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Concert Model - New!!
I have had the pleasure to meet Canadian luthiers Linda Manzer and Grit Laskin during recent visits to the UK and experiencing their work has inspired me to bring out a new model; influenced not by their particular building techniques but more by the sound of their guitars. Both makers worked with Jean L'Arrivee early in their careers and use a similar sound-board strutting style to his trademark symmetrical layout and achieve a sound that possesses a certain clarity and purity that is very distinctive. My guitars are known for their colourful, harmonically rich, 'textured' tone but with my new 'Concert' model I am going to deliberately move towards a clearer, cleaner tone but using my own strutting ideas and keeping a good dose of Benjamin colour in there!
On this page I will gradually reveal the progress of the first 'Concert' model Benjamin, from conception to realization over the next year.
Hope you enjoy the journey!
June 2015 - after much sketching and measuring I make a cardboard 1/2 template so I can draw out the first plans to check the look and possible internal layouts - final strutting layout will not be quite what is shown here but I will probably use this concept which is a form of lattice-work but without any joints other than the usual main X-brace - I have just built a Baritone with this idea so I'll wait to see how that turns out - the idea is that criss-cross lattice-work can be very 'efficient' (strong for its weight) but having lots of joints can make the top very stiff and locked unless you use a very thin plate which doesn't appeal to me so this is more of a standard layout with smaller sub-struts to bridge the gaps allowing a taunt, efficient sound-board which doesn't sound too 'pinched'. The arm rest feature you can see drawn is my new 'Radius' which is a subtle rounded corner that has far less impact on the guitar structure than most arm 'bevels' and works extremely well combined with a Manzer 'Wedge' body - pictures of the first Benjamin 'Radius' up soon!
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