closer to the center of the lower bout, where the soundboard is more flexible, enhancing bass response and overall resonance. Further, in theory, the shorter scale length should make it easier to play.

In sum both guitars, the one I traded off, and the new one I brought home were made with the highest level of attention to detail, as well as the characteristic Lowden design features such as the rigid neck, dovetail joint and their idiosyncratic soundboard bracing. All the aforementioned result in both power and sustain, which are incredibly important attributes of an acoustic guitar. What differed between the two guitars and why I selected the new one over the old was the guitar’s tone character and playability, which is a function of design differences like the number of neck frets, scale length, guitar size, and selection of woods on the top, back and sides.

Below is an excellent video of a seminar held by George Lowden where you can hear, first hand, his design philosophy in his own words:

The Lowden S-50’s Playability

Compared to the F model, the S model is smaller in both width (approximately 1 inch) and depth (approximately 0.5 inches), making it more intimate and easier to handle, especially for fingerstyle playing. In other words there’s far less effort to wrap my arm around the guitar to get to the strings with my right hand.

Smaller guitars can run the risk of sounding boxy, but that is not the case of the S-50. It’s reasonably deep body, 12 fret design, and Lowden’s bracing method free the guitar’s body to push out sound like a cannon.

Similar to the F model that I traded in, the S model came from the factory with, for my taste, string action that was too high. The Lowden literature refers to the string height as middle low, which is anything but in my judgement. It’s not quite a cheese grater but it is too high for me to enjoy playing. It’s just too much work for me to fret the strings with the in-factory set height. My first two acoustic guitars were higher end Taylors and they had very low string action, so I’ve been spoiled ever since. I don’t own those Taylors anymore, but my ’37 Martin Authentic D-28 and my Santa Cruz H-13 both have low action and are a dream to play.

Brian McGee at Twin House Music in Carrboro, NC

I knew that I was going to have to get the guitar set up properly if I was ever going to enjoy playing it. As I recollect, back in the past with the F model, my luthier adjusted the neck relief only with the truss rod, which in the end was just not enough for me to feel comfortable playing it. This time I had to get it right! I was going to have to have the string action lowered more effectively then when I had the F model in the shop.

As preparation for the trip to my luthier, using a string height gauge, I measured the action of the Lowden S, the Santa Cruz and the Martin guitars that I owned. At the twelfth fret the Lowden’s 1st string was almost 1/3 a millimeter higher and the 6th string was 1/4 millimeter higher off the fret when compared to the Martin and Santa Cruz guitars. That’s an annoying difference that can be felt during play! Before taking the guitar to the shop, I actually contacted Lowden in Northern Ireland about any issues lowering the action, and they saw no reason to prohibit adjustment downwards. To them it was a matter of taste and they believed it was easier to drop string height than to raise it, which was why the action comes out of the factory a bit on the high side. Some players like it a bit high, but not me.

I took the Lowden into the shop at Twin House Music with the measurements I’d made and asked that the Lowden be adjusted to match my other guitars. Brian McGee, a great luthier, was initially reluctant to make the changes, being concerned about string buzz and also working with the Lowden split saddle. Most guitars have a single saddle, but the Lowden is split in two pieces to enhance intonation. Making action adjustments are more challenging with a split saddle because they have to be sanded down identically to avoid introducing unwanted intonation issues. I was really insistent and Brian finally agreed, and in the end he did a fantastic job. I’m now happy with the action on a Lowden guitar. Lowden’s do not have to be cheese graters!

The S-50’s Aesthetic and Tonal Character

A key determinant of an acoustic guitars aesthetic appearance and tonal character are the woods from which it is built. My Lowden is built with the master-grade tone woods of Sinker Redwood for the top and Cocobolo back and sides. Master-grade tonewood refers to the highest quality of wood used for crafting guitars and other musical instruments. It is a premium designation reserved for tonewoods that exhibit exceptional visual, structural, and acoustic qualities, making them ideal for producing high-end guitars.

Cocobolo

According to ChatGPT, Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) is a premium tonewood, often commanding higher prices due to its scarcity and desirability. It is visually stunning, featuring a variety of colors such as reddish-orange, deep browns, and even purples, often with dramatic grain patterns and black streaks. Cocobolo produces a lush, vibrant tone with pronounced overtones, offering a complex and harmonically rich sound. The treble response is bright and clear without being harsh, making it well-suited for fingerstyle playing. The low end is focused and powerful, providing a solid foundation without being muddy. While not overly pronounced, the midrange is clear and contributes to a well-rounded tonal palette. Its density and stiffness give it excellent projection and sustain, making it a favorite for players who want their sound to carry. Cocobolo excels in styles that require clarity and articulation, as it allows individual notes to ring out beautifully lending itself well to fingerstyle, which is how I play.

Cocobolo shares some tonal similarities with Indian and Brazilian Rosewood, such as a rich low end and sparkling highs, but it has more pronounced overtones and a slightly brighter overall character. While Mahogany has a warmer, more midrange-focused tone, Cocobolo offers more tonal complexity and dynamic range.

From a builders standpoint, Cocobolo is very oily and must be handled accordingly to ensure glue joints are sound and finishes remain intact. The dust from this wood can be obnoxious too, causing an allergic reaction during cutting. Of course, the oil and dust are not an issue with the finished consumer product.

Finally, from a sustainability standpoint Cocobolo is becoming less readily available because of unfortunate and unscrupulous over-harvesting. Only ten to twenty percent of Cocobolo harvest goes into musical instruments, including both guitars and woodwinds. On the other hand furniture, cabinetry, and flooring account for up to eighty percent. As the attack on Cocobolo sources continues, premium guitars made with it will be seen as rare heirloom instruments. My Cocobolo Lowden will be a guitar that goes on to my children after I’m gone, though I am dubious that they will understand what they have in hand. At that point, I probably won’t care.

Sinker Redwood

Probably the most remarkable aspect of the S-50 is its top, which is comprised of two book matched pieces of master grade Sinker Redwood. It’s my first experience with this type of soundboard where its reddish/brown hue, with vertical dark streaks embedded across the boards set it apart. My other acoustics have sunburst or standard unstained spruce tops, so the S-50 just looks different from typical acoustic guitars that I’ve owned in the past. The guitar is endlessly fascinating to behold.

As I said, my other acoustic guitars all have traditional spruce tops, though they are of varying subspecies, including Sitka, European, and Adirondack (Red Spruce), so from a sonic/tonal standpoint the S-50 stands apart. Generally speaking, Spruce offers a sound that is bright, clear, and dynamic, while Sinker Redwood is warm, rich, and overtone heavy, so there’s a nice difference in both appearance and sound that distinguishes the S-50, making it a great addition to my collection.

The origin story of Sinker Redwood is fascinating in and of itself. In the late 1800’s on into the early twentieth century, which was a time of rapid industrialization in the U.S., loggers harvested Northern California Giant Redwoods without abandon. These were old growth forests with trees as old as 1000 years. Sadly, only five percent of the original old growth forests remain, and they were saved by a combination of conservationists, activists and government intervention.

Harvesting of Giant Redwoods in Northern California

The trees situated along waterways were the easiest to manage as they could be dropped and floated downriver to the sawmills on the California coast. Along the way downriver, the trees were sometimes held back in large jams with the use of chain booms until the sawmills needed them. It was under those circumstances that some logs sank to the bottom of the river and became embedded in the river bottom mud never to make it down to the sawmills.

Redwoods making the trip downriver to the sawmills.

Submerged in anaerobic (oxygen-deprived) conditions for decades, perhaps some for a century, the sunken Redwood logs would undergo physical change. While submerged, Sinker Redwood logs absorb water, which, over time, leads to compression of the wood fibers enhancing the grain density. Also, logs that sank and remained submerged tended to have very tight grain patterns simply due to the slow-growing nature of the old growth trees from which they came. In addition, while submerged, the Sinker Redwood absorbed minerals from the surrounding water, which changed its color. The wood often took on rich, darker hues, ranging from deep reddish-brown to even greenish or purplish streaks, depending on the minerals present in the river water.

Sinker Redwood embedded in the river bottom in Northern California

Over time, submersion in water also leads to a breakdown of the wood’s structural components, lignin and cellulose, particularly in the outer layers. The cold and anaerobic conditions underwater slowed this breakdown process, allowing the core wood to remain structurally sound while developing unique tonal characteristics. This slight degradation can contribute to a smoother resonance when used in guitars, often resulting in warmer and more responsive sound.

Recovery of Sinker Redwood from rivers and estuaries in Northern California

Many years later at the close of the twentieth century entrepreneurs discovered and began recovering sunken Redwood logs from the rivers and estuaries in Northern California. Only the logs that had not rotted were of value, so recovery is a tedious, risky and expensive process. Since old growth redwood was so rare, the thinking was this recovered wood would have value in end-uses such as fine furniture, paneling, sculptures. Also as a function of its appearance and tonal properties, custom guitar builders and boutique luthiers adopted Sinker Redwood for high-end musical instruments.

Luthiers discovered the wonderful properties of Sinker Redwood tops in the early 2000’s.

Sinker Redwood Combined with Cocobolo

The combination of Sinker Redwood for the soundboard and Cocobolo for the back and sides on a small-bodied guitar creates a unique tonal palette. Both woods bring specific acoustic properties that complement one another beautifully, resulting in a guitar that is both visually striking and acoustically rich.

Sinker Redwood’s warmth and harmonic richness blend seamlessly with Cocobolo’s bright, articulate clarity, creating a balanced tone that is neither too warm nor overly bright. Sinker Redwood enhances responsiveness for nuanced playing, while Cocobolo’s density adds sustain and projection, even in a small-bodied guitar. Both woods have rich overtone profiles, resulting in a lush and dynamic sound with a natural reverb-like quality. The small body shape focuses the sound, while Cocobolo ensures that projection and presence aren’t sacrificed, even in a compact form.

Finally, the visual contrast between the richly colored Sinker Redwood top and the bold, exotic Cocobolo back and sides enhances the guitar’s aesthetic appeal, making it a showpiece as well as a fine musical instrument.

Comments On Some Aesthetic Appointments

There was a time when I believed that one should aspire to own the blingiest guitar possible, with abalone adornments and inlays galore like Gene Autry’s famous decked-out Martin D-45. In fact the very first really upper end guitar I ever purchased was a Taylor 914, which was loaded with glitz. Eventually, after playing incredible sounding but relatively unadorned guitars like my Martin, Collings and Santa Cruz instruments, I realized that the wood, the build quality and the tonal output far outweighed the importance of external appearance enhanced by inlays and other doodads..

Singing Cowboy with highly adorned guitar

By most accounts George Lowden also thinks that an overly-ornamented guitar is not a particularly important design philosophy. Besides the classic dimension of the instrument, the preponderance of Lowden guitars are tastefully simple in surface appearance. The tone woods, the wood bindings and the purflings contribute to an elegantly simple appearance.

One of more extravagant touches on a Lowden S-50 guitar is the abalone and figured wood sound hole rosette. It’s really quite beautiful in person.

Final Comments

I put pickups in all my acoustic guitars. I like playing the guitar plugged into an acoustic amplifier (Genzler Acoustic Array Pro) facing me so that I can appreciate the output of the guitar. I use K&K Pure Mini pickups exclusively because they sound natural and don’t require a lot of fiddling, although an acoustic DI like an LR Baggs Venue is very helpful in the signal chain, which I have on my acoustic guitar pedalboard.

The K&K Pure Mini is a snap to place in an acoustic guitar with a pinned bridge. Two of the pin holes are used to accurately place the pickup under the bridge with the use of a jig that K&K supplies in the box. A pinless bridge like the Lowden is built with is a more challenging installation. If you follow the K&K instructions, it requires drilling two small holes underneath the saddle. This is not for the faint of heart. My luthier cleared it with me and followed the instructions, including drilling the holes. The installation is perfect and the pickup works flawlessly. I wish I could have said the same for the F-50’s installation. I don’t think it was done quite right, as I had to really boost the gain to get the pickup to function at all, which was another irritant about that guitar.

Some Sound Samples

I am embedding a couple of sound samples from YouTube. The first is Baxter Clement from Casino Guitars playing the exact model guitar I purchased from him, but this was one he had in stock several years before mine arrived. Note Baxter plays with a plectrum, which I do not. He is a very accomplished musician, much more so than me:

Below is a video produced by Heart Breaker Guitars, a dealer of fine guitars and a major supplier of Lowdens in the U.S. After a brief introduction, Mike Romano plays an S-35, very similar to the S-50, with the woods the same but maybe not quite as choice. Mr. Romano plays finger style and he’s quite good.

Here’s a sample of me playing my S-50 through a Shure mic that’s designed to interface with the iPhone that’s doing the filming. As a result there are limits to fidelity. To boost it a bit, I am running the guitar through my Genzler Acoustic Array Amplifier and my pedal board. I am playing the Mississippi John Hurt classic, Spike Driver Blues.

Here’s another sample. This is Townes Van Zandt’s instrumental arrangement of the Rolling Stones tune Dead Flowers:

Finally, here’s the instrumental arrangement for Taj Mahal’s Queen Bee:

A note of thanks to ChatGPT for help with questions about woods and some history, and for the creation of support illustrations.

September 23, 2023December 6, 2023

The Immaculate Santa Cruz H-13… My favorite all time guitar?

Introduction

I’ve written on this blog before that I lose patience with a guitar that no longer calls to me and as a result will consider it trade worthy for an instrument that I’d put to greater use. There’s too much financial value and physical space being occupied by an unused guitar. If you follow this blog, you may remember that I owned a National Reso-Lectric, and enjoyed it for several years, but then I subsequently acquired a National M-1, which is, in my judgement, the ultimate resonator and found afterwards that I had to force myself to pull the Reso-Lectric from it’s case!

At the time this story takes place, I was still residing in Iowa and was about a 2.5 hour drive from one of the largest guitar stores in the Midwest, Dave’s Guitars. An interesting thing about Dave’s is that they facilitate guitar trades through internet communication. Fill out an online form, send some photos and they’ll give you a trade value in very short order. I like this trade approach much more so than the tire kicking, frowning, hair pulling , hemming and hawing that can happen at a smaller Mom and Pop shop. So, I sent Dave’s the scoop on my Reso-Lectric and they got back to me with a reasonable price the same day.

Shortly thereafter on a gray December morning back in 2022, I loaded the Reso-Lectric into my vehicle and headed out to Dave’s to see what was what. I was not in the market for an electric guitar, as the one I had was all I think I would ever want or need. In fact, the differing tonal voices of electric guitars were not of interest to me, but that was not true about acoustic guitars. Varying shapes, body depths, wood compositions, bracing techniques, 12 vs 14 frets, glues, and finishes all, in my experience, contributed to the magical tonality of acoustic guitars. So, when I took off for Dave’s, it was acoustic guitars I was going to look at.

I think because the national economy was slowing down a bit, Dave’s acoustic guitar inventory was actually accumulating for a change. The past few years there was a Covid related feeding frenzy in guitar stores. Collings guitars, for example, flew off the hooks at Dave’s making it near impossible to test out their very popular OM model. I knew as I was driving over to Wisconsin that Dave’s actually had a couple of Collings OM’s in stock and they even had a solitary Santa Cruz acoustic in stock too!

I’d been aware of Santa Cruz guitars for decades since I first saw an advertisement in a guitar mag with Tony Rice playing a Santa Cruz knock-off (even with the odd oversized sound hole) of his famous Martin D-28. I’d also sat next to Catfish Keith in his home and listened to him play his Santa Cruz signature small bodied guitar with the Catfish logo inlaid on the headstock. Keith’s guitar was awesome sounding, so I was very interested in test driving a Santa Cruz acoustic.

When I got to the store, the acoustic guitar sales manager, JR set me up with a downstairs audition room to try out both a Collings OM and the Santa Cruz which was an H-13 model. Since the acoustic guitar sales room can be very busy and noisy, it was great to be able to quietly sit and contemplate the playability and tonality of the two guitars side by side. I switched back and forth between the two several times and stayed down there for quite some time. Both guitars were similar in that they were smaller Mahogany bodies with Spruce tops, but the similarities ended there. They looked completely different and, in the details, built differently. More on that later.

Guitar shopping at Dave’s is a double-edged sword. As a customer, you are pretty much on your own. The guys working there are so busy that they really do not have time to chase you around to cajole you into a sale. Internet sales are the preponderance of their business so they are often preoccupied with moving product out the door. Unlike a Mom and Pop store, it’s difficult to establish much of a personal relationship with the folks in that store. I’d purchased several guitars in the store and Dave, the owner, barely acknowledged me because his customer base is so large and his attention spread so thin. This was a far different atmosphere from the very personalized Casino Guitars where I recently purchased a Lowden F-50. Nevertheless, I managed on my own to come to a conclusion as to which guitar I liked most and whether or not I would make a purchase.

