Guitar No. 15

Date Completed: 
Saturday, March 1, 2014

This guitar was made for a great friend and guitarist Tom Torrisi who I met when I visited the guitar program at Austin Peay State University (directed by Stanley Yates). That same year Tom and I traveled to GFA in Louisville together where he worked as my table assistant and, as it turned out, he also took a liking to the type of guitar I build.

 

I made some small changes to the brace angles on this guitar in an effort to achieve the same balance that I have been getting from the 640 scale model. The change is most easily described as a slight "squishing" of the lattice pattern with a bit more rigidity on the bass side. The result accomplished the goal and the mid-range, especially the 3rd string, is very lyrical, while the highs on the 1st and 2nd string retained their previous power. I made some additional changes to stiffen the frame, returning to a liner thickness that I used on guitar no. 3 and weaving this thick solid liner into the body/neck junction. This was also done on guitar no. 12 and the resulting improvement in the sustain of both instruments is very encouraging.