Following are a few highlights of the wide variety of both flat top and arch top instruments we have created.

Recently we have been building with padauk and ziricote. Both of these woods have excellent tone producing qualities and we are pretty excited.

Here is the padauk guitar when it was in the finish process. Sure was red.

We have been playing this guitar for a few days now and the sound is very nice. The color of the wood has begun the expected darkening - still red though.

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2008 follow up - This guitar is a boomer. Several local players have fallen in love with it. Here is a more current picture showing the color change.

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The ziricote jumbo has become one of our favorites. Here is a look at the body before the neck was attached.

This 16 inch arch top was inspired by an old Epiphone we have enjoyed for many years. Neck, one piece back, and sides are Honduras Mahogany. Top is sitka spruce. Head plate, finger board, finger rest and tail piece are ebony wood. Features 2-way truss rod and Grover tuners.

Above is a Claro walnut large body flat top. This is one of our favorite patterns for a large body flat top. Big enough to deliver a whole lot of sound yet a good size to play. Back and sides are some very nice claro walnut, top is sitka spruce. Head plate and fingerboard are ebony and the bridge is rosewood. Features 2-way truss rod and Sperzel locking tuners. Just recently, this guitar also sold to a local Breckenridge player. This walnut guitar was one of out favorites. Now we get to build another.

This is another of our large body flat tops. Completed in 2004, it features East indian Rosewood back and sides with a sitka spruce top. The headplate and fingerboard are ebony and the fingerboard inlays are abalone. Also has a 2-way truss rod and gold plated Grover tuners. Being played regularly in Northern California.

Head plate details [above] for big leaf maple guitar shown elsewhere on this site. Abalone inlayed into bookmatched burl claro walnut.

Above is one of our small pattern instruments. This East Indian rosewood guitar has a sitka top, rosewood bridge, padauk rosette with ebony head plate and fingerboard. Abalone inlays, 2-way truss rod and Grover tuners complete the list of components. We are proud to say this guitar has a new home right here in Breckenridge.

This large pattern guitar has ziricote back, sides, head plate, finger board and bridge. The soundboard is sitka spruce, the neck is Honduras mahogany and the bridge is cocobolo. This one belongs to a local palyer too. Lots of guitar players here in Stephens County, Texas.

Ziricote is an unusually pretty wood and has quite a following among custom guitar builders. This guitar also has 2-way truss rod and Grover tuners.

Here's an archtop we built in the early 1990s. Still going strong. This one is still in the Stevens collection.

This is the dovetail joint we use for neck attachment. Cut by hand and proven to be an excellent neck joint. Other methods may give faster results for production shops but we feel the well executed hand cut dovetail neck joint is still the best neck joint.

This is the top we carved at the art show in February 2005. The back, sides and neck are American walnut.

All of the walnut for this guitar came from the same single plank we had been saving for such a special project since 1975. Here is the plank before it was cut into pieces.

These four guitars were waiting for final fit up just prior to Breckenridge Fina Arts Center art show. We do not normally have this many completed guitars in inventory. Actually, we have enjoyed being able to demonstrate such a wide range of instruments to those who visit or home.

Below is one of our favorite combinations. Maple neck on maple body. The walnut binding and trim pieces really help to showcase the curly maple.

We also put mahogany necks on maple flat top guitars. This one is nearing completion of the finish process. Here is another being played and loved by a local guitarist.

We have a new shape for our jumbo sized flat top. Here seen for size comparison next to our growing group of arch tops. This jumbo features tightly curled maple back and sides all trimmed with bloodwood. We even turned the end pin using bloodwood. Daughter Amy has this one in Philadelphia.

This shape has been lots of fun for us to work with. We enjoy the graceful curves and the contrasting colors of bloodwood and curly maple.

Here are some pictures of the new archtop shape.

This one has a white spruce top and American walnut back/sides.

We began carving the top of this next guitar at the Breckenridge Fine Arts center Juried Art Show in February this year and then just kept going. The wood is some of the most special we have yet worked.

Not only beautiful, this guitar is lots of fun to play. Now complete, we have more pictures of on the first page of this site.

In late 2005 we built 2 parlor guitars. One was rosewood, the other was of canary wood. We had not used canary wood before this build and we have been impressed with the tonewood qualities it has to offer.

Much as we enjoy other woods, we continue to love big leaf maple. This is another very fine example. This one has a top of sitka spruce from our friend Mario in Canada. Wonderful tone and sustain.

Another passion of ours is claro walnut. Here are two 16 inch jumbo sized guitar bodies ready for binding and necks.

We used matching sitka spruce tops, again from Mario, and they have been a very popular addition to out inventory. We continue to use hand fit dovetail neck to body joints as shwon here prior to final fitting.

This neck is fitting well. Now the shaping needs to be completed.

Here we continue the neck build. You can see that this involves quite a lot of hand carving. The neck shaft are will remain flat until after the fingerboard has been attached. With the fingerboard in place the neck is then shaped.

Here they are, posing in front of Molly's couch.

That walnut really jumps out. Pretty wood that sounds mellow and warm.

More recently, we have been experimenting with some very old Texas mesquite from right here in Stephens County. Following the art show earlier this year, one of the local ranchers brought us some mesquite logs to see if it might make a good guitar. Take another look at the two mesquite guitars on the Home page.

Those knots are solidly in place so we left them there as a fun reminder that we are in fact working with real wood. Take a look at the completed instrument. We are pretty happy with it too.

We have been playing this guitar now for a few weeks and so far it shows real promise. The availability of mesquite suitable for building though will make these two instruments quite difficult to duplicate.

This guitar is owned by a very talented young lady who lives right here in Breckenridge, Texas. Here is Morgan with our mesquite guitar.

Below is a quick look at the new big leaf jumbo. We really like the sound and of course the maple is wonderful.

We will be showing more instruments over the next few weeks as current mesquite, blackwood and walnut guitars are completed.

Today April 17, 2008, we have been working on the binding for a mango body guitar and a sandalwood body guitar. Working these different wood types keeps a builder on his toes. These are particularly unique. Sandalwood is the hardest wood I have yet worked. I expect the extra stiff spruce top from SpruceToneWoods in Canada to produce an extremely bright responsive sound/touch. The mango body should give a more mahogany feel to the sound of the other.

You can follow the builds of all my guitars on: www.luthierforum.com

[Look for my user name slstexas]