Both the Collings OM and the Santa Cruz were exceptionally playable, but the H-13 was a beast by comparison with greater depth and breadth of tone, possessing an expansive bottom in the bass range and some serious headroom with sparkling treble highs. It was a full spectrum cannon! The H-13’s sonic advantage during my audition may have been the combination of body depth being 3/4 of an inch deeper than the OM, Adirondack Spruce vs Sitka Spruce bracings under a European Spruce vs Sitka Spruce sound board and the 13 fret vs 14 fret neck to body join allowing ideal placement of the bridge on the body for the H-13. Both guitars were built with hot hide glue, so no advantage there. The H-13 is the lightest guitar I’ve ever held, which I think contributed to its far greater resonance as a stringed instrument. I was sold by the Santa Cruz H-13 and decided to complete its purchase with the trade of the Reso-Lectric.

Finally, I may have been recognized as a good customer during this visit to Dave’s Guitars, because JR threw in an installed K&K Mini pickup for no additional charge. After installation of the pickup, I headed back home to Iowa.

I Review the Santa Cruz H-13

General Observations

The Santa Cruz H-13, a medium sized premium guitar, was described recently by an acquaintance as a “museum piece.” This was from an accomplished musician with a long professional history, including back up and recording work with Chris Smither. Nevertheless, despite its elegant beauty, it is a simple looking instrument with just a few embellishments, including a slot head with ivoroid tuners, a sunburst finish, and an S29 top purfling, The real beauty of this guitar is how it sounds and handles.

Design Inspiration

There are small scale guitar manufacturers like Santa Cruz and Collings who specialize in precision made instruments that often take their inspiration from guitars manufactured during the early to mid part of the 20th century. The old vintage Martins and Gibsons that people pay enormous sums for serve as a design jumping off point, from which boutique manufacturers copy design features but also implement modern techniques, design enhancements and small scale builder advantages with a good deal of old world handwork. Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz has made an incredibly successful run as a thoughtful and exceptionally skillful small scale guitar manufacturer, roundly regarded as one of the best in the industry. His vision is to bring the traditions of the ancient violin masters to the steel string guitar. Below you can see a video in which Hoover discusses his approach to guitar making:

Now, as I understand it, the H-13 is inspired by the 1930’s era Gibson Nick Lucas Special. The initial impetus for Santa Cruz’s decision to create the H-13, as we know today, is credited to the late, well known luthier, Paul Hostetter. The original Special was actually made in a variety of styles and shapes; some with trapeze and others with pin bridges, 12, 13 or 14 frets, and varying tone woods. It was Gibson’s first artist endorsed guitar and what made it special was its extra body depth, which Nick Lucas wanted for a more robust bass tone. I believe Santa Cruz, at the behest of Paul Hostetter, decided to use the Gibson L-00 shape with 13 frets and the deeper body as the basis for their design, which I think is also the version that Bob Dylan made so notable early in his career.

During the height of the Covid pandemic lock-down, accomplished musician, Steve Earle did a series of Youtube videos about his vast guitar collection, which serves as an excellent history of highly valued vintage Martin and Gibson guitars. In the video below, Earle gives some historic background about the Nick Lucas Special:

Here’s an actual film of Nick Lucas playing his signature Gibson:

Finally, in this clip from D.A. Pennebaker’s film Don’t Look Back, ultra badass, Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan plays his Special in England where he pretty much schools Donovan during that gathering… Dylan is like a wound spring watching Donovan sing one of his ditties, and he’s waiting to explode outwards with a far more sophisticated tune than Donovan could ever imagine playing. After Dylan basically rips his guitar from Donovan’s hands and starts to play, you can see Donovan sink into himself in a defensive posture… Game over man…

Notable Elements of the Santa Cruz H-13

Starting at the top end of the guitar, the H-13 is built with a slotted headstock topping off a “standard Mahogany” neck. Hoover uses the term “standard Mahogany” to note that Santa Cruz’s mahogany is responsibly harvested from a former British plantation. This he speaks to in the video I embedded above. Based on my research, standard Mahogany is Swietenia macrophylla, commonly referred to as Honduran or Big Leaf Mahogany. The face of the headstock is elegantly simple with no binding, but enhanced with an ebony veneer and a Santa Cruz script logo inlaid with ivoroid on the top front. Santa Cruz offers multiple logo types in varying locations when purchased as a custom made guitar. If you refer to the Santa Cruz website for the H-13, there are multiple features that can be chosen when ordering the guitar from scratch, which I obviously did not do having bought this item “off the rack” at Dave’s..

Slotted headstocks are often used with guitars built with less than 14 frets as an aesthetic identifier, but also to alter tonality by creating a steeper break angle at the nut causing the string to exert more downward pressure, consequently driving more energy into the guitar when the string is plucked. I like how slotted headstocks look, but they are more tedious to restring.

To the right you can see a side/rear view of the headstock. You’ll note the “open back” or “open gear” Waverly nickel tuners with white ivoroid buttons, which are design consistent with the vintage guitar from which the H-13 takes its inspiration. The Waverly’s work just fine, but they are not near as buttery as the closed back Gotoh’s on my Lowden F-50, which are built onto a paddle-style headstock. What makes the closed back Gotoh’s so good is their high turning ratio, thus tuning is more smooth and precise. Gotoh does produce a slotted headstock “opened back” tuner but having never played with them, I am not sure that they are any better than the Waverly’s.

To the left, you can see a lower section of the neck and the upper bout of the body to where it is attached. The preponderance of steel string guitars are either 12 or 14 frets, but in the case of the H-13, it is 13 frets. According to the Santa Cruz website, the 13 fret neck, combined with the bridge location allows a longer string length which, combined with a deeper body, creates a very powerful small bodied guitar. I can attest to that!

The neck is a solid piece of mahogany, serving as a platform for an ivoroid bound ebony fingerboard. The V-shaped neck, attached precisely to the body with a traditional dovetail join, feels full in hand and is exceptionally comfortable to play. Finally, you’ll note the fretboard is unadorned with inlay keeping to the elegantly simplicity of the H-13.

There was a time in my life when I thought that owning a fancy guitar with inlays and other adornments was a sign of musical accomplishment. I’ve since traded off my fancy guitars for those made with old school sensibilities where the emphasis is on tonality as well as playability, and for the most part they are much simpler in appearance with fewer adornments like wood bindings and inlaid Abalone. I have a fondness for old school ivoroid bindings which adorn many boutique guitars inspired by vintage instruments.

The top of the H-13 is lovely; however, it boasts no unnecessary adornments, with the possible exception of the S29 purfling, “a pattern best described as a herringbone split with line of colored-wood marquetry.” The ivoroid rosette, the tortoise pick guard and the ebony pyramid bridge are all old school simplicity. Nevertheless, the high gloss nitrocellulose finish overlaying the sunburst top makes the H-13 a glory to behold.

A good bit of the tonal magic of the H-13 lies with the soundboard itself. In the case of my H-13, the standard Sitka Spruce is substituted out with European Spruce, originating from the Italian/Swiss border. Often used to build classical guitars, European Spruce is also frequently selected by boutique builders of steel guitars. “It has a sound rich in overtones, while it offers some of the headroom of Adirondack and a quicker response than Sitka, but with a warmer, thicker tone.” All in all it is a tonality that appeals to finger style players like me.

As I understand it, the sound board is tap toned at Santa Cruz to fine tune how it’s braced. In the case of my H-13, the bracings are Adirondack spruce. Theoretically, Adirondack provides greater strength and stiffness with less weight than Sitka. It generally allows for a lighter-braced top, which makes it more responsive.

Below Tommy Sands elaborates on the nuances of European Spruce:

The back and sides of H-13 are standard Mahogany. At first glance, the use of Mahogany for the back and sides of a premium guitar may seem a poorly conceived choice. Remember, Mr. Martin used Rosewood on his top-of-the-line D-28 and reserved Mahogany for the somewhat “less than” D-18. That preconception of Mahogany being a second rate tone wood still exists today. A local luthier Rob Sharer dismisses that prejudice writing that “Where (Mahogany) really shines, though, is when it is used for the back and sides of a steel-string acoustic guitar. Less dense than the rosewood species, its medium weight and open grain produce both warmth and punch, de-emphasizing the bass register while accentuating the crucial midrange, which, after all, is the guitar’s home turf in the tonal spectrum… For the player who values a dry, crunchy, punchy sound, mahogany gets the nod over rosewood’s rum-jug bass and metallic overtones.”

In sum

The Santa Cruz H-13, built to exacting standards with first rate woods and components, is still more than the sum of its parts. The guitar is feather light, but has a huge warm voice. As expected for Mahogany back and sides, it’s punchy in the mid-tones; however, the deep body and the very responsive European Spruce top offers the player surprisingly resonant bass tones and sparkling highs for a mid-sized guitar. This guitar is an absolute delight to hold and play. It is a finger style player’s delight. During the week, I try to cycle through my guitar collection on a daily basis and always look forward to H-13 day!

If you want to dig deeper into Richard Hoover’s guitar building philosophy, where he brings to bear the skills of the ancient violin makers onto steel string guitars, here’s an inside look at Santa Cruz’s shop providing intimate detail on guitar construction philosophy. After watching this, I consider it a true blessing to own one of these marvelous instruments.

Santa Cruz H-13 Tone Samples

Elizabeth Cotton – Freight Train

Drop D Fishin’ Blues

Carl Miner of the North American Guitar rocking out on an H-13 spec’d out like mine…

September 17, 2023February 7, 2024

An Irish Guitar Joins the Stable – I Review My Lowden F-50

Introduction

It was a confluence of events and cognitions that lead me down the path to purchase a different new guitar. First, I was becoming increasingly disaffected with my Collings 0002H. It was an excellent instrument that sounded great and it was my first Collings, which made it special; however, the guitar was, from the very moment I started playing it at home, difficult to play.

There are things about the playability of a guitar that sometimes elude me in the store when excitement overrides critical assessment. Or, perhaps it’s the change in ambient environment when the guitar arrives at home that causes the guitar neck to shift around and alter the instruments action. At any rate, It was just hard on my hands and more of a challenge to play when compared to my other guitars, including my Martin D-28 Authentic, the Collings C10-35, and my recently purchased Santa Cruz H-13. The playability issues continued despite having a shop luthier at Dave’s Guitars do a full set-up some weeks later. In sum, I was not playing it very much, so I knew in my heart of hearts that it had to eventually go.

Further, the 0002H was constructed with a Sitka spruce top and East Indian Rosewood back and sides which is fine; however, my Martin ’37 Authentic is composed of an Adirondack spruce top and Madagascar Rosewood back and sides which is arguably a more choice version of the Spruce and Rosewood combination. While it’s worth repeating that the 0002H was a marvelous sounding guitar, it did not compare to the incredible sounding Martin on the level of playability and wood quality (splitting hair here), so it became an ever so slightly “less than” and redundant guitar in my stable, leaving it in the category of high trade potential.

My thinking was that If I were to trade the 0002H it would be for a guitar with a wood combination and body shape that I did not already possess. One of the guitar manufacturers that I was particularly interested in was the Irish company Lowden. Many years ago I had owned an all Koa Lowden guitar that was quite beautiful, but I traded it off because the neck was a bit narrow for finger-style guitar which I’d recently adopted. Over the years I regretted parting with it.

Lowden manufactures guitars in a small shop in Northern Ireland with great individual care. George Lowden was in the same mid-century generation of successful guitar builders who started from the ground up decades ago with their own idiosyncratic approach to constructing the instruments. This would include builders like Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz, Bill Collings, and Bob Taylor.

There were no Lowden sellers in Iowa where I was residing and I was not interested in purchasing one online without trying it out. Further, I was totally unsure of which particular Lowden I was interested in. I wanted to visit a location where I could try a variety of them. I knew, for example, that Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, North Carolina was a major dealer in Lowden Guitars. I was familiar with Casino Guitars because the owner, Baxter Clement, was a highly visible Youtube personality uploading several videos every week about different aspects regarding guitars and the associated industry. Baxter was an advocate for Lowden instruments and offered a healthy variety of them in stock. Below you can watch one of Baxter’s videos about his commitment to Lowden guitars.

Baxter Clement in his store, Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, NC

While my thoughts about guitars in general, Lowden’s in particular, and trading the 0002H were percolating somewhere in the back of my mind, my wife Annette and I decided to move from Iowa to North Carolina. The state of North Carolina has a strong pull on my life. It’s where I came of age decades ago, having graduated from High School in Durham and then subsequently completed undergraduate degrees at both the University of North Carolina and NC State. We were both retired and thought it was the right time for a change of venue. We had multiple children and grandchildren who lived in NC and we were both worn down by the long and brutal Iowa winters. So, we purchased a new home outside Chapel Hill, NC, sold our Iowa home, packed up and settled into NC in early June of 2023.

Casino Guitars

I think it was as early as the second weekend that we were living in North Carolina that we planned to head to the coast to visit one of my daughters and her family. I decided that we would leave earlier then necessary and take a side trip to Casino Guitars in Southern Pines on the way to Wilmington, NC. While I was not planning on buying a guitar on this particular visit, I packed the 0002H in the event that I wished to make a trade on a guitar that I liked.

An hour away from my home, Casino Guitars is located right in the heart of the Southern Pines historic downtown district. The building itself was, back in the day, a casino, bowling alley, speakeasy and a brothel. Baxter Clement, a Southern Pines native recently renovated the building, built an apartment for his family on the second floor and established his guitar retail space on the main floor. As you can see from the images below, the shop is well stocked with premium electric and acoustic guitars, including PRS, Fender, Gretsch, Martin, Taylor and of course, Lowden. Besides the awesome inventory, the interior space is absolutely stunning. Just a great place to be!

I was lucky to find a parking space reasonably close to the store because Southern Pines was mobbed with visitors there to attend a concert that night. Leaving Annette and our dog Nike at an Ice Cream parlor, I crossed the railroad tracks that cut through the center of town and eventually found the store, which delighted me! When I entered the shop, a fellow I did not recognize from Youtube videos was manning the main desk. I later learned that he was was James Villone. Since the shop was pretty quiet at that moment James was kind enough to quickly show me the way to the Lowden’s.

Initially, James thought the only store inventory was the three Lowden’s in the glass cases. I was a little disappointed at first but thought, “what the hell,” I ‘d give those three a try out. James pulled out all three Lowden’s and brought them to this lovely audition room in the back portion of the shop. While I was playing the first one, James went out, at my request, to find me a music stand so I could play some tunes off of my iPad Pro.

Not long after, just as I looked up from my music, Baxter Clement burst into the audition room! I was delighted to finally meet him after seeing him with my morning coffee for several years. He was every bit as fun, affable and accessible as he seemed on his Youtube videos and like magic, he filled the room with Lowden guitars that he produced from his inventory hidden somewhere in the shop. He walked me through the different Lowden styles and produced various wood combinations for me to give a go. I was particularly interested in playing a guitar with a Cedar top because I’d owned a Taylor years ago with a Cedar top and I liked its warm sound; however, the Cedar topped Lowden’s on that particular morning did not work for me enough to get seriously interested in a purchase.

Undaunted, Baxter kept showing me additional Lowden’s of various wood combinations and sizes; however, after playing numerous guitars, I was about to give up, collect my wife and dog and head to Wilmington. Then finally, he dropped a Lowden constructed with Cocobolo back and sides and a Lutz Spruce top into my lap and it was magic to my ears as compared to all the others I’d played. It was a style F-50, which I would learn later meant the guitar was made from all master grade tone woods, which are the best of the best tone woods available anywhere, chosen for their exceptional tonal and visual properties!

I played the F-50 for quite a while, including some tunes with Baxter accompanying me, which delighted me to no end. Later, I met his wife, Taylor, and one of his sons. At Taylor’s behest, Annette and Nike were even invited into the shop. The whole experience was quite marvelous. Sometime thereafter we made a deal, which included a trade on the 0002H. Baxter even carried and then packed the Lowden F-50 into my car, and after farewells we headed out for a weekend in Wilmington.

I Review My Lowden F-50 Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce

My First Impressions

Much to my regret, my earliest experiences with the newly purchased F-50 were somewhat dismal. It began when I arrived in Wilmington to visit my daughter, Sally. Having just purchased the Lowden, I travelled cross state with the guitar from Southern Pines. After settling in at Sally’s, I disappeared upstairs to the guest bedroom and pulled the F-50 from its case and right away, despite the guitar still sounding great, I noticed the action was far higher than I’d observed during the Casino shop audition. In fact, the guitar was quite difficult to play, particularly in the treble section. Had my enthusiasm in the store again overridden my ability to critically analyze the guitar’s playability? On the other hand, was the Lowden exceptionally sensitive to ambient conditions and did the neck start shifting around? It should be noted that I keep D’Addario moisture packs in the guitar case, so my attempt to control guitar conditioning was functioning during the drive.

