Classical
My classical guitars have been inspired by studying instruments I have had in for repair from some of the great makers of the 20th Century such as Hauser, Fleta, Aguado, Santos Hernandez, Simplicio, Archangel Fernandez, Ramirez, Rubio, Fischer and Jose Romanillos.
Like many other Luthiers I have a particular admiration for the work of Jose Romanillos. I first met him in 1986 at West Dean when he was invited to visit the workshop. He was very helpful to me when I first set up my own workshop, offering practical advice on my first instruments and selling me some seasoned soundboards. I have been fortunate to have seen at least twenty of his nstruments over the past 16 years and have the greatest admiration for his work and art.
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I aim for the highest standards of craftsmanship together with using the very best woods available for the constuction of my instruments. Since 1986 I have made it my priority to invest in the best quality timbers and have travelled widely to sawmills in Germany, Switzerland, Holland and India to select them. As a result I have a very good stock of well seasoned spruce, Indian and Brazillian rosewood, mahogany and ebony.
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Brazilian rosewood at it's most beautiful "
My classical guitars are based on the Hauser and Romanillos models .They are not intended as exact copies but follow similar patterns of form and construction. Although most of my instruments are built with Swiss spruce soundboards I also make instruments using western red cedar. In both models my main consideration is to produce an instrument with a clear balanced tone, good sustain and projection.
I also want the instruments to be beautiful in design and decoration in the spirit of the wonderful guitars of Jose Romanillos. I therefore make up all my own rosettes and purflings using ebony, maple, satinwood and mahogany veneers.
I also use a V jointed head and fit the very best machineheads.
Machineheads by David Rodgers UK or Waverly USA
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V-jointed
head
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Steel String
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My steel string guitars have also been influenced by looking at the instruments of both classical and steel string makers from the last century. I particularly like the early small bodied guitars from CFMartin, the O, OO and OM models from the early 1900's. My own guitars are of similar size but different outline and with 12 or 14 frets to the body. I enjoy the contrast of building both classical and steel string guitars.
Although structurally different, the principles and techniques of construction are the same and I employ the same attention to detail and decoration as for the classical guitars.
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Photographs: www.nigelhillier.com