I read a very fine article by Teja Gerken in the July, 2001 edition of Acoustic Guitar Magazine speaking on the innovations of recent industry leaders in classical guitar building.

While the article was informative and full it left out some of the most interesting and innovative instruments from some very talented and forward thinking builders.

The article correctly assessed the need of some contemporary classical guitarists for a loud and clear instrument for ensemble and solo playing. Many contemporary luthiers are completely in tune with this need and quite a few are and have been players themselves.

For myself clarity and color have been basic to my requirements. Without question, a loud instrument is desirable but not at the sacrifice of tone as the most luthiers attest.

Also the idea of brilliance as an alternative to volume will enable an instrument to cut through an audience or ensemble. The instruments I gravitate to are brilliant but I will also look for an instrument with a full band of color.

Dean Harrington is an American builder that makes two different types of guitars, one basically traditional and one hybrid lattice/fan braced.

Incorporating the fans into the carbon reinforced cedar lattice offers the opportunity to tune the bracing after the carbon has been applied. The lattice is applied to the center of the top, leaving the edges looser and more able to work for swells and color variations.

As Harrington puts it "Carbon fiber is a very light weight and stiff material that when glued to ordinary wood braces can make them approximately three times stiffer than wood-only braces. This allows one to decrease the mass of the braces considerably without loosing any strength. The lighter and stiffer bracing allows the bridge/strings to more efficiently drive the soundboard, and therefore makes a louder, more responsive instrument."

Harrington continues; "The first thing that comes to mind when you mention a lattice braced guitar is Smallman. This guitar has a very distinctive sound with its edge to edge carbon fiber/balsa wood lattice bracing and a very thin cedar top. The sound is loud, with a focused spike in the mid-range, and to my ears is a bit percussive. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate many different sounding guitars and like the Smallman sound, it's just not the sound I am trying to make. All lattice guitars don't necessarily have to sound this way-which is sometimes the stereotype. The carbon/lattice cedar braces that I used on this guitar are centrally located and do not extend to the ends of the soundboard. This in itself seems to preserve some of the traditional sound by allowing the whole top to vibrate like a fan braced guitar, but is very stiff in the center like a lattice. The sound is traditional, but more even across the fingerboard with less dead spots. On a traditional fan braced guitar, it is very difficult to get good trebles that are even and that sing all the way up the neck. It seems like guitarists have become more sensitive to irregularities and are less willing to compensate with their playing; this is where carbon/lattice bracing really shines."

As mentioned earlier Harrington has a hybrid bracing system of the carbon reinforced cedar bracing with fans. He states, "There is no question that a fan-braced guitar has a unique and traditional sound. Superimposing this traditional bracing over a minimized carbon lattice bracing creates a hybrid system that hopefully has qualities of both sounds. Of course, there is no way to make one guitar that can do everything, but I believe this is a good compromise. You can see from the picture that the fan braces use no carbon fiber. This allows some adjustment of the sound after the guitar is assembled. However, I do very little of this initially since a guitar can change a lot in the first few months and I'm limited in how far I can reach inside a guitar to shave braces. If I get it right in the first place, it's really never needed, but the option is there with this design, were as carbon fiber bracing is next to impossible to change without complete removal."

The guitar is loud and colorful which is what a spruce player wants. The even response is a highlight of the lattice-braced guitar but the sacrifice is sometimes a nasal sound, a bit like a dobro, that seems to occur when a top is so stiff. There seems to be a stifling of color based on this rigidity.

I have come to the conclusion the Dean Harrington has found a very viable alternative for those who want a traditional sound while incorporating some of the better aspects of the lattice-braced guitars which is volume and even response. What comes from Harrington's hybridization is the clarity and upper end color.

Certainly, to most of us, Gregory Byers needs no introduction. Many concert artists, to name a few- David Russell, David Tannenbaum and Kevin Gallagher have used his guitars. I owned one as well and it became a standard for a lot of guitars I subsequently purchased.

I met Greg in 1985 at a GFA convention at CSUF Fullerton, CA. Set up in the basketball court there were a very interesting collection of luthiers including Cone, Mattingly and Byers. These were the most interesting luthiers and of these Greg's guitars, I think number 18 and 19, a cedar and spruce and Indian Rosewood, Gilbert pin bridged models, asserted themselves.