When I got back home, I measured the string height distance from the frets and observed that the the guitar was out of specification on the high side across the fretboard, this being based upon data from the Lowden website. I was subsequently welcomed back by Casino Guitars for an adjustment and returned a few days later. Sean Diesfield, Casino’s resident guitar whisperer did some work on the saddles and the neck relief and sent me on my way. At the shop the guitar seemed improved, but when I got home and played the instrument at length it was somewhat better but not good enough.

At this point I was suffering some major buyer’s remorse! Did I trade the Collings 0002H because it was a pain in the ass to play for a different guitar that might, in fact, be a worse pain in the ass to play? At that moment it seemed so.

Rather than give up, I decided to find a local skilled luthier who could give me a full set-up and lower the string action to my comfort level. That was easier said than done. Though there were a number of “repair” luthiers in town, they were either booked up for months, non responsive to my request, or occupied with life trauma and unavailable. I finally left the Lowden for over two weeks at my local shop, Twin House Music, where I take lessons and and a couple of luthiers (including the owner) do their magic. Eventually the Lowden was properly cared for. In the end, the neck relief was adjusted and the guitar now plays as well as any other in my collection! In the past, I’ve adjusted the neck relief on many of my guitars, but in the case of the Lowden, the adjustment is very difficult to make and requires a tool that I did not possess. Further, I thought the guitar had more serious problems than neck relief. At any rate, badda bing, badda boom, the guitar is great now!

The Twin House Music owner and luthier, Brian McGee, who tamed the Lowden

In the end, I don’t know how to account for the difficulties I had getting the guitar to a state of acceptable playability. Perhaps Lowden’s are more sensitive to ambient conditions? Was it the long voyage from Northern Ireland to the U.S. that caused the neck to shift? Why did I not notice the guitar’s issues when I tried it out in the store? Did the guitar’s action shift between Southern Pines and Wilmington? On Lowden’s website, they are clear to point out that a new guitar will settle-in during the first months of playing and would probably require adjustment. There is no truer statement than that!

Basic Lowden Observations

Lowden builds three basic guitar shapes with the F being their middle size between the Jumbo O and the smaller S. Originally designed to compete in the flat-picking market, the F guitar is now favored by finger-stylists too, hence my interest. For example, world renowned finger-stylist Pierre Bensusan plays an F shaped signature Lowden.

Lowden builds the F style with a variety of wood combinations. According to Lowden specifications, the 50 designation means that the woods used to construct this F shaped guitar are the best of the best that the company acquires, being selected out for a combination of tonality and appearance. In my case, the guitar body is topped with Lutz, which is a hybrid White and Sitka Spruce, characterized by a light creamy color with a very tight grain. On the other hand, Cocobolo is used for the back and sides with a showy reddish color and swirly grain lines.

According to one leading U.S. guitar manufacturer, “in terms of acoustic response, Lutz blends the positive characteristics of Sitka and White spruce and its close cousin, Engelmann. Lutz tends to exhibit characteristics of Adirondack spruce. The result is powerful sonic horsepower that translates into strong volume, projection and tonal richness.”

The back and sides of the body are composed of Cocobolo, a member of the Dalbergia species, which includes other various Rosewoods. According to the aforementioned U.S. manufacturer, “Cocobolo is a dense, stiff tropical hardwood from Mexico, which produces a fairly bright overall tone emphasized by sparkling treble notes. The tone is fast, responsive, and articulate.” Cocobolo is a substantial, heavy and oily wood that requires skill and competence to draw out its potential as a guitar tone wood; however, when it is properly deployed Cocobolo has been described as “Brazilian on steroids!”

Cocobolo backside of the F-50, note the characteristic blond sapwood section down the back’s center

Below is a video in which a luthier interacts with a sample of Cocobolo tone wood:

Below, George Lowden discusses various types of tone woods that he’s used for guitar building. While he briefly describes Cocobolo, he seems more enthusiastic with back and side woods like Walnut, Honduran Rosewood and especially African Blackwood:

Perhaps a more uplifting analysis of Cocobolo is given by the incomparable Lindsay Straw for the North American Guitar:

In the end, George Lowden says play the guitar and choose the one that speaks best to you, which is what I did when I chose Cocobolo from the crowd of Lowden’s at Casino Guitars.

To me, my F-50 is an example of high craft and understated physical beauty. The ratio of upper and lower bout sizes combined with the curvy narrow waist and sloped shoulders speak to classical Greek proportions. The satin matte finish, the understated wood bindings, the lack of decor on the fretboard and the dark veneered headstock create a sense of elegance without the gaudiness that some high end guitars self-consciously display. The figured koa/abalone rosette is a tasteful embellishment, but also holds back visually enough to avoid seeming overdone.

Other Aesthetic and Structural Features of the F-50

The Lowden paddle-type headstock has a handsome dark Ebony veneer on the face and backstrap with the brand logo inlaid top front. The tuners are the most excellent Gotoh Gold 510’s with Ebony buttons. I’ve owned several guitars in the past that were equipped with Gotoh’s. My current other acoustics are inspired by vintage Martin and Gibson guitars so they’re equipped with Waverly tuners, which are nice, but not near as supple as the Gotoh’s. I am delighted to have a guitar again with Gotoh’s. They tune like butter. As far as the nut goes, it was unclear to me based on the paucity of specs available on the Lowden website what it’s made of; however, Lowden’s website has a nice chat function and their tech rep, Simon, confirmed that bone is used, which is not surprising given the general excellence of the F-50.

I own 5 other guitars with varying neck profiles, and I am not that particular about the neck shapes other than by using it, it must not stress my old hands. Lowden is not forthcoming in their specs about their neck shape; however, I find it full-in-hand, and comfortable to play as it’s not too clubby or too thin. The neck is a five piece composite of Mahogany and Rosewood while the necks on my other axes are all solid wood, so the Lowden by comparison is somewhat exotic looking. Further, the five piece neck is theoretically more stable and less likely to twist over time. I had a Taylor solid body at one time with a twisted neck and it was ugly; fortunately, Taylor generously replaced the neck, but that’s another story. Finally, unlike the satin matte finish on the body of the Lowden, the neck has a glossier surface making it quite easy to move up and down while playing.

You can see the aesthetically pleasing “hockey stick” sweep of the Rosewood section embedded in the mahogany at the base of the neck. Again, it is hard to find out all the construction details on the Lowden website, but I am pretty sure that the neck is attached to the body with a traditional dovetail join. Also visible in the associated image is the contrast of the glossy neck versus the satin matte finish on the body, the figured Koa binding and backstrip, the beautiful wood grain striations in the Cocobolo, and finally the section of blonde sapwood running up the center back of the guitar.

To the right, you can see a section of the Ebony fingerboard with its Maple bindings. No blond streaks on the F-50’s fingerboard, with Lowden choosing only the most select all black Ebony wood for their Mastergrade model. The fingerboard extends into the sound hole to catch the highest possible treble notes, a place that I will probably never travel with my fingers. Nevertheless it is an aesthetically pleasing visual design feature. You can also see the unique and stunning sound hole rosette which is figured Koa and Abalone.

Unlike my other acoustic guitars which all have pinned bridges and one piece saddles, the F-50 and all other Lowdens are built with pinless bridges and compensated two-piece saddles. Put several guitarists in a room and they’ll debate the merits of pin vs pinless bridges. In my experience both approaches work fine. The pinless bridge makes for an attractive surface element on the guitar and certainly simplifies restringing although care should be taken to avoid having the string ball end slapping down onto the soundboard and dinging it during insertion through the bridge. Because the slap-down is almost inevitable, Lowden supplies a nifty little cardboard insert to slide beneath the bridge to protect the soundboard during stringing.

Finally the bottom of the lower bout can be seen on the right. Again, the wonderful Cocobolo grain patterns can be seen as well as a strip of figured Koa where the two side pieces meet. You’ll note a K&K Pure Mini jack installed at my request by the kind folks at Casino Guitars. I use this pickup on all my acoustics as it’s neat, simple and the amplified guitar sounds natural to my ears. If you’re interested in my tech for amplification you can click here.

To Sum it Up

Despite my initial buyer’s remorse before the F-50 was given a pro set up, this guitar is a real keeper! It is beautifully constructed, quite comfortable to handle and play, and the sonic palette available from this instrument is, as I had hoped, distinctly different from my other acoustic guitars. The body woods of Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce combined with Lowden’s exacting construction methods (of which they are quite mysterious) creates clean punchy bass tones, bell-chime like trebles with underlying warm overtones with tonal sustain that exceeds the eternal.

After I wrote this piece, Peach Guitars released a video in which some nice Lowden construction details are considered, particularly how the soundboard is manufactured:

For someone primarily used to Sitka Spruce combinations with Mahogany or the more accessible Rosewoods (but not unobtainium like Brazilian), a body of Cocobolo and Lutz is a nice stretch to something significantly different, but without being too exotic like Macassar Ebony or African Blackwood.

Tone Examples

I’ve reviewed several guitars on this website, but have never had the availability of linking to a Youtube video of my guitar being demonstrated; however, in this case Casino Guitars recorded a gentleman playing my F-50, which I show below:

I will also include a clip of me playing the F-50 also. What would be more appropriate than playing a selection of Piedmont Finger-Style Blues since I now reside in the Piedmont of North Carolina. This tune is credited to one of the most recognized and highly regarded Piedmont Blues players, Etta Baker entitled Carolina Breakdown!

Etta Baker’s Piedmont Blues: Carolina Breakdown

January 24, 2023January 25, 2023

Fixing a Guitar Neck Ding…

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I first started playing my guitars on stage around mic stands, because of inexperience, I unfortunately whacked my guitar’s neck into the stand, which leaves a small ding. Difficult to see, but irritating when moving your hand up and down the neck, particularly when playing with a slide. While the guitar is still playable and the tone is not adversely affected, it is really annoying and distracting to feel the ding during playing. It’s particularly frustrating when playing a premium guitar knowing how expensive it can be.

I was playing my National M1 the other day and was immediately reminded of the ding(s) I had in the neck. One ding from a mic stand strike and another from my friend’s careless swing of his guitar neck onto mine, which is doubly irritating!

Driven by my irritation, I started rooting around on the internet for a solution and discovered multiple remedies for ding repair. Several involved application of moisture and heat which I did not want to mess with for fear of exacerbating the damage. Fortunately, I did stumble on a relatively inexpensive mechanical solution that was worth a try.

The Cue Doctor is a dense and solid cylinder of glass that is intended to remove dings in pool cues. Apparently a ding on a pool cue is as irritating and distracting as one on a guitar neck. The device is very simple to use. Holding the cylinder in the palm of your hand and rapidly rubbing it over the ding with a modicum of pressure will flatten out the damage. According to the manufacturer the combination of pressure and heat created by the friction of rubbing will cause the indent to rise and flatten out.

Some luthiers have taken the same technology and applied it to guitar necks. I did the same to the M1’s neck and it works amazingly well!

May 28, 2022June 25, 2022

One ring to rule them all… a Martin Authentic 1937 moves into place…

Introduction

When I completed the purchase of my second Collings, a lovely guitar inspired by Gibson’s 1930’s era L-00, I thought I was pretty much done acquiring guitars. My six guitar collection included two resonators (one being electric), two electrics (one being a hybrid acoustic/electric, and two acoustics. But I wasn’t really done. There were two remaining issues affecting my sense of guitar balance and purpose:

First, my hybrid, semi-hollow bodied Taylor T5z, was going for long periods without being played, and that’s a red flag warning that it may be time to go. In the end it’s a niche instrument best for switching back and forth between acoustic or electric tonalities depending upon the tune being played. It’s most suitable for a gig where you only want to bring one guitar, which is not a dilemma I ever find myself in. The truth was, if I wanted to play electric, I had a far better instrument (Collings I-35) to do the job, and there was no way the T5z could match the sonic performance of the Collings acoustics in my stable.

Secondly, I’ve found myself playing a number multiple tunings on my acoustic guitars, including standard, Drop D, and Skip James’s Cross Tuning. Further, there was a Chris Smithers Open D tune that I wanted to take a run at. My experience is that guitars like to settle into a specific tuning so it’s best not to be frequently changing the tunings on a single guitar. For this reason, I began thinking that it might be nice to have a third acoustic guitar at my disposal!

Consequently for the two aforementioned reasons, I decided to eventually trade the T5Z one day in the future. In preparation, via their online process, Dave’s Guitars give me a trade-in value so I knew what I had to work with. Not surprisingly, I was going to take a haircut on a trade, but that’s the guitar business. At first I thought I might swap the T5z out for an American Professional Stratocaster at my local shop, but I was reminded during that Strat’s audition that I was not, at some fundamental level, a Strat player and my Collings Electric really met all my needs, so dumping off the T5z was put onto the back burner for a while.

A Rare Martin Guitar Finds Me

I take lessons weekly at my local guitar shop and it’s not unusual for the former store owner Bob, now store consultant, to greet me and show me some new guitar arrival that might be of curiosity. Most of the time the guitars, usually recent trade-ins, do not arouse my interest. But a couple of weeks ago, Bob dropped a dreadnought into my lap and explained that it was a pre-owned “Martin Authentic” built to the exacting specifications of a vintage 1937 Martin from the golden age of dreadnoughts. The guitar was in immaculate condition too and had been owned by a collector who’d passed away. His son traded the Martin in for a Taylor 814ce. So much about guitar acquisition is driven by idiosyncratic personal taste.

Me and the Authentic at the Bob’s Guitars

Initially, the guitar Bob placed in my hands was not of interest to me. For years, I’d been playing smaller bodied guitars, not a Howitzer sized dreadnought. Yes, my first two guitars, in a former lifetime, were dreads, but when I gave up on bluegrass flat picking and took up finger-style I moved to 000’s, OM’s and other smaller sized instruments. Further, I’d never been that enamored by Martin’s tonality, fit/finish and general appearance for the cost involved. But this guitar was different, sounding and feeling unusually interesting to me! Perhaps this guitar’s tone appealed to my ears because it was seven years old and had “opened up,” or maybe because the vintage “hand-built” construction techniques employed by Martin’s exclusive Custom Shop appealed to my sense of design aesthetics. Finally, the combination of rare tone woods, specifically an Adirondack spruce top with Madagascar rosewood back and sides produced a tone I’d never experienced before. It was in contrast to the Martins I’d played in the past that required really digging-in to the strings to get a decent sound. As a finger style player, my touch was generally too light to elicit magic from a Martin dreadnought. I noodled around with the guitar for a while and then went to my lesson. Afterwards, on the way out, I glanced at the Martin again hanging on the wall and thought that it might be a nice complement to the Collings acoustics I already owned, particularly for the alternate tunings I like to use.

The next day, I went back to the shop and played the Authentic again for quite a while and found it even more appealing especially since Bob replaced the existing strings with some new ones. At some point, I played the guitar into a Shure SM-57 mic plugged into a Genzler Amp to better hear it and then went home to think about it some more. Finally, the next day which was a quiet rainy Saturday, I went back to the shop with my T5z, made the trade, and purchased the Authentic. The combination of the trade along with a considerable reduction from new because the guitar was pre-owned brought the price down to something reasonable. Current new versions of the Authentic are far more pricey than I’d be willing to spend, so I feel fortunate.

Overview of the Martin 1937 Authentic D-28

To the right, you can see the Authentic. It is a formidably large guitar. Both the size and depth of the body were designed to produce a large sound. In short, the Martin Company designed the guitar to meet the needs of a popular Hawaiian slack key player (open tunings) in the early part of the 20th century. It was some time later in the 1930’s, that the Martin Company decided to begin regularly producing this large guitar and named it the “Dreadnought.”

By the time of the Second Folk Revival in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the Dreadnought guitar became the “go to” size for acoustic players. The Martin brand was one of the most prized among those large guitars, especially, the mahogany (back and sided) D-18 and the rosewood D-28.

For more background on Martin Dreadnoughts, you may enjoy the following wonderful film:

https://vimeo.com/594705036?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=133332214

In the case of my guitar, the D-28, it has over the years, for a variety of reasons, been modified in terms of woods, bracings, and neck designs, still maintaining its general specifications. Because of a combination of rare aged woods and design features such as the hot hide glues used in the olden days, wood thicknesses, and placement of bracings, the 1937 era D-28 is considered a “high-water” mark in Martin Guitar design, and people will pay hefty sums for that vintage. Given that an original ’37 Martin D-28 is far beyond the price range of most guitar players, Martin, in the recent past, responded by producing a Custom Shop rendition of the ’37 that comes as close as possible to the original instrument. I’ve read that they took their museum specimen of the ’37 to the Smithsonian for detailed medical-technology imaging and analysis to generate the specs to manufacture an exact replica. Other than the substitution of Madagascar Rosewood for the practically unobtainable Brazilian variety, the guitar comes as close to the original ’37 as is technically feasible, hence the moniker, the “Authentic.”

