Tad Brown Acoustic Archtop Guitars for the Santa Barbara show SBAIC

[Tad Brown]

I started out making guitars in 1996, and spent 10 years working in the back of guitar repair shops doing set-ups and fret work, which gave me a great appreciation for fine details.

These days I'm focused on building acoustic archtop guitars from my studio workshop.

Here are some of the guitars I'll be bringing to the Santa Barbara Guitar Festival.

This one features European maple and spruce, Gabon ebony, a one piece Brazilian rosewood bridge, maple bindings,
red maple neck, evo gold frets, Waverly tuners, Armstrong floating PAF,
sunburst nitro lacquer finish, 17" body, 3" sides, 25.4" scale, 1 23/32" nut, 4lbs 11oz.

Sunburst-




Honey Blonde-

European maple back and sides, old growth Adirondack spruce top, Gabon ebony (or gaboon if you like), one piece Brazilian rosewood bridge,
maple bindings, signature f-holes, red maple neck, Evo gold frets, Waverly tuners, Kent Armstrong PAF, Honey blonde nitrocellulose lacquer, 17" body, 3" sides, 25.4" scale, 1 11/16" nut, 4lbs 11oz.




Both are specifically carved to be very light and responsive, under 5 lbs, no metal wheels or oversize parts.

Looking forward to the show, and talking to you guys. Stop by and say hello if you're going to be in the area.

I'll follow up with more photos and am happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for looking,

Tad

[Diamondave]

Stunning...!

[tadol]

I'll definitely check those out - wow!

But wouldn't they be better called Tad Guitars? ;-)

[nacluth]

I got to meet Tad at the recent GAL convention in Tacoma. His guitars were even better in person than in these great photographs. Good luck at the show!

[Tad Brown]

Thanks Dave, thanks Tadol, sometimes I've put Tad on the headstock.

Thanks Ryan, I enjoyed chatting with you at the GAL convention too. Your guitars are inspiring. See you in Santa Barbara.

[Tad Brown]

A few more photos from past and present builds.

Joining the maple backs with heavy duty pipe clamps.



Peeling off bindings from the sides. Bandsaw, to jointer, to bandsaw, to jointer...



Thicknessing the sides



The good old Fox side bender. This thing originally ran on 150 watt lightbulbs before the heating blanket came out.



Body form



Gluing the end blocks



Gluing the kerfing



Carving the back with a Lancelot chainsaw cutter head. Trick I learned from Tom Ribbeke. Thanks Tom. Be sure to wear kevlar gloves and full face shield. Makes a huge mess, but only takes about 30 mins per side to rough carve 1 1/2" thick plates.



Smoothing out the shape with a heavy duty random orbital sander. I sometimes use a holey galahad too.



Traditional D'Angelico plane, scraper, and homemade thickness calipers for the fine graduations.



Mounted a recessed ceiling light on my workbench. Very useful as a visual reference while scraping down to final thickness, being able to see the thick areas, and avoiding thin spots.

I like the back to be very lightweight, like a flat-top acoustic guitar back, but even lighter, because the strength of the arch requires no bracing.



Gluing the back and sides after truing up with the sanding disk board.



more to follow as things progress...

[Tad Brown]

Listening session with Mark Hanson at the Guild of American Luthier's Convention.

[J.R. Rogers]

Beautiful guitars, Tad. Welcome to the forum. Great clip of Mark Hanson playing the sunburst one.

JR

[Tad Brown]

Thanks JR, I appreciate that.

I remember chatting with you at last year's sbaic. Hopefully see you there again this year too.

[Tad Brown]

These two guitars will be at the show as well

[JDatlen]

Very cool Tad, love that blue! Look forward to meeting you in Santa Barbara.

[Tad Brown]

Thanks JDatlen, it is an honor to be among so many world class builders. See you in Santa Barbara!

[BKENNA]

Welcome Tad,

Wow! Talk about a slice of nice. Everyone of those guitars looks primo.

Best wishes on the future, you seem to be a top-notch builder, great.

Brian

[Tad Brown]

Thanks Brian, I really appreciate that.

[Tad Brown]

Video from the 2016 SBAIC, Sean McGowan playing the 20th Anniversary sunburst guitar.

https://brown.guitars/wp-content/upl...n-McGowan2.mp4