Maybe the perfect commission ~ two similar guitars, and the wood doesn’t even get you dirty.

The discussions for this took a long time, the customer knew he wanted a matched pair of guitars, but in some ways it doubled the decisions. Choosing the wood was fairly quick, but I had to find two matching sets, both with three piece backs. Once again, my habit of buying a whole section of wood rather than individual sets paid dividends, as I found two small individual pieces and two small pairs for the backs without splitting up other sets. Quilted Maple is a joy ~ the cut is “slab” rather than quarter to get that figure, but it does bend like a dream, and the first coat of lacquer brings out those glorious swoops and drifts in the grain like suddenly turning on a light.

To get a little contrast and interest between the two, the 6 string is a long string length, and the 12 string is a shortscale and a 12 fret neck, so the two guitars are close to the same length ~ magic!! The customer was keen on Purpleheart for the bindings, and I also used that for the neck laminations and head veneer ~ although the head veneer is obviously a different log! The centre neck lamination is Ash, always a good bet where the tension of 12 strings are involved, and a nice intermediate colour for the Maple and Purpleheart on either side.

The white woods do need to be framed with something darker, or they look far too bland, the fine black lines inside the colour of the bindings just emphasise the best of each timber. The fingerboards are Ebony, with engraved plaques at the 12th fret and double overlapping pearl squares elsewhere. Not as easy as it might look, but simple and effective