Though I was certainly familiar with the value wealthy players placed on rare vintage guitars, up until the time Bob dropped the Authentic into my lap, I was unaware of Martin’s production of a more affordable “authentic/vintage” guitar. Below you can see a short YouTube film of Steve Earle speaking about his 1935 Martin D-28, which is also from the golden era of dreadnoughts. He refers to the ’35 as the holy grail of Martins. Earle’s enthusiasm for that guitar speaks to the motivation behind the Martin Company attempting to reproduce authentic versions of the past.

In addition to the singular sounds emanating from this combination of wood and steel, there is a perceived inherent beauty with this guitar connected to its decades long history as one of popular music’s most essential instruments. From the CF Martin & Co. decal on the headstock, down the mahogany neck, to the herringbone purfling surrounding the soundboard, as well as the tortoise colored pick guard, the guitar projects a culturally constructed aesthetic intertwined with the likes of Tony Rice, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan among others.

Still, as an observable object in visual space, the D-28 body is not really proportioned to the dictates of classical aesthetic beauty. A more classically designed guitar would have a narrower waist separating a smaller upper bout from the larger lower one. In many respects the Martin dreadnought is a big box with curved corners attached to a long neck, but its awkwardness relative to classical proportions is today considered an essential part of its beauty.

The Headstock

Authentic Headstock with “traditional” decal…

Before I got annoyed with their heavy-handed marketing and later became disenchanted with their tone, I was the owner of several higher end Taylor guitars. I bring this up because In comparison to typical Martin D-18’s and D-28’s, my similarly priced Taylor’s were appointed way more nicely with wooden bindings and purflings, as well as abalone inlays in the rosette, fretboard and headstock. I was completely put off by the “prosaic” C.F. Martin decal on the headstock, wondering why Martin would not use an inlay in the headstock on their flagship (and expensive) guitars.

My opinion about superficial guitar “surface” bling changed after acquiring two incredible sounding and rather simply appointed Collings guitars. I finally realized that the nice features Taylor offered were all well and good, but the guitar’s tone was by far the controlling factor for the instrument’s worth and value to me. I came to appreciate simplicity in appearance when accompanied by superior tonal output!

Headstock rear showing Waverly tuners and carved volute.

Given my new frame of reference, I am delighted with the Authentic’s headstock. Although I myself would not recognize the subtle differences between other more modern D-28’s, the headstock of the Authentic is shaped in thickness and taper as the ’37 was originally made, in this case with a Madagascar rosewood veneer instead of Brazilian, and embellished with a stylish volute carved into the back. Topping it off on the face of the headstock is the traditional C.F. Martin and Co. decal.

The paddle style headstock is equipped with vintage-style Waverly open back tuners and nickel butterbean knobs. In the past, I became very partial to Gotoh tuners and had them on three different Taylor guitars, two of which I “after-market” installed. The Gotoh high gear ratio tuners make precision tuning very easy. By comparison, I think the Waverly’s do an equivalently nice job and work well on my two Collings’s as well as the Authentic. They look very cool too!

The Neck

The 1937 D-28 was one of the earlier models that was built with fourteen frets between the body and the nut. Despite the fact that the guitar was at least 7 years old, the frets were in mint shape with no visible wear. Eschewing modern CNC milling, the neck is hand carved in the Martin custom shop to the shape of the original ’37 out of a mahogany block. This, in part, accounts for the high cost of this guitar.

I’ve got six total guitars made by National, Collings and this Martin. The necks all vary in shape and I happily play them all. The Authentic has a “1937” shape which is actually kind of meaningless to me; however, I will state it is a pleasure to play.

The 1 3/4 inch nut is bone and wide enough for comfortable fingerstyle playing. The fretboard is a solid black ebony which is somewhat difficult to acquire nowadays. Due to ebony wood scarcity and preservation, most fretboards of that material today have blond streaks randomly running through them. The fretboard inlaid markers are subtle but handsome 1937 diamond and square shapes.

Dovetail neck join. Note the rich red color of the mahogany neck and the Madagascar rosewood sides of the guitar.

The neck has a reinforced T-Bar to give it stability and it is attached to the body using C.F. Martin’s traditional dovetail joint. Unlike modern guitars (like my other 5), consistent with the design of that era, the Authentic has no adjustable truss rod. Since I tweak my guitar neck with the truss rod on occasion, I find this a bit unnerving; however, from everything I’ve read the Authentic’s neck is supposedly very stable. Right now the string to neck play is quite good up and down the neck. I imagine controlling the moisture content of this guitar is fairly critical to maintain neck stability!

The Body

The Authentic soundboard. Note the Adirondack’s wide grain.

The Authentic’s body is constructed with an Adirondack spruce soundboard and Madagascar rosewood back and sides. Every other acoustic guitar I’ve ever owned was built with a Sitka spruce soundboard, as is 80 percent of all other quality acoustic guitars. In the early years of the D-28’s construction all the tops was made with Adirondack (Red) Spruce; however, due to scarcity of the heavily logged Red Spruce trees, the guitar industry transitioned to the more plentiful Sitka Spruce. Sitka is a pretty tight grained wood that yields a warm response when played, whereas Adirondack, a wider grained wood, is harder and more glasslike as compared to Sitka, giving it a sharper more more immediate response. Adirondack is prized by Bluegrass flat pickers and strummers because of the way the top responds to those styles of play, but I think too that the boutique crowd also values Adirondack because it is a relatively rare, high status wood. I do not have the ear to detect the subtleties of Sitka vs Adirondack, but I do, very much, like the guitar’s overall tonality (for a very articulate discussion of the Authentic’s tone as it relates to Madagascar versus Brazilian back and side wood, I suggest you read this blog article).

The D-28 Authentic 1937 was first introduced at a 2013 NAMM show and records show that my instrument was ordered by Dave’s Guitar Shop for delivery to its previous owner in 2014. The initial production models of the ’37 did not utilize the Vintage Tone System (VTS), a torrefication heat treatment of the Adirondack soundboard to enhance the tone via “premature” aging. I think all subsequent production from 2015 on are torrified. I am agnostic about that type of wood treatment, but pleased the guitar has been played-in for 7-8 years in a natural manner. As I said before, it sounds quite lovely.

For a hefty monetary charge, C.F. Martin also offers an aging process in the custom shop to relic the instrument. I am not particularly enthusiastic about “relic” technique and am delighted this process was not applied to my Authentic. In fact, other than a barely visible crease-like ding in the soundboard, a small ding on the bottom, and some marking on the pickguard, this guitar was immaculate even though having been played for 7-8 years. The previous owner took great care of this guitar and makes me wonder if it ever left his home. Me, on the other hand, as much as I try to care of my guitars, I end up inadvertently beating the shit out of them because I play them and use them in and out of my home. Guitars are awkward shaped objects as they move through three dimensional space, and with me guiding them, they can attract wear marks, dings, and finish checking, so in the end I unwittingly relic them the old-fashioned way.

Unlike my Taylor 914ce, which was an exercise in excess, with abalone appointments galore, as well as wood bindings and purflings. The Authentic is more scaled down, but beautiful in its own right. You can see in the image to the left that the sound hole rosette is simple yet tasteful, and the soundboard is appointed with traditional bold herringbone purflings and grained ivoroid bindings. While I play fingerstyle and don’t generally like pickguards, if you are going to have one, the “old school” Delmar faux tortoise type is a nice one to have.

Rounding off the guitar’s top is the authentic ebony Style Belly bridge with long bone saddle. The bridge pins are polymer plastic with black dots. The bridge is located to give a comfortable 25.4 inch scale length.

A photo of the back of the guitar indicates the subtle beauty of Madagascar rosewood. The color of the wood is toward the red end of the spectrum and exhibits some nice but restrained grain. As suggested earlier, Madagascar rosewood has somewhat similar tonality when compared to the essentially unobtainable and certainly unaffordable Brazilian rosewood. A guitar constructed from Brazilian would be many times more expensive. Finally, note the 28 Style Zig-Zag (Authentic) purfling down the center of the back. It’s a very nice touch.

I love my guitars and I love to play them. It is a privilege to own and play National Resonators, as well as Collings electric and acoustic guitars, and now an exceptional Martin Authentic. Nevertheless, I view those guitars as tools and a means to an end, which is to make music. I won’t leave the guitars hiding in their cases preserved from the dings, scratches and bumps of use. They’re tools and I will hammer nails with them as long as I can.

To that end, I perform with my guitars around town, and host a monthly open mic night at a local coffee shop. I own a Genzler Pro Array and a Bose L-1 Pro 32 PA that I plug into when I perform. Consequently, I had a pick-up installed in the Authentic. In the image to the left you can see the jack for a K&K Pure Mini pick-up, an elegantly simple device that utilizes 3 transducers that are glued under the bridge plate. I’ve seen some high end guitar owners fret about adversely impacting the resale value of their guitars by altering them, such as adding a pick-up. I do not worry about such matters, especially with a low impact addition like the K&K.

Because the K&K Pure Mini is so simple, without onboard preamp and tone controls, I’ve built an acoustic guitar pedal board to manage the tone of the Authentic and my two other Collings. For more information about the board, click here.

Summary

The Martin D-28 Authentic 1937 is one of the “Kings” of acoustic guitars. It is made with incredible care and dedication to evoking the golden age of guitars. In my home the Authentic has fierce competition for playing time from a Collings 0002H, a Collings C10-35, and a National M-1 Tricone, yet at this time it rules the roost. It is a magical guitar and rules them all…

Example Sound Clips

Below please find some Vimeo clips I made with the D-28 Authentic. The clips were made on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a Shure MV 88 clip-on Mic. The guitar was played through my pedalboard into a Genzler Pro Array acoustic amp. I added a dash of compression, delay and reverb. The clips was processed on a elderly MacBook Pro with iMovie. The guitars tone would probably be best appreciated with headphones.

The first two clips are the Authentic tuned in Open D:

Following is a clip in standard tuning:

February 16, 2022March 2, 2022

On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

At Dave’s Guitars, the Acoustic Room Manager

Late last year 2021, I was at Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI and it was there that I acquired my first Collings acoustic, a 0002H. Since I perform monthly live at an Open Mic Night that I host with a friend, and because I like to play through an acoustic amp when I play at home, I requested that the shop install a pick up in the guitar before I headed back home to Iowa.

The gentleman who manages the acoustic guitar department was emphatic that the best pickup for a Collings acoustic guitar was the K&K Pure Mini because it was generally transparent sounding, way less prone to feedback, and relatively easy to install.

L.R. Baggs Venue DI with tone controls and tuner

A challenge with a passive pickup like the K&K Pure Mini is the absence of a preamp/equalizer to control guitar tonality, such as bass, mids and treble, as well as to boost the signal. My previous acoustic guitars were Taylors which had a preamp/equalizer and pickup installed as part of the guitar itself, so I was at a bit of a loss, until my Dave’s guy suggested that I should also purchase a DI/Preamp with built in equalizer to manage the pickup, and he recommended the L.R. Baggs Venue for the job. When I suggested that I already owned a rather extensive pedalboard that I used with my electric guitars which might accomplish the same thing, he visibly shuddered and said he would never, ever run a Collings acoustic guitar through those electronics. It would be a major compromise to the guitar’s tone, which is what Collings guitars were all about!

So, I ordered an L.R. Baggs Venue and put it to good use when I played a gig at one of our local coffee shops. The 0002H was cabled into the Venue which was then cabled into a Bose T4s Mixer and then on into a Bose L1 Pro PA and it worked well enough.

Still, I was unsure whether or not I had the best possible tool kit at my disposal for projecting the best possible tone from my Collings. Consequently, I started digging around the internet and discovered that the L.R. Baggs Company in the past few years has developed a line of pedals that were specifically attuned to the unique complexities and frequencies of acoustic guitars. They’re referred to as the Align series of acoustic pedals, and include a compressor, a DI, an equalizer, a reverb, a delay, and a chorus.

In my judgement an essential pedal for all amplified guitars is a compressor, because to me it makes the guitar sound better. Most importantly the compressor levels the dynamics of different strings, which can be very helpful in making the guitarist sound more pleasant, especially when playing fingerstyle. As you can see on the right, the L.R. Baggs compressor has a simple layout with volume and gain controls at the top. I use just enough gain to keep the signal flowing through the chain as I don’t want gain fattening up the signal beyond what I perceive to be a natural acoustic tone. The various pedals in the signal chain all have some form of volume control, some of which alter the guitar’s overall dry signal and other control the loudness of the effect the pedal was designed for. I tend to keep the loudness/volume controls set close to mid-point and do final volume control at the Venue DI or the Amp/PA. The effects volume is set to keep the effect subtle and not to overwhelm the guitar’s dry signal.

The Compressor’s saturate knob can “enrich” the tone, but with a Collings I don’t find that a necessity, so I keep it tuned down so as not to affect the natural brilliance built into the guitar. Where the “rubber meets the road” is the comp eq knob and here is where the guitar tonal dynamics are controlled. What I do is adjust the knob, and then back and forth mute or activate the combined Session compressor and Venue DI so that I eventually get the natural sound of the guitar unplugged but simply louder when the signal chain is engaged, and “By-Jiminy” it works!

In truth, the combination of the Venue DI and Session Compressor would be enough if all you wanted during a performance was the natural sound of the guitar amplified. During the time that I possessed just those two pedals I ran them in series with the guitar into the compressor, then feeding directly into the Venue. When I used the chromatic tuner that is built into the Venue, I would turn the compressor off before hand so that a clean signal reached the tuner.

The fact is, sometimes I like to use tone modulation pedals in very light doses to add mood or flavor to the guitar’s basic tone. Consequently, I anticipated eventually adding the L.R. Baggs Reverb and Delay pedals to the signal chain. I sold some old pedals I was not using and purchased the Reverb first.

Again, as with the Compressor, the control knobs for the Reverb are fairly simple. No choices of multiple types of Reverb are available as typical on pedals such as those manufactured by Boss or Neunaber. L.R. Baggs engineered a Reverb signal they thought best complemented an acoustic guitar, and I like it. In the case of this Reverb pedal, the volume and tone controls just alter the reverb effect and not the guitar’s dry signal. Also onboard are knobs to adjust the amount of reverb and the decay, which is the duration of the effect. As I said before, with an acoustic guitar like a Collings, if I engage reverb, I like to do it with subtlety.

FX Loop Input/Output in rear of Venue DI

After studying the L.R. Baggs Venue literature, I decided to reroute my pedals from a straight line configuration, meaning they connect to each other train car style, one after the other, until they reach the Venue as last entry point. Instead, I chose to use the Venue’s EFX loop with input and output jacks located in the back of the device. Basically the Compressor and Reverb pedals are lassoed together and run via a cabled loop into and out of the Venue’s rear. As I understand it, the native signal from a guitar’s passive pickup, such as my K&K Pure Mini, is not particularly strong. Consequently, it is prudent to use effects pedals after the guitar’s signal is strengthened by the Venue’s Preamp. Theoretically, this results in a cleaner signal for the pedals to manipulate, giving precise and more audibly pleasing control over the effects. Effects such as Reverb and Delay would clearly benefit from flowing through the EFX loop. Whether or not the Compressor belongs in the EFX loop or is instead located before the preamp can be debated; however, I have it located in the loop and it sounds just fine to me.

I completed the signal modulation section of my acoustic pedalboard with the acquisition of the L.R. Baggs Align Delay pedal. This pedal too is tied into the EFX loop and I tend to set it to give a subtle slapback effect, which, when used adds some further depth to the guitar’s tonality. To maintain subtlety, I limit the delay time with the delay knob, limit the number of repeats per unit time and keep the time of the delay relatively brief. The tone knob controls the brightness or darkness of the delay effect and I tend to keep that setting relatively neutral.

It is apparent via this discussion that I tend to use modulation and compression pedals in this configuration in a “set it and forget it” mode. I don’t like fiddling about with the pedals especially when performing. On the other hand, I do have separate Venue DI equalizer settings depending on which guitar I am using. I keep a photograph of the settings for the 0002H and the C10-35 on my iPad, and can easily adjust if I switch guitars when playing.

The last pedal on my board, which is a Korg tuner, really should not have been a necessity because the Venue DI has a built-in, onboard chromatic tuner. Sadly, it is not as responsive as other tuners I’ve used, and I lost confidence in its accuracy because of its oddball circular LED interface. Consequently, I added the KORG pedal and it works just fine! The raw guitar signal feeds directly into the Korg, which then cables into the Venue DI.

It is worth noting that I use George L patch chords on both of my pedalboards. They are infinitely variable lengthwise because you build them yourself and have discretion as to how long the patch chord wire is. At my local shop, you purchase the plugs individually and the wire is paid for by the length. I keep a small coil of wire at home. The plugs are all nickel colored and the wire comes in multiple colors including black, blue, white and red. You build the patch chord by cutting the wire and then removing the cap to the plug. This is followed by inserting the wire into the opened plug and finally screwing the plug’s cap back down, which cuts the insulation on the wire and creates a proper circuit. I also use the optional rubber stress relief caps that keep the plug cap from unscrewing, which can happen over time. The George L’s are pricey. You can make 6 patch chords for roughly $100. My guitar shop guys consider them the best in the marketplace, but opinions around the web vary.

