The next guitar-- second one completed for the show-- is an EPC-F Performance Florentine, my biggest guitar. I've been wanting to build this guitar for a long time. Not only does it have a T-14 top; it's also braced with Tunnel 14 redwood, both the top and the back.The sound box is phenomenally responsive when you tap on it. Probably the biggest, roundest, most focused box I've made yet.
Joel Teel is also bracing some of his guitars with T-14, and in
his thread a few people who replied were curious about that non-traditional choice of bracewood. But given that we cut our brace blanks from split billets, and it is
very old, and
very stiff, and it
rings like a bell, I think it's a no-brainer to use it. It has the best properties you could ever want in primo bracewood, imo. It'll be the secret sauce in my guitars- and Joel's too. I'm really looking forward to hearing what the two Adirondack-topped guitars I'll be bringing will sound like with T-14 braces. I'm thinking it will bring some of that redwood mystery and intrigue to the sparkly and punchy Adirondack. I guess we'll see at the show!
Here are some photos of the Performance guitar, again, before the lacquer work was done. It looks even more vivid now than in these photos, with the finish on. You'll have to wait a little while for those pics. I'll be bringing this one down the home stretch later this month...
This Performance guitar is bound with Ebony, and purfled with high-flame Maple which doesn't pop much in these pics, but it sparkles under finish. The purflings throughout are bordered with blue and black veneer lines. The fingerboard and bridge, plus the arm and rib bevels, are also Ebony. The front headstock is Ebony with some Ziricote and blue purfling lines thrown in; and some Turquoise and Azurite stone dots in copper rings- one of the style points I tend to use a lot. The back strip and end graft are spalted Maple, which also shows up in the Element-style rosette. Hybrid-style arm and rib bevels, and dual side sound ports, are included too. The scale length is 25.5"; Nut width will be 1 13/16", and the string spread will be 2 1/4". I can't wait to hear this beast.
Here's an interesting thing about the asymmetric headstock on this guitar: The scale length of the guitar is 25.5, which is a great all-purpose scale length, as it accommodates both standard tuning and drop-tunings. By stretching the bass side of the headstock a little longer than than the treble side, that actually lengthens the strings from tuner posts to bridge pins by about a half inch. That will increase the string tension on those strings to be closer to what you'd have with a 26" scale length. Because the string tension isn't controlled by the nut and the saddle;
it's an effect of the full length of the strings from the tuner posts to the bridge pins.
Why is that important? Well, you have a 25.5" scale guitar that has the same tension at any given pitch on the bottom three strings as a 26" scale guitar. So if you like to tune down to C, as I do, you have enough string tension to do that, with plain ole light gauge strings! Not to mention, the frets are not so far apart as with a longer scale, so the guitar is easier to play. How cool is that!