I met Greg and played these guitars and just hung around to hear other people play. The guitars were the loudest and most colorful of the show. The Bi-Level guitar was louder (If anyone out there has a bi-level or info on Dr. Bob, please let me know.) but they sounded like they had pneumonia. I resolved too save my money and get a Buyers.

I eventually picked one of two in 1990 at Greg's handmade house in Willits, CA and it became an absolute standard for my sound. I eventually sold the guitar and changed my sound ideal, well actually, was searching around for something else.

In my present frame of mind I still consider Byers' a benchmark in a traditional guitar that has been tweaked and optimized for modern concert hall use. These guitars cover a room in the number of ways that a concert classical guitar should. For solo or ensemble it works like the top 10% do. Greg knows I'll land another pretty soon.

Greg has the ability to transcend and pay homage to traditions. This is the type of person he is. His wife and children are unique people, he lives in a house he has "hand carved," he doesn't own a TV, his refrigerator is filled with stuff I've never seen but tastes good, his tastes in music, art and culture is eclectic but there is something old fashioned about his personality.

I know plenty of luthiers that can play rings around Greg but I dare say that any one of them has the amazing ear that Greg possesses. I have watched him assess other luthiers work and point out things about the guitar's construction by a cursory listening to one open string. You'd think this is a simple thing that all luthiers can do but the deadly accuracy of his guitar ear is something that is seasoned and is only held by a privileged few.

As evidenced by his words later in this article, he knows sound very well coming from a technical background before building. He is extremely well versed in traditional sounds and the requirements of a guitar in the 21st century. He can extrapolate while carrying tradition.

I wouldn't necessarily call Byers an innovator. I would classify him and a great culminator. Except for his raised fretboard models, he produces an essentially traditional guitar in construction. They are just superior in their sound, evenness, playability and clarity.

Byers states, as a prelude to his sound ideal, "As for my idea of sound, here are a few thoughts. No two guitars are alike. This sounds like a trite truism but it's kind of remarkable in a certain way. We easily recognize the sound of a classical guitar. It is quite narrowly defined in the soundscape of musical instruments, yet if we have them in our hands and play them we can distinguish every single guitar from every other. They're a bit like the human voice in this way and I think this subtle nature to their sound is part of their attraction. No doubt the reason for this variation, above and beyond the skills and approach of the player, is in both the materials and the intent and skill of the luthier. I believe each luthier develops his own idealized sound in his minds ear, which itself may evolve and change. This is colored not only by the sound characteristics one admires in other guitars, but is undoubtedly directed also by the sound one's guitars take as a consequence of his building practices. Each builder develops a signature sound that is very hard to change radically, even with great effort. To me this means the parameters that seem to have obvious effects on sound are not the only ones of importance. We inject our personalities into our work, for better or worse."

Byers pins down his sound ideal, "Today my guitars are still bright and clear, but not unpleasantly so to the majority of players. No matter how dark and deep they are, and they can have these qualities in spades, they are still bright and clear. I don't know how to make a muddy or dull sounding guitar. The closest I ever came was with my first guitar, which was made cookbook fashion and had little educated input from me. So this is part of my signature sound that I can't change if I tried, and is also part of my idealized sound, as long as the upper partials are not so prominent that they add a cold or clinical character to the sound."

Byers is a modest man and naturally continues to pay homage to another builder in elucidating his sound ideal, "I also learned from John Gilbert a little about making a loud responsive guitar. This has become part of my idealized sound as well. The idea here is to have a guitar that gives a complete development of the note with the lightest touch, and that can be pushed through a wide dynamic range. I also want the note to develop quickly, yet sustain. Sustain is interesting and sometimes elusive. The fundamental frequency of the note is the thing that needs to sustain, not just the overtones. There will always be a few holes on the fingerboard, but the idea is that every note can sing, and respond to vibrato, and give a believable sense of legato when the music calls it forth. I pay great attention to whether the fundamental is coming through strongly, and how well it sustains.

Byers goes on paying homage to his influences, "My first major influence as a builder was José Romanillos, and the first classical guitar sound that moved me was Julian Bream. Perhaps I imprinted on what might be called the Hauser sound. My first guitars were along these lines but I inserted my own ideas as well and the results were not always very good. These early guitars were quite bright and trebley, very clear, fairly loud, but didn't work well unless the player had a naturally dark sound. I knew the direction I needed to go but I didn't know how to get there. It took years of trying this or that to finally approach a complete sound.