It goes without saying that an essential element in the signal chain is the amplifier itself. I currently use the Genzler Acoustic Array Pro amp and am very pleased with it. It offers a lovely transparent amplification of the guitar’s signal, which is a necessity when so much has been invested in the tonality of a Collings guitar. I would not want my guitars signal colored by the amp. The Genzler offers two channels, as well as chorus and reverb effects. I keep the effects turned off because I choose to use my pedals instead.

At home, I use one channel of the Genzler for the guitar and the other to practice singing my tunes. I own a very nice Sennheiser e965 condenser mic, which requires phantom power. Sadly, the Genzler’s phantom power is too wimpy to work with the e965, so I had to purchase a rechargeable phantom power booster that I stick between the mic and the amp and that works out adequately. I have not taken the Genzler out for a gig because I use a Bose L1 Pro PA; however, the Genzler is ready to go if I decide to use it. There is a socket built into the bottom of the amp so that it can be mounted on a stand at ear level for the audience.

Above you can see the completed pedalboard. While there’s room for another pedal like the L.R. Baggs Align Chorus, I think this signal chain offers more than enough tone altering capability, without being excessive. You will note the pedals are velcro mounted on a Pedaltrain Classic JR chassis. Bolted below is a Pedaltrain Spark power block that offers 5 isolated power channels. Sadly, the Spark is no longer manufactured, but there are other power blocks in the marketplace. On my electric guitar pedalboard I use the excellent Walrus Audio Phoenix.

Below I offer some tone samples using various pedal combinations for both my Collings C10-35 and then my 0002H. I recorded the clips with an iPhone 11, equipped with a Shure MV88 mic plugged into its jack, and did final processing in Apple’s iMovie. The recordings are probably best appreciated with decent headphones.

The sound samples from the C10-35 are drawn from the music that accompanies Blaze Foley’s Clay Pigeons:

The sound samples from the 0002H are drawn from the music that accompanies Steve Earle’s Fort Worth Blues:

February 13, 2022February 17, 2022

My Search for Transcendent Acoustic Guitar Tone – I review my Collings C10-35.

Introduction

The first solid wood acoustic guitar I ever purchased was a 1994 era Taylor 510 (Mahogany and Spruce) Dreadnought. After I learned through hard knocks and dirty socks that I was not quick enough to be a bluegrass flat picker, I dumped the Dread and worked my way through a series of other Taylors more suitable for fingerstyle, including a 1997 612 (Spruce and Maple, now owned by my son), an early 2000’s 714ce (Cedar and Rosewood, traded away), a 2015 914ce (Spruce and Rosewood), and finally a 2016 812ce (Spruce and Rosewood). In short, I was a Taylor fan-boy. The brighter, more modern sound of Taylors, for a long time, appealed to my ears and sensibility. Over the years, I auditioned other major brands but they fell short of my expectations in tonality, as well as fit, finish and value.

Then several months ago, my opinion about acoustic guitars took an abrupt change in direction when I traded my Taylor 812ce and purchased a Collings 0002H, which I discussed in some detail here. In sum, the 0002H bloomed with overtone when plucked, whereas the Taylor 812ce’s tone was more fundamental and somewhat anemic sounding by comparison. As a result I suffered zero remorse replacing the 812ce with the 0002H and have since greatly enjoyed playing it at home and when performing.

The 0002H and I were largely inseparable, except when I played slide in Open D on my National M1, which created a dilemma for me because I had my remaining Taylor acoustic, a 914ce, sitting idle and unplayed for an extended period of time. To try to remedy this situation, I put new strings on the Taylor and played it a bit to see if I could get some traction with it. Not suprislingly my expectations for acoustic guitar tonality had changed and the 914ce was now irretrievably disappointing to me ear… really disappointing.

In sum, the 914ce became a candidate for trade. Sadly, there really were no acoustic guitars at the local guitar store that interested me. They have a fine selection of Taylors but I was done with Taylors as I’d owned two of their finest instruments for several years. Further, I was pretty much underwhelmed by the tonality of their newer, reinvented, heavily marketed V-Class line of acoustics. The Taylor Guitar Company is a great company and over the years they’ve been very kind to me, but for now I am done with their guitars, with the exception of a T5z which I am hanging onto. My local shop also has some nice Martins in their inventory, but those guitars have always left me cold.

My thinking was that it might be really nice to have another Collings acoustic in my stable to replace the 914ce, so I asked the Collings Enthusiasts Facebook crowd what they might recommend in a small bodied guitar that would complement my 0002H. Several members made a variety of suggestions. I followed up with research on their recommendations and decided that the best candidate was perhaps the C10 model. Given that the 0002H’s body was constructed of Sitka Spruce and East Indian Rosewood, the C10 offered a nice contrast with a body of Sitka Spruce and Mahogany, The only store within distance that sells Collings Acoustic was Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI which is about 3 hours away by car. I thus cross-matched the Facebook recommendations with Dave’s inventory, which at the time was 12 guitars. Sure enough, they had a C10-35 in stock, which is a variation of the C10 and it was finished in a lovely sunburst! So I decided to take a trip to the store to check it out. There were some other models too, such as the Collings OM that I wanted to look more closely at also, but the C10-35 was at the top of the list.

Collings is well know for designing guitar models based upon or inspired by highly regarded vintage classics of the past. But instead of duplicating the older guitars they apply a combination of precision machine technology, skilled, meticulous handwork, and the finest materials (i.e. tone woods) available to produce an instrument that exceeds the original vintage design in both tonality as well as fit and finish. It’s my understanding that the C10 was inspired by the Gibson L-00 guitars of the 1930’s. Vintage versions of this instrument are highly sought after by musicians and collectors. Collings’ limited production C10-35 variant pushes the voicing of the original C10 to more closely emulate a vintage instrument by using ultra-light tone woods, non-scalloped Adirondack bracing, a long cutthrough saddle, and other vintage inspired features such as an abbreviated tongue brace.

It is difficult for me to articulate the care, time and detail that goes into making a Collings instrument, which sets them apart from the big time manufacturers such as Taylor, Gibson and Martin. While a large manufacturer like Taylor makes consistent and beautiful guitars, they are still, in my experience, missing the fairy dust that makes them singular instruments. The brief documentary film I share below does clarify what the Collings philosophy is and why their guitars stand out in the marketplace:

As I wrote earlier, Collings often designs guitars that are inspired by the past, so as the highly regarded 1930’s era Gibsons. Below you can see Steve Earle speak to his vintage L-00, which inspired the C10-35.

If you’re interested in more background regarding Gibson acoustic guitars, the following video is quite informative:

I Purchase a C10-35

As I mentioned above, Dave’s Guitars had a relatively large inventory of Collings acoustics when I initially decided to trade-off the Taylor 914ce. Collings is a smallish operation, so the marketplace is not flooded with their instruments. It’s nice for me that a store just three hours away sells them. It was on a Saturday when I made the decision to move on the C10-35, but I also wanted to audition an OM too before making the final purchase. At that moment in time there were 12 Collings acoustics hanging on the wall at Dave’s. Sunday when I again checked into Dave’s inventory they were down to just 8 and the two OM’s in stock were gone! I was astonished and unnerved. There was a run on Collings guitars going on at Dave’s! In response, without even playing the C10-35, I put it on my credit card, and let the store know I would drive over the following Tuesday to pick it up as well as trade-in the 914ce. I figured that if I really did not like the C10-35, the folks at Dave’s would just refund what I’d paid… no harm no foul…

So I went to Dave’s early Tuesday morning with my friend Grant. The C10-35 was sitting there waiting for me to pick up; however, I sat in the corner and auditioned it for quite a while before closing the deal. I also checked out a Collings CJ-45, a larger Gibson Jumbo inspired guitar but thought it was way too large for my comfort. While auditioning the two Collings, the store examined my Taylor and made, what I thought, was a very fair trade offer, considering that the guitar was pretty dinged up (it sold within the week, so they knew what they were doing).

I closed the deal and remanded the guitar to the custody of Dave’s luthier shop to have a K&K Pure Mini pickup installed. I like to play through an acoustic amp at home and I typically perform plugged into a PA system, so a pickup is a necessity. Dave’s acoustic guy, JR Rabie is emphatic that the K&K is the best choice for a Collings acoustic. I put one into my 0002H and was very please with its simplicity and transparency.

Grant and I grabbed lunch, checked out Dave’s upstairs collection of vintage guitars, visited Daves’ Drum Depot and by then the C10-35 was ready for pickup. I gave the guitar a cursory examination while in the case, then Grant and I headed home with the Collings in the back of car.

Ruh-Roh… This Is All Wrong!!!

Circumferential scarring around the jack

When I got home, I promptly pulled the guitar out of its case and the first thing I did was look at the bottom of the guitar to study what the pickup jack looked like and I was appalled to see that there was a circumferential gouge or scar around the jack’s location. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the luthier/tech damaged the wood around the jack when either enlarging the hole for the jack or when tightening the jack into its final location. Sadly, the damage was not reported at the time it occurred, leading me to have to find it after I got home.

I contacted several people at Dave’s Guitars via email with the above photograph and in very short order they responded with an apology and an offer to either repair the damage or refund me $200. The monetary refund was not very much considering the overall cost of the guitar, suggesting to me that what they really wanted to do was repair the instrument. I was informed that with a nitrocellulose finish, such as on this guitar, the luthiers would be able to repair the damage. At my request, Dave’s shipped me a suitable box and a prepaid return UPS label. I played the guitar for several days bonding with it before the shipping box arrived, and that same day I shipped the guitar back to Wisconsin. About a week after the guitar had arrived at Dave’s they completed the repair and shipped it back to me. Since it was so cold here in Iowa when the box arrived, I had to let it acclimate in my house for 24 hours before opening. That was a long day! You can see in the photo above the guitar bottom after repair. The damage is largely gone; however, if you look closely enough there’s still some slight evidence of the mishap, but not enough to quibble with. I am very glad to have it back.

I Review the Collings C10-35

On the right you can see the C10-35 in the TKL hardcase that Collings uses to protect their guitars. It’s a decent case with a nice tight fit for the guitar, but the Tolex covering is vulnerable to tearing if not handled gently. As with a typical guitar case, there’s a compartment for storing necessities and there’s a key included to lock the case if desired. There is a cushioned, comfortable handle but rugged enough to last the life of the case.

Looking very much like a vintage Gibson L-00 the Collings C10-35 is larger than a parlor guitar but still in a relatively small body. Coming with a paddle style headstock, a mahogany neck, a Wenge fingerboard and bridge, with back and sides of mahogany and a top of sitka spruce. The nitrocellulose coating is so glossy and mirror-like it’s hard to photograph the guitar without revealing whatever is in the background.

The guitar is significantly lighter than my 0002H, which is probably a function of its somewhat smaller size, but also thinned out tone woods for the body. Internally is a pre-war, non-scalloped X bracing, composed of light Adirondack spruce.

The guitar is quite beautiful but spare in adornment. Other than the “just-showy” Ivoroid tuners, the body is bound by thin strips of Ivoroid with no purfling. The sound hole rosette is also basic Ivoroid with some simple black and white purfling. It’s the combination of the high gloss nitrocellulose finish over the stunning sunburst staining of the soundboard that gives the guitar its “wow” factor. As a rule, I do not like pickguards, but the vintage tiger stripe guard also adds to the guitars stunning appearance. The Taylor 914ce I traded for this Collings was a highly embellished instrument and physically stunning in its own right, but in the end when your playing a guitar, it’s not really what it looks like, but what it sounds like, as well as its playability and the C10-35 wins “hands-down” for me!

The C10-35’s headstock is carved with their recognizable haircut profile and topped with a gloss Ebony veneer and an Ivoroid Collings logo. The tuners are nickel Waverly brand with a 16:1 ratio, which makes tuning a pleasure. The tuner buttons are Ivoroid and the gearing is open in the back adding to he vintage appearance for the guitar.

I have some reservations about Ivoroid tuning buttons because my former Taylor 812ce tuners had Ivoroid buttons, one of which blew apart when I was restringing the guitar with an powered auto-winder. Straight metal knobs like the 0002H is equipped with would have been just fine. Still… the Ivoroid knobs are pretty and add to the vintage look. I really like the appearance of a slothead like the 0002H possesses, but they are considerably more fiddly to restring than a paddle head like the C10-35 has, so that’s good!

Note also, the 1 3/4 inch bone nut. That is a standard width nowadays and fine for finger picking.

While the other C10 models are built with Ebony fingerboards, the C10-35 possesses the very grainy appearing Wenge wood. It’s the first guitar I’ve ever owned that has any Wenge on it. Why Collings made this decision eludes me, but I think it has a rather stunning and antique-like appearance with its broad and distinctive grain, The Wenge looks like it might be coarse feeling, but it’s quite smooth making for a functional fingerboard.

The guitar was shipped with D’Addario EJ 16’s, which I like and they’re pretty affordable; however, I’ve replaced them with Santa Cruz Low Tension Parabellum strings because they are easier on my hands and they sound good. They are very expensive strings so their longevity will determine whether or not I keep using them. Since they are micro-coated hopefully they will last a while.

To the right you can see a close-up of the C10-35’s body. Note the sunburst stain, the simple unadorned bindings and paired-down soundhole rosette, the tiger-striped pickguard, the Wenge bridge, the vintage cut-through saddle and the plain Ivoroid bridge pins. Simple but stunning in appearance.

Some guitar designers believe the larger cut through saddle creates a different tonality for the guitar because of the larger surface area contact with the bridge. This is open to continuing debate; however, these cut through saddles were very common on pre-war guitars, which is what inspires the C10-35 design.

The guitar’s body has an elegantly narrow waist and proportionately different sized upper and lower bouts giving the guitar aesthetically pleasing dimensions and appearance. Highly regarded independent luthier Ernst Somogyi would point out that the Greek Golden Rule of Proportion was applied by constructing the waist of the guitar to give a perfect ratio of top bout size compared to the lower bout. Further, the shoulders of the guitar add a subtle sloping drop which enhances its elegance giving it an altogether more appealing shape to the human eye!

To the left is a section of the guitar’s back showing the rich Honduran Mahogany color and the stunning grain. There is a barely visible Walnut backstrip joining the two pieces of Mahogany that comprise the back.

Conclusion

This guitar, like my 0002H has great presence, both in tonality and appearance. Unlike the 0002H which blooms with a cascade of overtone, the C10-35 is somewhat dryer and more straightforward, but still dwarfs my Taylor 812ce and 914ce with it’s sonic personality. It is a very comfortable guitar to play with its small-but-not-too-small body size and its shorter 24&7/8 inch scale. In fact, it is easier to play than the longer scaled stiffer 0002H. It’s an instrument that earns respect and demands to be played!

Below is a Vimeo clip of me playing the C10-35. I play strictly fingerstyle and this piece is a section of the guitar accompaniment to Steve Earle’s tune Goodbye, which was arranged by Tom Feldmann in one of his online lessons, a teacher I highly recommend. As I said above I use a K&K Pure Mini pickup run through the following signal chain: First into an and L.R. Baggs Venue, which is a DI and tone control; Second, in my effects loop, that runs through the Venue, I applied some light compression using the L.R. Baggs Session Align Pedal, and finally through a Genzler Pro Array acoustic amp. I also have L.R. Baggs Delay and Reverb pedals in the signal chain but chose not to use them to keep the soundclip as natural as possible. The settings of the signal chain devices are such that the guitar sounds louder but matches, to the extent possible, the tonality of the C10-35 unplugged, and it comes pretty close. I recorded the clip with an iPhone 11, equipped with a Shure MV88 mic plugged into its jack, and did final processing in Apple’s iMovie. Probably best appreciated with decent headphones.

If you’d like to hear more samples from this guitar, I suggest you visit this blog entry and scroll down to the bottom:

On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

Finally, thanks again to the Collings Guitars Enthusiasts Facebook page for their suggestions during my hunt for guitar tone transcendence!

November 25, 2021October 1, 2023

Reviewing the Collings 0002H: Acoustic Guitar as Industrial Art

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
— The Grateful Dead

Introduction

Playing a Collings at my first official gig…

I’m not getting any younger and this past summer I entered my 7th decade. A couple of years ago when I embarked on retirement, my fund manager/guide offered me sage advice when he bade me not to wait too late to experience what I wished to (within reason).

