The No-Hole Guitar.
First thing will be a thorough expose of my revolutionary new design for an acoustic guitar wherein I do away entirely with any form of soundhole! I have a prototype built already and IT WORKS! .
I am on number 2. It is cedar,rosewood and ebony but in future I will be using local timbers like Flame Sycamore, Walnut, Sitka Spruce, Cherry, Ash, Beech, The sky is the limit!
Go to "View from the bench" for a technical breakdown.

VERY HOT NEWS (07/10/2009)
The first commissioned Freeboarder is very near to completion. I'll post pictures soon.

MORE....

Well, we've taken delivery of sycamore and spruce and made a start on three Production Prototypes; one grand concert and two parlour models. I'll scan some drawings in over the next few days to give an idea of the models we're contemplating. Keep watching this space.

Anybody based in Wales who can help me find local timbers (for local guitars) suitable for soundboards is invited to get in touch. We need softwood with a straight, tight grain in lengths of 600mm. Sitka spruce is the traditional choice but we are prepared to experiment.

Model II news.....

After a rather frustrating time with a strange resonance I finally identified the internal braces as the source. Funnily enough this is not a problem with Model I which has the external brace. Anyway I took out the steel flying braces and added a single longitudinal spruce brace up the centre of the board. This sounded better so I added a transverse brace and Bingo! the sound we're all looking for. Very firm and rounded with a good balance Bass/Treble and loads of volume; almost too loud to sing with!

So now I'm road testing or I will be when I replace the tape holding the back on with some nice glue! More news as and when.

Just back from a heavy weekend busking in town during our local festival, "Sesiwn Fawr" (Big Session in Welsh), which put Model II through its paces. Plenty of volume allowing my fabulous rhythm work to be heard over Trumpet, Baritone Sax, Flute, Cello, two percussionists and bellowed vocals. I'm now confident that only slight (and for the moment secret) modifications need to be made so next up will be a properly finished version looking gorgeous and sounding better.

More later.....