Hatcher's Studio 2022

[Mark Hatcher]

In my Green Mountain series of guitar offerings I've already introduced my new Dryad dreadnought model I am currently working on. I also am now offering a 14 fret 000 model based off of the Penelope 12 fret profile. I have been making guitars with this profile for over 18 years and it has often served as the test bed for new ideas such as the elevated fretboard and my nylon crossover.
Those changes are easy to see. Not so visually obvious have been the myriad of bracing styles and patterns that have evolved over the years.
As much as I enjoy working the visual presentation of my guitars the real work has always been refining the response and tone of my instruments.

The model will still include the elevated fretboard standard along with the current standard offerings for the Green Mountains Series such as the Visesnut flight case, Scheller standard tuners and all titanium 2 way truss rod.

Here is a drawing of my first spec build:



Although the profile is the same as the 12 fret the bracing is changed and you may notice the sound hole location has consequently moved up. You can see there is a beveled cutaway, an arm bevel and a finger rest. I say finger rest because it will float above the sound board. The elevated fretboard allows me to do that.

It's obviously going to be a comfortable guitar being a 000 and with all of those bevels but this setup eliminates the need for the player to ever touch the soundboard.
If the player's arm isn't on the soundboard it won't be muted
If the player's fingers aren't anchored to the top it isn't muted
When the player stretches for those high frets between the elevated fretboard and the beveled cutaway there isn't any reason to touch the soundboard.

So what do you do when you have a soundboard that won't be touched!

Well, you get your absolutely most responsive Western Cedar tonewood and you French polish it to make a fingerstyle monster!

m

[Lonzo]

That looks very fine Mark and raises curiosity as to how the ‚finger rest‘ will be attached solidly to float.. very interesting!
Looking forward to joining the ride here !

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Lonzo

That looks very fine Mark and raises curiosity as to how the ‚finger rest‘ will be attached solidly to float.. very interesting!
Looking forward to joining the ride here !

Thanks Lonzo, the finger rest will mainly attach at the support for the fretboard. There will be lighter touch supports under the rest at nodes on the top.

Here are the current candidates I have put aside for building the guitar:



You can see I have picked the western Red Cedar top and a wonderful tonal compliment to the cedar is Walnut. In this case Claro with some nice color and figure.



The trim and fretboard will be Snakewood:



I'm planning on doing the scratch plate (finger rest) with Snakewood.

I love how green Turquoise goes with the woods I've have here so I have this chunk to work from TBD where:



m

[CarolD]

I've said it before, but I just have to say it again... your eye for integration of colors/patterns/shapes is just phenomenal! And I absolutely love the stone accents. I only wish I had started learning guitar so much earlier so my playing would justify owning one of your creations. Thank you for sharing the photos. Your posts are my favorite of any on AGF!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by CarolD

I've said it before, but I just have to say it again... your eye for integration of colors/patterns/shapes is just phenomenal! And I absolutely love the stone accents. I only wish I had started learning guitar so much earlier so my playing would justify owning one of your creations. Thank you for sharing the photos. Your posts are my favorite of any on AGF!

Thank you very much!

Mark

[Pcg55]

Hi Mark,
This is more than intriguing-wish I had seen it in person with you as I am not great at visualizing. I have to say with my Hatcher guitar and maybe it’s my old ears that I am stunned when I intentionally try to mute my cedar top and it still sings. This elevation idea must take that to a whole new level and probably up to the sky and beyond! Paul

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Pcg55

Hi Mark,
This is more than intriguing-wish I had seen it in person with you as I am not great at visualizing. I have to say with my Hatcher guitar and maybe it’s my old ears that I am stunned when I intentionally try to mute my cedar top and it still sings. This elevation idea must take that to a whole new level and probably up to the sky and beyond! Paul

Thanks for commenting Paul. The guitar you have has a very responsive cedar top. In fact it is a sister set to the cedar top I picked for this guitar. I have been doing the elevated fretboards for my 000 Penelope model for about six years now. I found with this particular model it really adds to the playing comfort so I made it a standard feature.

Here is a picture of the last one I did. In this case it is a nylon cross-over which is one of the options with the model:



You can see I have room to mount the scratch plate there similar to how an arch top might be set up. This picture is of a 12 fret guitar. With this being a 14 fret guitar the sound hole is set higher so the fretboard extension is shorter making the mounting point a bit higher yet.

m

[Mark Hatcher]

Those who have been following me the last couple years know that I have been transitioning away from power tools. The driving force behind this is the many quality improvements to be found over power tools when properly using well tuned decent hand tools.


One type of tool that has quickly risen in prominence is the hand plane. The quality improves in a number of ways: One, glue sticks better to a planned surface. Two, the grain and chatoyance of a planned surface is brighter, shinier, and more sharply defined. Three, the plane brings me closer to my work. I can feel the soft or hard spots and the pull of the grain. In short, I can read the wood better and make more informed decisions.

Wherever practicable I now plane every wood surface that will be finished or glued. I have a variety of planes which excel in different applications. Yesterday, I noticed I have one little plane that has easily found a home. This is a small thickness planer. It has adjustable sides so I can set the thickness of long thin pieces like wood binding and side braces:





It works a charm! I've taken to calling this tool The Little Plane That Could.

[Mark Hatcher]

The first gloss coat is on this Piña 0 model. It is Western Red Cedar on curly torrefied Hard Maple and it is trimmed in African Blackwood, Bocote and Green Turquoise:





It will be ready to start setting up in a couple weeks.

m

[canuck7]

I wondered when that little guy would surface!!

[TomB'sox]

Looks great, sure were a lot of AGF guitars in line at Tony's lately.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by canuck7

I wondered when that little guy would surface!!

It takes a while. Most of the time is spent filling and sealing which is now done. This is the first gloss coat.

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Looks great, sure were a lot of AGF guitars in line at Tony's lately.

There is always a lot of AGF guitars at Tony's. He's a busy guy!

m

[Guitars44me]

Mark, I am very taken with your use of these fine hand tools. And your Explanation of why makes perfect sense to me…

Beautiful instruments as always

Paul

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Mark, I am very taken with your use of these fine hand tools. And your Explanation of why makes perfect sense to me…

Beautiful instruments as always

Paul

Thanks Paul. I am enjoying my adventures in quality hand tools. There have been many unanticipated benefits confirming I have chosen the right path!


On another note, I recently posted about a a Lutz soundboard I've recently acquired. I was excited not only to have a great example of a new species (to me) but also because it is part White Spruce. White Spruce grows in abundance here in the Green Mountains and I am eager to hear what they have to say.

Here is a White Spruce right outside my studio door:



So as luck would have it a very old White Spruce set just became available which I was quick to snatch up:



It is like what I've heard about White Spruce soundboards in that it is a lot like Englemann. I have only one set so I certainly haven't reached a statistically significant quantity to comment on White Spruce in general but this one soundboard is closer in density to average Western Red Cedar than Sitka. It has more cross grained stiffness (read clearer midrange) than a comparable Sitka set. Long grain stiffness is what I'd expect from a Sitka set at the same density.

In short, it rings great and won't take a lot of work to get a balanced response.

[j. Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Thanks dcn. I'll be using more turquoise on future builds. The colors and textures are wonderful and there is already a tradition of turquoise on guitars.

I just ordered a larger 5"x2" piece which I will try my hand at cutting slabs with:



m

Mark how do you plan to cut a slab out of this piece of turquoise?