To those who know me and others who’ve read this weblog, it is patently obvious that as a pensioner, I’ve pretty much devoted my efforts to developing myself as a musician/guitarist. While I’ve made tangible progress in my pursuit, there really is no end to the path I’m on… the guitar is an insatiable instrument with unlimited expectations for its players, and it will carry me to the end…

As a dedicated guitarist, I aspire to play the finest instruments that can be acquired within reason. In the past I’ve found that the best way to keep things within reason is to trade/sell an existing instrument(s) against the acquisition of another better one, which happens to be a common behavior among many guitar players! About a year ago, I traded two Taylor electric guitars for a Collings I-35 electric guitar (reviewed here). When evaluating the I-35, I became enchanted with the founder of the company. He was a singular, creative, precision driven engineer and world class manufacturing leader in the marketplace of guitars. As a result, I developed an interest in eventually adding a Collings acoustic guitar to my stable. Below is a brief video about this man, the late Bill Collings:

You can break down guitar building into two basic categories: factory versus luthier built. That’s not to say that some factories do not employ luthier quality builders, but the term luthier built suggests an individual who designs and assembles a guitar in a private shop from soup to nuts… i.e raw wood to finished product.

Somogyi’s excellent book on guitar design

One of the most highly regarded luthiers in the U.S. is Ervin Somogyi, whose exceptional book on acoustic guitar design I purchased and perused a couple of years ago. Most of Somogyi’s guitars are museum pieces that command staggering sums and are really built for well-financed private customers. Somogyi applies his skills to extract maximum sonic performance from wood and steel, and his embellishments often rise to high art. Somogyi is also a bit dubious about many but not all of the other independent luthiers practicing in the U.S. He pretty much says in his book that just because a person can build a guitar from scratch does not guarantee it will be a high quality instrument. Results will vary widely from builder to builder, so he says be wary of in the luthier marketplace. I simply do not trust that I have the wherewithal to distinguish a high quality luthier produced guitar from a run of the mill one. Consequently I stick with recognized factory built instruments because of their long history of essentially decent performance.

The preponderance of guitars in the U.S. are built in factories of varying sizes with wide ranging production capacities, specifications, price points, manufacturing philosophies and subsequent qualities. In the U.S. Taylor, Martin and Gibson are excellent examples of the larger decent quality guitar producers. It’s hard to go wrong buying a guitar from those manufacturers, though it is important to be aware there is some product to product variability in performance simply because the guitars are built from wood which is a naturally variable material. In other words, these manufactures build, on average, decent instruments; however, within each companies productions some guitars may be better and some not as good.

Purchase choices are often based on taste and/or tradition-based brand loyalty. For example, I’ve owned several Taylor guitars because I liked their playability and voicing, whereas neither Martin nor Gibson ever appealed that much to me. I know other players who would never consider any guitar other than a Martin.

Besides the big companies, there are a host of smaller factory producers, such as Santa Cruz, Breedlove, Bourgeois and Collings who produce limited numbers of instruments mostly because of the care, materials, embellishments and extra labor they apply to perfect their products. Sometimes these smaller companies are referred to as “boutique” manufacturers.

Here’s a brief video that speaks to Collings manufacturing excellence:

Choosing among the small manufacturers is largely a matter of expendable income, taste and knowledge of the company’s specific products. Product accessibility may also be one of the most important variables. In fact, I’ve never actually seen a Santa Cruz, Breedlove or Bourgeois guitar in any of the stores I’ve ever frequented. I suppose I could acquire a boutique guitar online, but I would not want to spend that kind of money without trying the instrument out myself beforehand. I’ve had mixed experiences buying online. Having the ability to trade for the purchase was also a prerequisite for me, and that’s difficult to do online.

Unlike the other small builders, I’ve had some access to Collings acoustic guitars in nearby Wisconsin at Dave’s Guitars. I auditioned several of them a few months ago and thought they were decent, but still reserved judgment until I could A/B compare them to my current Taylor guitars. I still suspected that those guitars when compared to Taylors, Martins and Gibsons were a cut above, with their unique voicing (appealing to me), and build approaching the level of care and individuality claimed by independent luthiers. I intended to give Collings acoustics another visit in the future.

I Get Serious About Collings Acoustic Guitars

Last week, I finally said to myself, “the hell with it, I’m not getting any younger” and decided to see what kind of trade-in offer I could get from Dave’s Guitars for my 5 year old Taylor 812ce. Usually what triggers me is reading about a musician, near my age, who croaks for whatever reason.

I’d special ordered the Taylor 812ce through Bob’s Guitars in my home town. You’ll note in the image on the left, I ordered the guitar without a pick guard since I play finger-style. The Taylor was a good guitar and I enjoyed playing it. A few years ago, when I was changing the strings, I inadvertently knocked a chunk of wood off the bridge. Taylor Guitars was kind enough to replace the bridge under warrantee if I paid for the shipping. After repair the guitar looked the same, but it never sounded quite like it did originally. I don’t think it was my imagination.

in Dave’s parking lot with iconic signage…

Upon inspection of the guitar via photographs, Dave’s Guitars made me a modestly reasonable offer, which they improved upon later when I arrived at the store. One issue that irritated the hell out of me was Dave’s statement that X-braced non V-Class Taylor guitars now have reduced trade-in value. A few years back, Taylor Guitars redesigned their bracing system to a V shape, supported by a massive marketing campaign. I actually think the older guitars sound better, but it’s hard to fight the extraordinary power of Taylor marketing.

So, I loaded up my car with the Taylor 812, my iPad which contains all my music and a mic stand equipped with an iPad holder. It’s a long 2.5 hour trip through the hinterlands of Iowa and Minnesota until you finally traverse the Mississippi and enter the river town of LaCrosse, WI. Dave’s guitars is within spitting distance of the river itself. Below you can see of section of the Acoustic Guitar Room at Dave’s. They have a large showroom…

I arrived early enough to get plenty of time auditioning the Collings acoustics that were available in LaCrosse. I planned to A/B my Taylor with several of the Collings with a focus on 12 fret guitars with slot-heads, since that was what I was what my Taylor was. My other acoustic guitar that I am keeping is a Grand Concert sized, 14 fret, fancy-pants, fully decked out, Taylor 914ce. I wanted to make sure the Collings I selected would be distinctly different from the Taylor 914ce.

The Collings collection at Dave’s Guitars

To the right you can see the Collings section of Dave’s Guitars, which contained three 12 fretted, slot-head guitars. Two of those can be seen on the lower row on the far left and far right. The guitar on the left was a 02H Traditional with a sitka spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides. The one on the right was a 0001 Custom made with all mahogany top and sides with a custom dog hair finish with Pearloid appointments. Not pictured is a 0002H with a sitka top and Indian rosewood back and sides. When I shot this image that guitar was being equipped with a pick-up because I intended to take it home.

When I auditioned the guitars, I sat down at the wall of Collings guitars on a comfortable stool and 90 minutes disappeared. I played all three of the slot head Collings, along with the Taylor 812ce side by side over and over again. It was absorbing and a lot of fun. The acoustic guitar room at Dave’s was quiet that morning, so I was able to give the guitars a nice listen to.

The 0002H was clearly the winner to my ears. The Taylor offered up nice clean and direct notes, but the 0002H played at a different level. Each note in comparison was almost 3 dimensional… in other words the notes bloomed outward. The 0002H presented more bottom, more punch and overtone. No contest… the Taylor was going on the trading block…

I gave the 02H a serious look, but it did not hold up when compared to the 0002H. I suspect there were a couple of variables at play here. First the 0002H as a larger lower bout which will make it louder and deeper sounding. Secondly, the Traditional series, as I understand it, was designed to be physically lighter and engineered to reduce overtones to give more clarity to individual notes. I can attest to the fact that the 02H was significantly lighter than the 0002H, to the point that handling it was a bit unnerving as it felt so insubstantial. In the end, I did not appreciate the individual note clarity. The guitar felt like it needed time to open up as it sounded thin and insubstantial when A/B’d with the 0002H. The 02H was far more expensive too. Move along… nothing to see here…

The all mahogany 0002 custom was quite an amazing looking guitar with it’s white pearloid headstock and pick guard contrasted with the blackened dog hair finish. It would be a crowd pleasing guitar based simply on appearance. It was the most expensive guitar by a long shot that I auditioned that day. I might have stretched for it had it sounded unbelievable, but the solid mahogany body just did not have the presence of the 0002H. Perhaps in time the mahogany would open up, but I did not have the patience to wait several years for that possibility. I kept going back to the 0002H after playing all the guitars several times over and decided to acquire it.

I carried the Taylor and the Collings 0002H to my store guy friend JR and closed the deal. When queried about installing a pickup, JR was emphatic that the K&K Pure Mini, a passive device, was the best choice. The Pure Mini is a simple 3 transducer pickup that mounts on the bridge plate inside the guitar. I went with his advice and was amazed at how natural sounding it was when I finally got a chance to plug in the guitar at home later that day.

JR behind the acoustic guitar desk and Dave’s Guitars closing the deal…

Reviewing In Detail My 0002H

Below is my 0002H resting comfortably in its TKL hard case, which was sourced out by Collings because they do not make their own cases. They dabbled with producing cases at one point in the past, but it was unsustainably expensive, so they quit. The interior of the TKL case is decked out in the interior with form-fitting cushions, covered with a dark green velveteen fabric. The fit is tight and requires a light pushdown by hand to get the guitar properly seated. The case clasps function well, and one is lockable. Inside the case was the key, a Collings micro-fiber wiping cloth, the warrantee registration form (which can alternatively be done online) and a pressure sensitive Collings sticker!

A different view of the 0002H out of its case is on the right. You’ll note that it has an upper bout just shy of 10 inches wide, a narrow waist, and a largish 15 inch lower bout. The body length is just a little over 20 inches. The appearance evokes and older era and should be no surprise because this shape, originated by C.F. Martin is rooted in the very early 1900’s.

The narrow waist allows the guitar to fit in the lap very comfortably while playing in the sitting position, which is what I prefer. The combined upper and lower bout size difference creates a pleasant evenly balanced volume of tones, with plenty of low end to avoid thinness in output.

Again, the guitar is a 12 fret model with a slot head. The top is sitka spruce with back and sides being East Indian rosewood.

Starting at the top of the guitar, you can see below front and rear views of the headstock.

The headstock has a very pleasant “exotic” ebony veneer with a Mother-of-Pearl Collings logo inlay. I always found the excessively shiny veneer on the Taylor 812ce incongruous and not aesthetically in tune with the rest of the guitar. The Collings headstock just looks better. You might note too at the lower portion of the rear of the headstock is an embellishing pyramidal carving referred to as a volute.

The Waverly tuners are excellent and work far better than the Taylor tuners. Their turning action is reminiscent of the excellent Gotoh tuners I have on three other guitars. I am pleased that the Collings tuners are nickel because the Taylor ivoroid tuners can fall apart when using a mechanized winder for string changing.

Proper string wrapping on the Collings Slotted Headstock

When I had the K&K Pure Mini pick-up installed in the 0002H, the shop replaced the Collings spec’d D’Addario EJ-16 (.012″- .053″) strings with Elixirs of the same gauge. I observed two things when I got home with the restrung guitar. First, the string wrap on the peghead was done in a manner such that the lowest strings (the E strings) on both sides were in contact with the headstock wood which will quickly wear away the finish. To avoid this deleterious situation, the E strings should be wound on with one wrap to the outside and the remainder towards the inside. This wind does cause the E strings to take a sharp angle inwards, but they will now avoid contacting the wood. Examination of photos on the Collings website also indicate that all the strings are wound outside-in, which is unlike the winds used by Taylor and National on their slot heads.

The second thing I noticed was that the Elixir strings were far stiffer to play on this guitar than the D’Addarios, making it far less enjoyable to play. I also found the sound of the guitar adversely affected too, so as soon as I could I restrung the guitar with the original spec’d D’Addarios! Perhaps the strings won’t last as long, but now the guitar sounds and plays like the one I auditioned in the store. This was an odd experience for me because I’ve used Elixirs on my Taylor acoustics without any difficulty. Of course, for what its worth, Taylors are spec’d to play with Elixirs

The neck is Honduran Mahogany and the fretboard is stained ebony. There is no binding on the neck and the fingerboard is marked with elegant but simple Abalone short diamond and square designs.

The neck has taken some getting used too because it is a bit chunkier than a Taylor acoustic’s neck and it is the widest necked guitar I ever owned coming in at 1 & 13/16 of an inch. That’s a lot of real estate to cover and requires some readjustment of finger muscle memory. All good for finger style playing though.

Below you can see an image of the the back of the neck where it attaches to the guitar body. The neck has a lovely gloss finish that allows easy mobility of the left hand up and down the fretboard

Also visible on the left is the Ivoroid binding at the seam of the back and sides of the guitar as well as the grained Ivoroid cap on the neck base. The neck is a modified V-shape and compounded in circumference, widening outwards at the 9th fret. As I understand it the neck flattens out towards the body of the guitar which makes playing the higher notes in the region easier.

Collings employs a mortise & tenon hybrid attachment of neck to body. I am assuming this form of bolt on neck makes it easier to repair or replace the guitar’s neck. There’s some belief among guitar aficionados and builders that a dovetail join is the only way to attach a neck to a guitar’s body. In my judgement Taylor guitars proved that assertion wrong a long time ago.

The photo above and to the right show the East Indian Rosewood that comprises the back and sides of the 0002H. Collings builds their reputation on using the choicest tone woods for their instruments. The rosewood is straight-grained and a lovely deep brown with lighter streaking. The color is so deep it almost looks purple depending upon the light. Note too above the “zipper” backstrip that runs down the center of the guitar back. It’s quite striking.

I’ve tried lots of different tone wood combinations; however, I keep coming back to sitka spruce tops with rosewood back and sides as the classic combination that is most appealing to me ears.

The 000 sized Collings come in 3 basic styles, not including the wide variety of custom work they also offer. My 000 has the 2H designation, which basically means that it has some fancier appointments than the style 1, including the nice zipper backstrip, the geometric fretboard inlays, and most importantly the herringbone binding, which is a classic steel string acoustic guitar appointment.

To the right, you can see the sound hole section of the 0002H, with its elegant but not overly fancy rosette, which brings me to a point about the 0002H compared to the Taylor 812ce that I traded-in when I purchased the Collings. To be perfectly frank, the Taylor possessed a fancier level of appointment, including beautiful maple wood bindings, an abalone rosette with an inner sound hole maple border, and a more intricate fretboard inlay, all of it tastefully done and costing far less. But, and this is a big but, the Collings design, tonality, playability, and its visible connection to the past origins of guitar design make it a palpably singular instrument to own and play.

I’m not a big fan of pickguards as I play strictly finger style and I suspect they have some minor tone dampening impact on the guitar’s sound board. Had I the opportunity, I would have acquired the 0002H without a pickguard. Nevertheless, the 0002H I purchased from Dave’s Guitars had a pickguard, and you cannot remove one without the high probability of damaging the finish. I did note that the pickguard was pretty scratched up. I think the guitar had been there for at least a year and tested out by a number of people, including some careless assholes with a picks. My store guy, J.R. said that was no problem because they would buff out the scratches in their shop, which they did. The pickguard looks pristine now. I do not recollect how translucent it was before buffing, but now I notice the sound hole rosette grinning through the guard. After a query on Facebook, some other Collings owners suggested to me that it was always translucent.

In the above image, you may also note the nice, even tight grain on the sitka spruce soundboard. This is what Collings brings to the marketplace: the very best available tone woods.

Beneath the sound hole is the bridge section. The 0002H uses an ebony pyramid bridge, a design that harkens back to the 1800’s and some of the earliest Martin guitars. The bridge pins are unslotted, which some argue is a more robust design. I guess that may also be a vintage appointment. Residing in the bridge is a bone saddle which complements the bone nut back up the neck.

Iconic Collings label inside the sound hole!

To sum it up, I am delighted and it is my great, good fortune that I have the opportunity to play a guitar of such character and build!

Add-ons

I needed a pick-up installed to be able to plug my guitar into my portable PA (Bose L1 Pro 32) and into other sound systems around town. This is because I host Open Mic Night once per month at a Coffee Shop, sometimes play other Open Mic Nights in town and do a rare coffee shop gig on my own.

The best time to install the pick-up was at point of sale because they do not charge for shop labor at Dave’s when a new guitar is sold.

Dave’s had available the L.R. Baggs Anthem and Lyric pick-ups, but as I said earlier, my guitar guy J.R. was emphatic that the simplest, passive pick-up like the K&K Pure Mini would be the best choice to avoid sound balance and feedback issues. I was dubious at first but agreed. It was a quick install because the three transducers shown above simply glue onto the bridge plate within the guitar’s body. When I got home and plugged the guitar into my Fishman Loudbox Artist, the 0002H sounded very natural, so I was please that I followed J.R.’s advice.

Because the K&K Pure Mini is passive, it does not come with a pre-amp built into the installation, which is nice in that there are no added dials or buttons involved. While I like the Taylor Expression system, I was never a big fan of the rubbery dial/buttons protruding from the guitars body. On the other hand, without a pre-amp the ability to tone shape your guitar’s output is absent which could be a problem when interacting with a PA out around town.

