Sustainability is an area I feel strongly about especially as the guitar making tradition has such a liking for tropical hardwoods (often of uncertain origin). I am currently sourcing much of my wood locally and experimenting with the beautiful tonewoods to be found here in Britain.
Although as an individual maker my wood consumption is very small (at present I make about 5 guitars per year), I feel it is my responsibility to ensure that as much of my wood as possible comes from environmentally sound sources. For this reason I buy locally whenever possible and I always prefer air dried wood as opposed to kiln dried . I then resaw and season it for as long as possible .
At present I am using English Walnut, Ash, Sycamore and Yew amongst others for my guitar bodies.
I recycle tropical hardwoods such as Mahogany and Utele for necks, back bracing and linings inside the guitar body. I choose to do this in order to minimise environmental impact on tropical rainforests and to make good use of available resources. This method carries the benefit of using older wood which is therefore very well seasoned and stable.
I use European spruce and North American cedar of the highest quality for soundboards to obtain the sweet tone and responsiveness you would expect from a hand made guitar of professional quality.
All my wood is carefully selected, quarter sawn and straight grained (with the exception of yew); I then keep it for a number of years to ensure it is stable before it becomes a beautiful guitar.
– W O O D S F O R S A L E –
I offer for sale a selection of native british tonewoods which I cut into guitar sets. I have available Yew, Walnut, Ash, Cherry, Sycamore and Lacewood (London plane) among others.
Please contact me for more details.