Official Luthiers Forum!

I finally got these photos back from the photographer. I'm not 100% happy with the way these came out - first time working with this photographer. I'm going to try someone different for the next photo shoot. (A couple of these were taken at Newport.) Nevertheless, these should give you a pretty good idea of what this guitar looks like. This is the one that Paul Asbell is playing in the YouTube video from Newport that I posted.

This is my Headwaters model (I don't like that word, "model", but I can't think of anything better). 14" lower bout.

It's always hard to describe sound in words. I have this guitar listed on Mark Blanchard's GuitarMaker Direct web site - http://www.guitarmakerdirect.com/acoustic.php - and this is how I described it there: "The unique Headwaters shape puts the bridge at the widest part of the body, resulting in a surprisingly big sound for a small guitar. Its voice is lively and powerful: great projection, a tone that is both warm and clear, meaty trebles, and a very wide dynamic range. The elevated fretboard and 15th fret neck join provide exceptional upper fret access. An extremely versatile guitar."

I already posted this with the video, but here's a quote from Paul Asbell about this guitar:
“When I first play an unfamiliar guitar, I’m fishing for what it wants to do. With this guitar, it’s easy to find a lot of things it does well – it’s very versatile. I can play jazz, blues, a variety of fingerstyle material, with or without picks… it all sounds good. There’s also something in the trebles that reminds me of a good archtop guitar – a fat, meaty tone that you don’t get from a lot of flattop guitars. Plus, I can play it hard with no sense of running out of headroom. It’s great to be able to use such a wide dynamic range, and Todd’s guitars thrive on being pushed.”

Kinloch Nelson:
“Nice! Lively sound. Great sustain. Good for playing with a light touch. Well balanced.”

Anyway, if you have any questions or comments, fire away! Thanks for looking!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

A few more:

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Absolutely stunning Todd!
I particularly love the detail on the heel of the neck.
How did you did you go about that?

Congrats on another beauty.

_Mike

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_Mike Tracz
MCT Guitars
https://www.instagram.com/mustcreatethings/
https://www.youtube.com/mustcreatethings

Wow. Breathtaking, Todd.

Beautiful, Todd! That top is something else!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Beautiful!!!

May I ask about the relation between the neck and top? Angle and height, etc?

That is a stunner. I love the bearclaw, too. And the overall body shape is wonderful. It looks like a big guitar in the pics.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Todd, quite handsome my friend. Great aesthetic choices.
Looks Klein-esque. Was he some inspiration on this model?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Todd, there is nothing, really, that isn't quite stunning about this guitar!

Wow!

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

That. Is. Gorgeous! Wow!!!

Drop dead gorgeous, Todd! Would love to see that one in person!

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Absolutely BEEEUUUTEEEFULLLL !
As are all the instruments I've seen of yours.

Great work my friend!

Mike

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Mike Collins

Thank you, everybody. Much, much appreciated.

Mike, the heel has an ebony core - or you could think of it as a center laminate - with walnut flanks. The ebony goes all the way up to the underside of the FB, and all the way through the heel forward and back - i.e. when you take the neck off, you can see the ebony on the joint side of the heel also (it's a butt joint - no tenon). Make sense? The ebony grain runs vertically up and down the heel. It is there to stiffen the heel. There's also CF in there that you can't see. The elevated/floating FB presents some challenges, one of them being that the heel wants to flex under string tension. This is one solution to that. I'm still working on other solutions. This works, and I'm happy with how it looks, but it is complicated and time consuming to construct, and I'd like to find a simpler solution. Thanks to Kent Chasson and others for input and inspiration in this process.

Edward, I think the best way to describe the neck-body geometry is to simply think of the back as being (roughly) parallel to the strings, while the top tapers downward from butt to neck joint. This is opposite of a conventional guitar, where the top is roughly parallel to the strings and the back tapers upward from butt to neck joint. Making it work out is just a matter of drawing it all out in full scale drawings and then building what I drew. The heel angle is 90 degrees - nice and simple. It is then fine-tuned, of course, in the final fitting of the neck, just like with any neck joint.

I'm moving toward an adjustable neck joint, but one of the beauties of this construction is that nothing is glued and the FB extension is entirely independent of the soundboard, so a neck reset is a piece of cake. As a matter of fact, I'm just about to reset the neck on this guitar a bit, because the settling in period has resulted in the action being a little higher than I'd like. A little bit of time flossing with sandpaper is all it will take to dial it in perfect again - better than messing with the saddle height, which is right where I want it.

The truss rod is accessed at the soundhole end, but *above* the soundboard. The amount the FB is elevated off the top was determined by how much clearance I needed to get at the truss rod. It works out to be a nice amount of elevation for playing, and gives a fairly pronounced, but not extreme, "negative" neck angle for what that does for the sound. Exactly what effect a somewhat higher or lower elevation (i.e. a more or less negative neck angle) would have on the sound I really couldn't tell you.

Steve, Steve Klein's work has always been an inspiration to me, but I wouldn't say his influence was "direct" in my development of this model. In fact, I first drew this shape about 11 years ago, when my first guitar was only halfway built and I was dreaming up all kinds of crazy guitar design ideas, and that was before Steve Klein was really on my radar (though I can't say for sure that I'd never seen a photo of one of his guitars). He is one of a dozen or so guitar designer/builders whose influence (I'm talking primarily about aesthetics here more than mechanics) is significantly woven into what I come up with.

Any other questions or comments, fire away. Thanks again!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Nice and original work Todd, it comes together flawlessly!

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Very nice, Todd! It's a very well thought out, coherent design, and the execution is top notch. What's not to like?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thank you, Laurent and Arnt. Very much appreciated.

Laurent, your input on neck joint design has been very valuable to me. I hope you don't mind if I pick your brain just a bit more as I work out some of the details of an adjustable neck design that I intend to use on two guitars that are presently on the drawing board.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd; I wonder if you could indulge us & add one more pic... A closeup shot of the side of the fingerboard extension is what I have in mind.
BTW... Love your bridge design too!

That is simply stunning work, Todd and truly inspirational. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

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George :-)

Thank you, Daniel and George!

Daniel, the only photo I have on hand like that was taken before the guitar was sent to Joe White for finish (I should have mentioned earlier that Joe White did the finish on this guitar). It may not be exactly what you had in mind, but I hope it's good enough.

While I'm at it, I'll post a pic of the "boat" as well.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

That is one nice looking guitar. The more you show Todd the better it gets, shows a lot of well thought out innovations in one box. Is that going to a show?

Tim

Todd,

As usual your work displays meticulous attention to detail and artistry. Fabulous job indeed.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Todd, that's some beautiful, thoughtful craftsmanship. Nice rosette!

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Thank you, thank you, gentlemen.

Tim, it's been to the Newport Guitar Festival - check out the YouTube video I posted of Paul Asbell playing it there.

It may well go to some other shows. It's going with me to my 30th Interlochen Arts Academy reunion in a few weeks, where a current guitar student there will perform a piece on it (and another piece on another of my guitars) as part of an alumni recital. It's also going to NYC with me sometime this fall to be shown to a number of guitarists there, such as Adam Levy. It's also listed in GuitarMaker Direct (http://www.guitarmakerdirect.com/acoustic.php). So, it's getting around.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/