To remedy this situation, I acquired an L.R. Baggs Venue DI/Pre-amp/Tuner. It’s a very nice portable device capable of precise tone shaping. I used it during a recent gig along with the Bose L1 Pro 32 PA and it worked just fine. The additional Notch filter for dialing out feedback frequencies is very cool and works great.

If you’d like to learn more about the L.R. Baggs Venue/DI and to listen to sound samples from my 0002H, I suggest you click on the link to another one of my blog articles below. The sound samples are at the bottom of the entry.

On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

September 27, 2021September 29, 2021

On Bottleneck Blues and Selecting a Proper Slide for Resonator Guitar Play…

Introduction

When I was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina in the early 1970’s, the Rolling Stones were in the midst of putting together an unparalleled run of four extraordinary record albums, including Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Mainstreet. This was not your everyday British Invasion band, but something new and powerfully different. Yes, it was the Rolling Stones, still largely blues influenced, but now exhibiting a richer, deeper, more expansive and more expressive music.

To my ear, there was something distinctly different about their guitar sounds too… at the time, I was unsure what it was exactly, but eventually realized it was the liberal use of bottleneck slide guitar. A sound so expressive to my sensibilities. Below you can see one of the Stones’ hard rockers from Exile on Mainstreet played live in 1972 in Texas. I saw the same show in Charlotte, NC that year. Note the characteristic rhythm riff driving the tune played by Keith Richards with the Mick Taylor’s bottleneck slide adding important textures over the top!

Besides adding sonic textures, the slide can be used to add important emotional context to a tune, which is even more appealing to me. Note, below for example, another video from the 1972 Texas concerts. This one of the Stones covering Robert Johnson’s classic Love in Vain from their album Let it Bleed. Mick Taylor’s slide work pulls at the heart. Suffice it to say I became enamored by the tones of bottleneck slide guitar listening to the Stones in my youth.

If you take the time to watch the above two videos closely, you will note that Mick Taylor plays two different kinds of slides to get two different tonalities, one metal in the All Down the Line, and a glass one in Love in Vain. Note too, that he plays with his slide like I do on his little finger, with the slide located above the middle knuckle of that finger. I will return to those observations later.

Where Did Slide Playing Come From?

Muddy Waters with slide on his little finger

This post is not a music history lesson, but I’ve read a lot about the blues. If my memory serves me well, the bottleneck slide playing that influenced early 20th century U.S. blues players originated among Hawaiian Islands Slack Key musicians and eventually migrated to the North American continent. Slack Keys are alternate tunings such as Open D and Open G, which are most common for bottleneck blues guitar play. What’s nice about open tunings is that the guitar is set up to play a rich chord with a strum across the open strings. In addition to popularizing Slack Key tunings, it’s also believed that Hawaiians introduced the use of a metal bar for sliding across the strings to smear (glissando) the notes and to create a wavering vibrato. It’s said that W.C. Handy, the man who first documented blues music was dozing at a railway station in the Delta region of Tutwiler, Mississippi. when he was awakened by an elderly African American man playing a haunting blues tune with smeared notes throughout. The old guitarist was using a pocket knife to create the glissandos. This apocryphal story might be the first recognition of bottleneck blues playing in the South.

My First Run with a Bottleneck Slide

I was taking finger-style country blues lessons some years ago in Cedar Falls, Iowa and had just purchased my first electric guitar, a fancy-pants Gretsch Falcon. About that same time, I ran into this bewhiskered old codger at the guitar shop where I studied. He was not capable of driving so his family would drop him off for lessons and later pick him up. I got to know him a bit, and at some point he told me he was learning to play bottleneck slide. I thought to myself, since I have this awesome electric guitar now, why not do the same and subsequently discussed it with my teacher. Shortly thereafter we went out on the shop floor and selected a glass slide off the rack and then I spent a few weeks futzing around with a slide on my guitar.

After a spell, I decided that slide playing was not a rabbit hole I wished to go down. I was just not adept enough at guitar playing yet, and the slide itself was an ill-fitting affair, being too large for me, thus difficult to control. Despite my initial lack of success at slide playing, I did conclude that I was most comfortable playing with a slide on my little finger, with the slide located above the middle knuckle. The middle knuckle location allowed me to properly position the slide on the fretboard without a lot of stress on my wrist, since I could simply bend my finger. Of course the Mo-Jo Slide would not work in the manner I wished as it swam all over my finger and the strings. I still have it and it makes a wonderful knick-knack on my music table.

Another Run with the Bottleneck Slide

Some months later with little to no intention of playing bottleneck slide again any time soon, I purchased a National Resonator (NRP Black Rust) from Reverb to play finger-style blues. This was based on my brief experience noodling around with a wooden Fender resonator in my local shop. The two guitars could not be any more different from each other. Whereas the Fender was set up to play finger-style with low action, the National had very high action, and I was distraught when I quickly ascertained that it would be next to impossible to play straight finger-style. It did not occur to me have have the guitar set up for finger-style.

Considering the substantial investment I made in the National, I decided then and there to return to bottleneck slide, since that was how it was set-up to be played. I was now committed to making a more serious run at mastering (take this term with a grain of salt) the slide.

Of course, the first order of business was to find a slide that would work for me and that ended up being an iterative process that still continues to this day. I needed to find a slide size and substance (i.e. material) that would meet my needs when playing my National. Since I like to play the slide on my little finger and above the middle knuckle, I needed a relatively small slide. So I went back to the store rack and searched for a smallish slide that would fit to my little finger above the knuckle. In this case I purchased a Dunlop Joe Perry ceramic slide, which was 50 mm in length. It’s worth a digression now to consider slide substances.

What Are the Most Common Slide Substances?

While there are lots of exceptions to the rule, slides are available in three common substances:

Glass – lots of different types of glass tubes can be used for slides. Even though I was interested in playing a glass slide, I could not find one that would properly fit me… more about that later. Glass is the warmer sounding of slide materials with good sustain.
Metal – lots of different metals are used, including but not limited to steel, nickel coated brass, titanium and solid brass. The metals give a harsher, biting sound, with somewhat diminished sustain and is favored by some hardcore country blues players.
Ceramic – a non-metallic mineral that is said to fall somewhere in between metal and glass in its sonic properties. As indicated above, my Joe Perry slide is ceramic.
Other – Taylor Guitars produces an ebony slide. It is a creative use of raw materials. I own one, but because of its somewhat muted sonic properties I hardly every use it. Their are other contraptions out there too that are claimed to take the place of original tubular slide designs. I have not tried any of them as of this writing.

Choosing a slide material is a very personal choice based on taste, your ear, and the type of tonality you are seeking. There is plenty of discussion about tonality of slide substances available on YouTube. There is no consensus on right or wrong choices. For example, despite my antipathy with the ebony slide, a quick survey of YouTube will yield a number of players who like it.

Getting a Slide to Fit Properly

I want a slide to fit my little finger snugly and I have yet to find one “off the rack” that does so. My method for customizing the fit is to pack the inside circumference of the slide with moleskin, a product typically used by hikers to prevent hotspots from turning into full blown blisters. The surface side of the the moleskin is a soft plush fabric and the back side is pressure sensitive adhesive. It requires patience and a good pair of forceps to get the moleskin properly positioned. If the slide is reasonabley close to fit, the moleskin will snug it up to my finger as you can see in the image on the left.

I’ve heard of other players who pack their slides with the fuzzy portion of velcro (too harsh) or with adhesive backed foam (durable?), but moleskin seems to me to be the best of the choices.

I Try A Variety of Slides and Resonators

Over the past few years my bottleneck playing has progressed nicely. My repertoire has grown in both Open D and Open G tunes. People love bottleneck playing. I’ve played frequently at Open Mic Nights to audience approval and have bought and sold several National resonators over the recent past. I currently play a National Reso-Lectric and an M1 Tricone. It is certainly possible to play bottleneck on electric and acoustic guitars as well; however, I myself prefer to play on a resonator. Nevertheless, I do play a nice Muddy Waters tune (Long Distance Call) on my Collings I-35 electric while in standard tuning and it is a lot of fun. Along the way I’ve worked with a variety of slides too:

I was not that big a fan of the Joe Perry ceramic slide. It was too bulky and did not sound that good to my ear. Slide wall thickness and mass affects weight, tonality and comfort/accuracy while playing, so that element of slide design is an important consideration. As Ben Powell says, “mass equals tone.” Because of the wide variety of slide design choices, I found myself constantly shopping around. To that end, during my wanderings around the internet, I discovered Ben Powell’s fascinating Tone Dome slide. Below you can see Ben discussing his innovative slide design:

As Ben illuminates, the Tone Dome is designed for the little finger and to fit above the middle knuckle. There’s a cut out to enable easy finger bending too. At the time I purchased one, what was available was a nickel-plated brass version and I played it for a long, long time. The Tone Dome was relatively light and easy to manipulate on the fretboard. The tonality was a typical metallic bite with reasonable sustain. My only quibble was the slide did not cover the full width of my fretboard, which was problematic for full chord slides. Ben is such as accomplished slide player, he does not seem bothered by the shortness of the slide, but I was. To reduce this problem but not eliminate it completely I positioned the slide reversed from the way Powell intended it to be. In addition, I added a bit of moleskin within the slide to adjust the fit.

Tone Done with Cut Out (Left) and Tone Dome Positioned Backwards (Right) to Enhance Coverage Across the Fretboard

Even playing the Tone Dome reversed on my guitar, I became frustrated with it’s lack of fretboard width coverage for certain full chord tunes like Spoonful and went back out into the marketplace. To that end, I found a web-based seller of elegantly designed ceramic slides out of the UK (Star Singer) that looked more useable than the Dunlop Joe Perry version I had tried earlier. I purchased a 57 mm length version as can be seen on the right. I liked the Star Singer just fine and for tunes that required full fretboard width coverage I used it. Nevertheless, my workhouse slide remained the nickel-plated brass Tone Dome because I preferred its tonality more than every other slide I’d used to date. Finally, the Star Singer is a bit fragile and I tend to be a bit clumsy sometimes and after a drop or two, it has a micro crack on one side, so I have to be intentional when positioning it on my finger. For that reason, I rarely use the Star Singer anymore and just tough out the full width chords with the Tone Dome by faking it!
While noodling around the National Reso-phonic website, I stumbled across the fact that they now sell Ben Powell Tone Domes. Besides a stainless steel version, they also offer a beefy solid brass one too, which I immediately acquired. The increased mass of the new solid brass slide gave it a more present, warmer and rounder tonality such that it completely displaced my original Tone Dome, which is now retired.

Solid Brass Tone Dome (left); Stainless Steel (right)

To the left you can see both of the Ben Powell Tone Domes that are offered by National Reso-Phonic on their website. I really like the solid brass version and have used it with success for several years now. As with my other slides, I’ve inserted some moleskin to tighten the fit around my little finger. I’ve used this slide on all my resonators, and my Collings electric guitar with nice effect and tonality. My only quibble is that on cold, low humidity winter days, the brass slide creates a static crackle when I play it on my National Reso-Lectric!

I was pretty enamored by my solid brass Tone Dome for a long time and used it at Open Mic Nights and during my lessons at the guitar shop. Sometimes during lessons, my teacher would demonstrate a point he was making about phrasing or slide technique on his own electric guitar and he would use a simple clear glass slide on his ring finger. His enviable tone always amazed me. The notes rang like a bell and sustained far longer than I was achieving with my resonator and brass slide combination. When I commented on his tone, he would strongly suggest I revisit using a glass slide. If it was good enough for Duane Allman, it should be good enough for me. My usual response was that I could never find a glass slide that would fit my little finger properly and then we’d drop the subject.

Then one day, scrolling through my Facebook feed, I noticed Blues/Americana aficionado and online teacher Tom Feldmann extolling the virtues of Diamond Bottleneck’s glass slides. Sometime thereafter I explored their website and discovered that a host of luminaries like Mike Dowling and Mark Knopfler also used Diamond Bottlenecks. Good enough for them… good enough for me, so I decided that I would purchase one! I then began a back and forth correspondence with head/lead consultant Ian McWee of Diamond Bottlenecks, which took place over several days. Ian was a combination of cordial, patient and very responsive.

If you peruse the Diamond Bottleneck’s website, you will see that they offer glass slides in a wide variety. From sawn of necks of actual former bottles, to hand blown soda ash or leaded crystal and more. Using old school, British, precision, hand skilled craftsmenship rooted in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Ian and his team manufacture their slides onsite in a small factory. Below you can see a brief video of Ian fashioning a glass slide.

I decided to order a slide from their Ultimate collection, which is comprised of leaded crystal. The lead crystal process produces a high density glass with unusual visual clarity. Theoretically, the higher density glass should enhance tone and and sonic sustain. Ian sent me images of the leaded crystal glass that he had in his inventory, which can affect what you can order at any given time. As I understand it, the slides are cut from long glass tubes and then finished to customer specification. In the end, I determined that ordering three slides would be the most economical route, since there would then be no shipping fee with an order that size. All three slides were to come in around 50 mm length, with inner diameters close to the size of my little finger. Two were open ended with copper and ruby red colors and wall thicknesses of 6 & 8mm, and the other was a double-walled affair with a dome. We thought this variety would allow me to find a slide “sweet-spot.”

It took a while for the package to arrive from the UK, mostly because the USPS quarantined the shipment in Chicago for over a week! I was told it was some kind of new safety protocol causing the delay. The slides were well packaged arriving in their own individual velveteen bags in pristine condition. Both my wife and I were delighted with how beautiful the glass was!

I post below a sound sampler of the three new glass slides from Diamond Bottlenecks and for reference, I’ve also included a sample of my National (Ben Powell) Solid Brass Tone Dome. You’ll note that I am playing a 2021 National Reso-phonic M1 Tricone. The tune is the first verse of Blind Willie McTell’s Wake Up Mama. The samples are ordered as follows:

Diamond Bottleneck Ultimate – 50mm (Plus) Double walled with dome; Dark Blue Colored
Diamond Bottleneck Ultimate – 50mm Open Ended 8mm thick Wall; Ruby Red Colored
Diamond Bottleneck Ultimate – 50mm Open Ended 6mm thick Wall; Copper Colored
National Reso-phonic/Ben Powell Solid Brass Tone Dome

Truth is I like all four of the slides sampled; however, I am really fascinated by the glass slide tones. Both my wife and I noticed right away the bell-like chimes and longer sustain of the new Diamond Bottlenecks. I think the most “present” tone comes from the large domed slide, which is not surprising as it is the most massive of the bunch, which is also a problem as the slide is really heavy and causes me some reluctance to play it. I did apply some moleskin to the interior of the glass dome so it stays well put on my finger… but it’s weight could be a deterrent to my using it very often!

I am very happy with both of the open-ended glass slides, though if pressed I would probably choose the thicker walled ruby red slide because its tone is just a bit thicker than the copper colored slide. Both open-ended slides are easily playable though they do not fit snugly to my little finger. As a result, I am concerned with dropping and breaking the slides, but am also reluctant to apply moleskin to the interior of these translucent slides adversely affecting their appearance… still weighing this decision as I write.

Thanks for tuning in… leave a comment if you wish…

Post Script:

I added a thin band of moleskin to the lower opening of the Ruby Red slide and it now locks onto my finger much more effectively. Hopefully this will minimize the potential for dropping off my finger! This small band of moleskin has not adversely affected the beauty of the slide, nor has it affected it’s lovely tone.

May 15, 2021October 1, 2023

The Refined Resonator: Reviewing National’s M1 Tricone

“The Mississippi Delta Was Shining Like a National Guitar” – Paul Simon, Graceland

Introduction and Background

When I first picked up a guitar, I wanted to be a flat-picking bluegrass player. Sometime thereafter, I concluded that I did not possess the speed or accuracy to play that style, and adopted fingerstyle guitar with Travis picking as my basic playing approach. It was the best decision I ever made regarding the instrument. When I took a quantum leap in focus and interest in guitar playing my pathway to achievement was to learn Acoustic Country Blues, which happens to be huge body of music with many different sub-styles to choose from. The structure of Country Blues was appealing to me because it speaks to my sensibilities as a musician, is distinctly American and it serves as the foundation for a large swath of the music I grew up with in the 1960’s and ’70s.

After one of my ongoing lessons at my local guitar shop some years back, I walked by a Fender resonator guitar hanging on the wall and it occurred to me that a resonator might broaden my Country Blues sound palette. I responded instantly to the distinct sound that a resonator cone makes when the guitar string is plucked and merrily played a couple of Mississippi John Hurt tunes that I’d been working on. The Fender string action was supple and easy to play, sounded good too, but it felt insubstantial in construction. I decided at that moment that I would pursue the acquisition of a resonator, but guitar snob that I am, I wanted to acquire a fine instrument. Of course, what’s “fine” is open to debate and a matter of taste, but with my limited knowledge at the time I referred to Paul Simon’s lyric from “Graceland” and decided to chase after a National guitar.

