The cedar guitar I've been working on for some time now is finally complete. Actually it was finished a few weeks ago now, but I've only just got round to taking some photos of it. I took it to exhibit at the Big Guitar Weekend in Glasgow, and received some good responses (even from committed spruce players!) Highlight of the weekend for me was a joint concert by Pavel Steidl and Ian Watt, two players well worth checking out if you don't already know of them.

I'm very pleased with the guitar, and I do find it easier for me as a player to get a really nice warm rich tone from the guitar. I would have to say that overall I still prefer spruce, but this certainly works well for some types of music. I probably wouldn't choose it for Bach, but it's great for Villa-Lobos!

Cedar Top Guitar

Apart from the cedar top, the construction of ths guitar is exactly the same as my standard spruce "Hauser" model. I should say that although I still refer to this as my "Hauser" model, my standard guitars have moved on quite a bit since I first started building Hauser based guitars. Rather than seven fan struts and a bridge plate, I'm now using five fan struts, and two transverse struts that run under the fans, one either side of the bridge. I've also recently changed the plantilla (outline shape) of the guitar, so that it is now a bit less "square" at the shoulders and the base of the guitar. The new shape is closer to that used by Santos Hernandez, which has a slightly "curvier" look. They are very close in overall dimensions, so there is little effect (if any) on the tone - I just prefer the look.

I think the transverse braces are probably the key to getting the cedar top to work well. It is a similar approach to that taken by the French maker Daniel Friederich, whose cedar guitars also have a significant amount of transverse bracing. This picture shows the bracing of this cedar guitar.

Cedar guitar strutting with transverse braces

For this guitar I've gone for a traditional herringbone rosette. I don't do as many of these as I used to, most customers now seem to prefer my burr wood rosette which has become a kind of signature rosette for my guitars. I did think the traditional rosette would work well with the darker coloured cedar though, and I'm very pleased with the look.

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Herringbone Rosette

Photography by James Lister