For anyone buying a classical guitar this next item that Byers speaks is of great importance, "Balance and note to note evenness are also very important, and can make the difference between a great guitar and an average guitar. Can you play scales through the middle register from the D string through the G and B strings and up the high E and have a seamless transition all the way up? This is the ideal, and I believe the "bright and clear" characteristics are a big help with this task, particularly with the G string. Separation of the notes of chords is also facilitated by clarity, as well as balancing the inner voices in polyphonic music. How about the A and low E strings? Is the fundamental strong all the way down to drop D? It can be. It is very difficult to do this, though, without creating a few problems elsewhere, but I think it can be done. I like the basses to be deep and dark, without relinquishing their clarity, yet remaining warm. I prefer the basses to be very free and open, without dominating the trebles. The trebles, to be up to the task, must have a real sense of power behind them."

Randy Reynolds is another luthier of note. Constantly experimenting he now produces an instrument different in construction and principal than the one I first purchased.

Having found that the same modification of the Kasha bracing as Gila Eban, Mr. Reynolds produces a full and rich sounding guitar without the nasal sound so characteristic of the Kasha design.

Having purchased the Grand Legacy model from him I realized that this is a luthier I must stay in touch with.

His guitars are large in dimension while still fitting in a standard classical guitar case. The volume is great and the balance is excellent. The overall sound is extremely sweet while the trebles penetrate.

The strongest feature of this instrument is the sonority, which produces color on each string to an exceptional degree. Ponticello to dolce sounds like two different instruments and the "sweet spot" in the middle can produce color effects with a simple change of angle in the stroke. This guitar makes me wish I could play well. The basses are dark and can go warm or focused. The trebles are brilliant and singing with NO weak notes or wolf notes. Mid range is supportive and versatile. It is even and balanced.

The guitar has an acoustic Port in a design from Native American art, although it looks contemporary.
The port works, giving the player a better connection with the guitar without being obtrusive. Covering and uncovering the port makes a difference to the player and the audience...at least from 10'away. Of interest is that everything I've described above seems to be a signature sound of the Double Top and the other three luthiers producing these instruments describe their instruments in the same way."

Adrian Lucas, from England has been producing a radial braced guitar that is very odd looking but upon seeing one, is beautiful and very nicely appointed.

The radial bracing is very much like bicycle spokes radiating out from the central "hub" which is the bridge. Two sound holes, on either side of the end of the fretboard are equal to the area of a normally placed hole. The bridge is place in the center of the circle, as in a hub for a wheel and this placement makes the guitar look odd, adding to the terse alien look.

The guitar was surprisingly loud and very pianistic in sound. Though the sound was unusual it was extremely viable and quite pleasing.

Lucas, in speaking about his original design conception says this: "I had been looking at some steel string guitars, notably dreadnoughts, and thinking how far away the bridge was from the widest part of the body. This seemed highly inefficient to me. It seemed that as guitar bodies had grown larger the bridge had drifted further and further away from this seemingly ideal location. Around the same time I was reading a book on loudspeaker and cabinet design and thinking about the parallels between the action of a speaker and that of a guitar top.

With these two things floating about in my head I came up with the concept of a guitar with the bridge right in the center of a circular diaphragm. By taking the width of a typical lower bout of a classical guitar as the diameter I drew out a circle with a radius of 170mm. The bridge to the neck join, being half the scale length (325mm) plus 2mm compensation from the bridge, left a distance of 157mm to the body/neck join at the twelfth fret. I filled this space with an ellipse again taking a typical upper bout as my reference. The two shapes were then joined with a curve to form the waist ö necessary to stop the guitar falling off your knee. In order to keep my circular diaphragm pureâ I divided a typical soundhole area by two and placed the two resulting holes either side of the fingerboard in the relatively dead area of the upper bout. The bracing was set out like 12 spokes of a wheel from the center of the lower bout to within 10mm of the lining and a transverse bar was placed at the top edge of the circle just south of the end of the fingerboard. Two more transverse bars were placed above and below the soundholes.

These served to reinforce the soundholes close to the edges as well as supporting the fingerboard over the body. Between the two soundholes and the transverse bars was a graft of soundboard material with the grain perpendicular to that of the soundboard.

I built the first instrument to this design using European spruce for the soundboard and Indian rosewood for back and sides. The sound of this guitar was very warm, rounded and sweet.

