London Guitar Gallery 12 string Dreadnought

I was delighted to receive an email and some photos from Richard of his guitar. I built this 12 string Dreadnought in 1980.  The body is longer than a standard D shape as it is designed for a 12 fret neck. Richard commissioned it from the London Guitar Gallery and is still playing it.

London Guitar Gallery Cutaway Jumbo

As far as big guitars go, I’ve always preferred the more curvaceous look of the Gibson jumbo compared to dreadnought shape. I built two cutaway jumbos whilst at the London College of Furniture, the first I destroyed (all part of the learning process) and the second, a Brazilian tulipwood one, was much more successful and was sold in 1979 via the London Guitar Gallery.

Whilst at the gallery I built two more jumbo cutaways, an Indian rosewood one and a maple one.

Phil Hare met this gentleman (sorry Sir, I don’t know your name) at a folk club in 2013 with his vintage Nava. So above, is that maple jumbo built in October 1979 and in the background you can just see Phil’s guitar made by me in 2011!

London Guitar Gallery 12 fret Steel String

This guitar is a demonstration model that I built in 1979 whilst at the London Guitar Gallery. The shape was based on my classical guitar body with the addition (or is it subtraction?) of a cutaway. For many people, the 12 fret neck with a cutaway body is the perfect set-up. The bridge is in the sweet-spot and the cutaway allows access to the upper frets. This one was made with a maple body and  a German spruce top. My son now owns it and when I played it recently I was surprised by how light it was and its wonderful resonance; it’s certainly opened up! If I remember correctly, two rosewood versions were built for customers. As a point of interest, head shape is still used on many of my mandolins.