I found myself on Iowa’s legendary bluesman Catfish Keith’s website whilst doing research on resonators. At that moment, I was a bit overwhelmed by the numerous models and resonator types to select from. In correspondence, Catfish was kind enough to write me a brief dissertation about Nationals and recommended that I consider a single cone guitar for starters. In short, resonators are typically manufactured with a single large, spun aluminum cone, or three similar but smaller cones, referred to as tricones.

Catfish and Penny wintering in Mexico in happier times before the pandemic…

As a side-note, both Catfish and his wife Penny are incredibly gracious and generous people and I had the great, good fortune of taking a private lesson with him at his home in small town Iowa. He taught me the nuances of playing his arrangement of “Police and a Sergeant,” a variation of an old Robert Wilkins tune.

Catfish is a representative/distributor for National guitars and sells them new from his website. At that moment I was ready to take up Catfish’s advice by acquiring a single cone resonator, but I decided to go on the used market to save some money. I’ve written before about the savings that can be made by purchasing used guitars online from Reverb… there’s quite a drop in value when you drive a new guitar off the lot. I’ve subsequently revised my opinion on buying used versus new, as I’ve experienced set-up issues, cracked bodies, sketchy electronics and twisted necks when buying used. In fact, all 6 of my current and varying style guitars were purchased new, because I’ve traded off my pre-owned ones.

Nevertheless, my first National resonator, was a mint conditioned and bargain priced NRP B steel, single coned guitar. I was delighted when the NRP arrived but was astonished at how difficult it was to play, compared to the Fender resonator that I tested in my local guitar store. I subsequently realized that the action was set-up pretty high for slide playing, rather than finger picking, which was not clearly elaborated on the Reverb website. This high action play was initially viewed by myself as a disaster of biblical proportions, but then I decided to make lemonade from lemons and go down the bottle-neck slide rabbit hole and never looked back!

Metal resonators have their own distinct sound and vary somewhat depending upon the type of metal from which they are constructed. My NRP was steel so it had a bold and present sound. To my ear, you could even say it was a bit harsh sounding, which is actually appealing to a lot of blues players. Overtime, I wondered if a wood bodied resonator might be more appealing to my sensibilities and returned to the marketplace for a used wooden body resonator. I subsequently, through Reverb again, found a sweet deal on a wood bodied National Reso Rocket (WB model), which I subsequently equipped with a Hotplate electronic pick-up system so I could run it through an amp. When the WB arrived, I quickly discerned that the guitar was also set up with high action to facilitate slide playing. Even though I would have preferred to have had a resonator that I could easily fingerpick, I was loathe to have my local shop grind away at the nut or biscuit bridge to lower the play, so I resigned to playing slide on both resonators. You’d think by then that I would have learned not to buy resonators, used online…

At a workshop with Mike Dowling… I am holding my WB

I played my wooden body in Open D and the steel body in Open G for a couple of years or so, and then it occurred to me that I was not playing the steel body near as much as the WB, mostly because it was super heavy and I found it unappealing to my ears. It was time to put the steel NRP on the trading block, which I did and the complete story of my acquisition of a National Resolectric can be found here. In my review I don’t think that I mentioned that while testing out the Resolectric I was also interested in auditioning an M1 Tricone; however, the one that had been in the store had sold the day before my arrival. I had seen and heard an M1 Tricone when I attended a guitar workshop taught by Mike Dowling in Minnesota a couple of years earlier. I thought it was an interesting guitar and never forgot about it.

I played a lot of hours with the WB on my lap, but became increasingly frustrated that I could not play the guitar fingerstyle, which was always my original intent when I set out to own a resonator. At Mike Dowling’s suggestion, I investigated the use of the new National Revolution aluminum biscuit to adjust the WB’s play, which I installed but eventually removed. I wrote about that experience here and here. At some point thereafter, the notion of trading the WB for an M1 that would be initially set-up for fingerstyle arose from my subconscious. In fact, I asked Dave’s Guitarshop for a trade quote on the WB when I saw an M1 for sale at the store, I got a very nice trade deal, but the M1 sold before I could arrange an appointment to visit the store. The National M1’s don’t collect dust at Dave’s Guitars, but move very fast out the door. That was February 2021. My contact at the store told me that they had another one on order and that I should check the store’s website for its arrival, which I did almost everyday since February. I also kept the correspondence that documented the trade-in value of my WB.

I Purchase a National M1 Tricone

When I was considering the acquisition of an M1, I did my due diligence and researched the Youtube universe for reviews and tone examples. One of the best videos I found was a direct comparison between three of National’s wooden bodied resonators: The El Trovador, a deep bodied single cone guitar, an M1 Tricone, and finally a Resorocket WB, like I owned. This really excellent comparison was produced by Organic Sounds:

In the video, the El Travador is bold, rich sounding, loud and offers clean highs with great bottom end low frequency tonality, with the mid-range tones taking a back seat. It’s little wonder that recording artist Mike Dowling favors the El Trovador among all the wooden bodied Nationals. I like the El Trovador, but the deep body would be sure to cause me shoulder pain. On the other extreme is the Resorocket, which by comparison, sounds most metallic, more twangy and perhaps even a little pointed/shrill sounding. Furthermore, the Resorocket, which I am intimately familiar with, has some sort of frequently occurring overtone that sounds like a cat yowling. That overtone I do not like and experienced far too often when I played mine. Finally, the M1 sounds refined, sweet, balanced, very clean and musical, with individual notes clearly differentiating from each other. The tonality is also nice and even from high to low end frequencies with the mid ranges well represented.

It is not surprising that the John Dopyera, who created National Guitars with the introduction of tricone technology was reluctant to start producing less expensive, larger single cone variants at the urging of his partner George Beauchamp. He revered the “fine instrument” sound of the tricone. In fact, Dopyera quit National and founded Dobro with his brothers in part because of the tricone vs single cone controversy. Still today, the three smaller cones of the Tricone design are considered by many listeners to be more refined and balanced sounding and I tend to agree with that assessment. While the terms “refined and balanced” are positive sounding terms, the more forward, in your face, perhaps brash sound of the single coned resonators are favored by many, particularly blues musicians.

Here again we can see a different take on the M1 versus the El Trovador as played by Mike Dowling. Dowling has a long connection with National, and I believe he prevailed up them to reintroduce the El Trovador into their product line. Dowling is arguably one of the finest resonator players walking the earth:

By Dowling’s description, the El Trovador is “more pointed” and “dryer” sounding than the M1, while the tricone offers more complex coloration. The differences between the two instruments are a function of cone size, cone number and chamber size caused by the 4 versus 3 inch body width. As I watch Dowling’s body language and commentary closely, I think he prefers his beloved El Trovador, but I like the M1 and decided to chase one down if I could.

For me, the easiest place to acquire an M1 would be Dave’s Guitar shop in LaCrosse, WI. It’s 2.5 hours away from my home by car and they make trade-ins absolutely painless. The challenge is to move quickly when Dave’s gets an M1 in stock because they move out very rapidly. So, for four months, I would routinely check Dave’s website for M1 availability.

Then, Friday night a couple of weeks ago as my wife was calling me for dinner, I did a quick check at Dave’s, which I had not done for a day or so and, low and behold, they had a new delivery of an M1 showing on their website. Knowing the M1’s don’t last long, I grabbed it and paid for it immediately and planned to head over to LaCrosse the next Saturday morning! I invited my wife to come along and we made a fun day of it. It was a beautiful day for a drive and we stopped in the nice Iowa town of Decorah to eat lunch at a bagel bakery, whose owner we knew.

After lunch we headed over to Dave’s in LaCrosse. During these late pandemic days you still need to visit by appointment. I called early that Saturday morning and Dave himself answered and set things up for our visit.

When we arrived, Annette and I were ushered in. I dropped off my Reso-Rocket WB and it was accepted with no fuss whatsoever. Before I could say Jumpin’ Jack Flash they had a new price tag on the WB and by Monday it was advertised online. I think it sold by Wednesday. Wooden bodied Nationals move quickly and that’s why I was given an excellent trade-in value and they subtracted it from the online price that I paid out the night before. No muss, no fuss and that’s why in my experience Dave’s is one of the smoothest operations in the U.S.

Me and my new M1 getting acquainted at Dave’s

The new M1 was sitting by the front desk waiting for me. I popped open the case, pulled it out and looked it over. It was a stunning piece of industrial artwork. As a new guitar should be, it was immaculate. One of the standout features of the M1 is the lack of the silver/chrome hubcap like cover over the resonator cones. Instead there is a metal cover that is painted the color of the mahogany wood that comprises the body. It is a unique appearing resonator unlike any other in the National product line.

I sauntered over to a quiet corner of the store to try the M1 out. I wanted to make sure there were no problems before I walked out of the store. I threw my iPad, which contains my tune charts on an amp, grabbed a stool and tried to play, but the guitar was woefully out of tune because the new factory strings on it had never been stretched, so it took me a few minutes to get the tuning stabilized. I played through a few charts in standard tuning with fingerstyle technique (I never use a plectrum ever) and realized quickly that the set-up was to factory specs, meaning that both slide and fingerstyle play were easily and effectively possible! One of the store techs who visited me to discuss installation of a pickup confirmed my conclusion about the guitar’s set-up.

I stretched the strings again and then re-tuned the guitar to Open D and pulled out my National solid brass Tonedome slide and played a couple of bottleneck tunes too. There was a young fellow wailing away across the store on a Stratocaster which made listening to the M1 a bit challenging; however, sometimes good enough is good enough and I concluded the axe was definitely a keeper.

Me in front of Dave’s Guitars iconic street signage

Annette and I concluded our visit by visiting Dave’s famous and extensive vintage guitar collection where I was delighted to identify Leo Fender’s first electric guitar model, the Broadcaster, a truly historic instrument. Next to it was a “Nocaster” and finally the first Telecaster, which was the Broadcaster renamed because of a trade name dispute with the Gretsch Company.

On the way out, we stopped so Annette could photograph me in front of Dave’s Guitars iconic street sign. As you can see I posed with my new axe. Afterwards, I stowed the guitar in the rear of my hatchback and headed home across the Mississippi River back to Iowa. A good day indeed was had by all…

I Review My New National M1 Tricone Guitar

To the right you can see the National Reso-Phonic M1 that I purchased from Dave’s Guitars and brought home to Iowa. It’s a slot-headed, 12 Fret, bound mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, layered mahogany body, tricone resonator, with grained ivoroid binding. The appearance is unique as compared to other National Reso-Phonic guitars in that it is wooden constructed, but most conspicuously lacks the “hub cap” type cover that is typical with single cone resonators. The fact that the metallic tricone cover is the same color as the body gives the belly of the guitar a more uniform appearance. The design of the sound porous screens that protect the resonator cones, combined with the slanted grid openings in the upper bout of the sound board give the guitar a distinct art deco sensibility. It is a stunningly singular appearing acoustic guitar.

Let’s consider the M1 from the top at the headstock and follow the string line down to the tail piece. Again, you’ll note that the guitar is equipped with a traditional appearing slotted headstock. Unlike the Reso Rocket WB that I traded for the M1, the headstock does not have a pearloid veneer, but is instead stained wood embellished with a traditional product logo decal. This is similar to the Martin guitar approach where for many of their beloved models they stick a decal on the headstock. For the cost of this M1, an inlaid logo would have been a nice and expected adornment. On the other hand, I like the overall look of the guitar, so I’ll stop complaining.

The tuning machines, with exposed gear works, are clustered in groups of three and equipped with attractive ivoroid knobs. All tuner actions are smooth and precise, unlike my old Reso Rocket which had a very stiff and difficult to use D-string (standard tuning) tuner. Finally, you’ll note that the outer strings on the fretboard (E & e) are strung into their respective tuners from the outside to the inside of the headstock, while the remaining strings (A, D, G & B) go from the inside to the outside. This stringing technique which can elude guitar store guys, prevents the outer strings from chafing the headstock wood. Finally, the strings enter the fretboard by passing over a bone nut.

To the right you can see the M1’s fretboard, an ebony strip of wood bound to the mahogany neck. The ebony is black with blond striations, which is the sustainable fashion begun by Bob Taylor several years ago when he bucked tradition and refused to toss aside ebony wood that was not perfectly black. I like the blond hints on today’s ebony fretboards. The comfortably wide neck is bound with grained ivoroid. Finally, the guitar was strung with John Pearse 13’s spec’d for resonator guitars.

The neck attaches to the guitar at the 12th fret. This particular model has no cutaway, which is one of the features I miss when comparing the M1 to the Reso Rocket WB. When playing bottleneck it’s nice not to have to be crowded by the body at the 12th and 13th frets.

To the left you can see the M1’s upper bout, with its rounded shoulders, the art deco sound port grills, and the inlaid Mother of Pearl dots that adorn the fretboard. The soundboard, like the guitar’s sides and back are manufactured from layered mahogany. There are some very rare exceptions when National makes a guitar body from solid wood, with the preponderance being layered. The layered body and its shape serve the role of imparting a woody tonality that colors the sound produced primarily by the three small resonator cones.

The top’s mahogany veneer does a great job of revealing the wood’s grain and reflecting the rich reddish brown stain that gives the wooden Nationals their distinctive appearance.

The M1’s lower bout is where the rubber meets the road. You can see on the right where the triangular-shaped metallic cover sits above the three resonator cones. The metallic cover is cut with art deco shaped openings that allow the resonator tones to escape. A silvered metallic grill protects the cones.

The guitar strings each rest in a groove cut into a wooden saddle that is glued to an aluminum t-shaped bridge, the ends of which each contact a resonator cone. The t-bridge transmits the vibration of the strings to the cones. The metallic cover has a raised t-shaped shield to protect the saddle and bridge. The strings then exit the saddle/bridge area and are bound down to a standard National tailpiece which is held in place by a combo screw/strap button located in the bottom of the guitar.

Examining the t-bridge indicates that the heavier strings are biased towards two of the cones, whereas the lighter strings are handled primarily by one cone, although all the strings in some way affect all three cones. This relationship of string locations, t-bridge and distribution of vibration to the resonator cones is what gives the M1 its balanced and sweet tonality.

Above left you can see the neck join to the body. The neck is held in place by a “stick” that runs the length of the body’s interior. As with most modern, premium guitars the neck is equipped with a truss rod to adjust play variations that might result as response to humidity in the ambient environment. Also visible are the grained ivoroid bindings on the body. The M1 is a neat, precision constructed, manufactured product that benefits from competent highly trained builders along with the use of numerical, computer controlled machine tools.

You will note the absence of a guitar strap button at the base of the neck. I intend to have one placed by my local guitar shop; however, I plan to order a Waverly white ivoroid button and felt washer from Stewmac, because my guitar shop offers only prosaic silver and/or black metal buttons, or high end Schaller strap lock buttons, which I don’t want to use with this guitar.

Also, above right you can see a shot of the M1’s back. The stained veneer of the layered wood back shows off the beautiful straight grain of the mahogany from which it is constructed.

Finally, as with all premium guitars, the instrument is supplied with a custom-made hardshell case. The guitar fits in snuggly and the outer side of the upper lid has the National logo embroidered into it, which is quite stunning. A word of caution about the logo though… it is easy to muss up if it comes into frictional contact with another object like an adjacent guitar case while traveling in the back area of a car.

To close out this review, I am sharing some sound bite examples of the M1. These were recorded with amplification through a Fishman Loudbox Artist with a Shure SM-58 mic. The actual recording was done with an iPhone 11 equipped with a Shure MV-88 and processed through Apple iMovie.

I would prefer to have a pickup on the guitar but that’s been more challenging than I anticipated. The go-to pickup on resonators, in my judgement, is made by Highlander. I had one put into my steel NRP and it worked well, though you had to haul around a battery powered preamp. Sadly, it appears that Highlander is no longer in business. Further, I was not sure I wanted a guitar tech drilling holes in the M1. Now it seems that the go-to pickup are those made by Jason Krivo Flores out in Portland, OR… I have one on order. The tone samples online sound great; however, the pickup is a bit idiosyncratic in that it attaches to the guitar with blue tack. I will probably write a blog entry about the Krivo after I’ve worked with it for a while.

Anyway… below are two bottleneck tunes recorded in Open D followed by a fingerstyle piece in standard tuning…

In conclusion, I feel fortunate to own a National M1 Tricone. The wait time on a new M1 is currently 6 to 8 months and I’m not getting any younger. The instrument itself is a beautiful example of industrial art and with its balanced tonality plays well, as currently set up in either bottleneck or fingerstyle mode. Highly recommended.

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Introduction and Background

I Purchase a National M1 Tricone

I Review My New National M1 Tricone Guitar

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Introduction and Background

I Purchase a National M1 Tricone

I Review My New National M1 Tricone Guitar

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