With this point of departure Lucas further evolved his design: "The prototype, while very appealing in a small intimate setting, lacked the power and attack to cut through in a concert situation. I felt that the soundboard was altogether too light and undisciplined and began to use 16 radial struts instead of 12 to increase support and stiffness of the top. I was looking to make the soundboard stiff in the center and very flexible around the edges so that the weight in the center would have plenty of inertia once it was moving, giving good sustain. To this end I began to make the main perpendicular and parallel struts continuous under the bridge and joined at right angles with a half lap joint like that used on a steel string X brace.

I now break the strut that runs along the center join of the soundboard at the bridge and just have a bridge bar running across under the saddle. As well as stiffening the soundboard across the grain in its weaker direction, this also serves as a pivot for the bridge to rock back and forth on. If the soundboard is quite stiff across the grain I will make the bridge bar more scooped in its long profile to make the ends more flexible. The remaining strutsâ outer ends gradually stop further from the lining as they become closer to parallel with the grain of the top.

Fairly early on in the evolution of the design I omitted the transverse bar that bounds the top edge of the circle and this opened up the sound and allowed the guitar to breathe a little more.

In order to gain more power I increased the radius of the lower bout circle to 180mm and I realized this was actually more typical of a traditional guitar's lower bout width. Simultaneously I increased the scale length to 660mm so that the higher string tension would drive this larger soundboard.

The bridge is shaped so that the saddle slot is enclosed at both ends like a steel string bridge and the flat center portion falls gradually down to the wings. This makes for a bridge that is stiffer than the traditional design and avoids excessive thinning where the wings meet the tie block once a curve has been sanded into the underside of the bridge.

Having achieved a powerful sound with a strong bass and full middle I wanted to get more treble attack. I came upon a discussion on the musical instrument maker's forum where someone was asking what would be the effect of two soundholes placed as I had them. Al Carruth had replied by more or less describing the sound that my guitar had. From his research he felt that a soundhole in the traditional location at the end of the fingerboard was the only way to get this bright treble that is heard on traditional guitars.

I didn't want to lose what I had gained with the soundholes I had, but was keen to incorporate the sound of a traditional soundhole, so I moved one of the small holes to the end of the fingerboard. Because these soundholes are only 32mm in diameter I felt I could enclose it with the strutting instead of putting a transverse bar below it across the entire soundboard, drastically reducing the size of my diaphragm. In this way the end-of-the-fingerboard soundhole (I'll have to think of a less clumsy name for it) moves with the soundboard without weakening it.

Placing the soundholes either side of the fingerboard certainly does alterthe sound. It is easy to achieve a strong bass and there is a warmth and roundness to the sound that makes for a kind of romantic sweetness in the notes. The increased size of the vibrating area of the top is in part responsible for this: I have estimated that there is approximately 20% more area below the lower harmonic bar on the symmetrical (two soundholes at the top) radial guitar than on the average traditional guitar. There also seems to be a lowering of the air resonance in the body and this is typically coming out around F# according to my singing-into-the-soundhole-ometer. When I moved one of the soundholes to the end of the fingerboard I did some experimenting on the finished guitar by covering one of the holes with card. With the 'traditional' hole covered there was a strong emphasis on overtones with the kind of warm rounded out sound I've mentioned. With the upper bout hole covered the sound was more traditional with a brighter top end but not much in the overtone department. Bear in mind that each hole on its own is only half the size of a typical traditional hole.

I have recently made the hole at the end of the fingerboard a little larger - 35mm radius instead of 32mm - to give a little more brightness. This guitar is very well balanced across the whole fretboard and frequency range.

I have emailed Adrian to see what developments he has had since I spoke with him and have ordered a guitar. The opening guitar image at the very top of this article, with the offset soundholes, is his new design I ordered.

See the ordered guitar, a review of it and a visit by a very special guest.

In closing, I have to summarize this excursion into new developments.

Harrington seems to be a very good cross between the characteristics of tradition and the newer sound aspects of the lattice braced instrument.

Greg Byers continues to make a fairly traditional guitar but somehow manages to make a louder, clearer and more robust guitar within this context. The physical beauty of his guitars is, to my tastes, transcendent.

Randy Reynolds makes a beautifully rich sounding guitar that is loud, sweet and clear. His double top is a wait and see situation since I haven't seen one but have it on order and expect it very soon.

Adrian Lucas makes perhaps one of the most interesting guitar, radical in the design and intergrated in its looks. His guitars are remarkable in that the sound is slightly different but highly usable and very classical.

New Millennium Guitar will keep you posted in new guitar development.

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