Any Small/Medium Manufacturers Follow Trevor Gore's Approaches?

[pcutt]

I checked out Trevor Gore's website and he seems to be a very fact-based luthier, applying engineering principles to building high end guitars. From my brief internet searches his guitars are very well regarded by players and luthiers alike. In fact, he wrote several books, one on design and the other on building, and encourages others to use his principles.

While I'm very interested in a guitar made using his principles, but don't have the budget for a high-dollar boutique one, I wonder about a middle ground. Are there any small- or medium-sized manufacturers who build per his principles? I imagine this approach would enable reduced cost while still providing very good (but not optimal) sounding and playing guitars.

If so, I'd be interested in finding one of their used guitars that's in the $1000 to $2000 range.

Any ideas?

[KevinH]

The only “smallish” manufacturer (I’m excluding the likes of Bourgeois, Collings, SCGC, etc) that I know of that does more than machine to a specific dimension is Breedlove. On their Made In Bend models they manually tune the main resonances of the top and back to within a few semitones each other. This allows the back to be active and color the tone without sucking too much energy from the top. I don’t know if that idea originated from Gore’s work or is based on historical practice. But it does have a physics-based foundation. New Made In Bend models are outside the price range you quoted. But you should be able to find used ones that fit.

I don’t know, maybe Larrivee does something out of the box as well?

[BlueBowman]

Yeah, Breedlove was the one I was gonna mention in a factory setting (more importantly, close to the OP's price range). But they're the only ones I know of in this setting who tunes the top and back resonances.

For a very small builder, look up Portland guitars. I saw one online a few years ago that incorporated some of Trevor's designs (falcate bracing, compensated nut, etc.). Not sure of the price range though.

Check out the New Zealand Luthier's forum. There are many amateur builders as well as more experienced ones who build right out of The Book. I bet they could point you in a promising direction.