Frequently Asked Questions

1) About the side holes...

2) About the guitar neck shape...

3) Difference between the 2a/4a models...

4) Would a Beardsell guitar suit my style of playing?

5) How many years have you been making guitars and how many do you produce in a year?

6) What kind of pickup you recommend for your nylon string guitars?

7) About the bracing technique...

8) I'd like some advice about woods...

9) How does the mandolin with the side ports differ, in terms of sound, from an oval hole or an F hole?

10) Effect of temperature and humidity on the stability of woods...

 

1) Why do you have the side holes? As a player I find the sound crisp and bright; is this an artifact of the holes being placed where they are? Is sound projection from the front of the guitar somewhat reduced? I noticed that the front sound hole is quite small. Does the presence of the two side holes challenge the structural integrity of the instrument over time? Have you tested your guitars over a number of years to ensure such effects don't arise from the design?

I've been making these guitars for 10 years now and have never noticed any structural difficulties with the side ports. The sides are laminated for stiffness, and the area around the sideport (side sound-hole) is laminated again for strength and stability.

The sideports simply give more bass-end to the player, but I don't feel this reduces the guitar's projection as that is the job of the soundboard. Brightness is a combination of materials used, rigidity of the soundboard and braces, and the combined size of sound hole openings (i.e. the larger the sound holes the higher the tuning of the box). Placement and number of openings is, in my view, irrelevant, except to the comfort of the player. The fact that I didn't omit the front sound-hole altogether is because I simply didn't think it would look right!

As to aging, most guitars lose some of their original brightness and become more "open". This is due to a number of factors: the way wood and glues cure over time; the fact that the internal stresses relax; and the constant vibration of the strings that attune the box to respond more freely.

I've been making acoustic guitars for the past 7-8 years and electrics before that. I still have the side-port prototype and I think it has aged beautifully. The only difference is that now I make them louder.

 

2) Tell me about the different shape of your guitar necks?

The guitars neck shaft has been an often overlooked area of the instrument's overall ergonomic. I wanted not only to address the player's comfort but also add a rigidity to the neck that would diminish vibrational absorption. I liked the increased depth of old pre-war Martins with the vee-shaped neck, as it gave much greater longitudinal strength. The problem with that design was that it lacked for basic comfort on the finger side.

What I came up with is the asymmetrical, or half-vee neck profile. Even with the added depth the neck doesn't feel bulky, but at the same time it gives the thumb a better surface to root itself on. The rounded side of the neck gives the fingers something familiar to curl around.
More recently, with the use of carbon graphite I have increased the neck's rigidity further while being able to diminish the overall depth. I continue to use a loop-style truss rod for positive and negative adjustment. The fingerboard is black ebony, again for stiffness as well as aesthetic. Inlays are by request only. The headpiece is veneered on both sides, with volute, (you guessed it) for maximum stiffness. The neck shaft is cut from one piece of aged mahogany with only the heel stock added . All these things, added up with tight fretting and well-fitted nut, make the perfect vehicle for unimpeded and unsurpassed playability.

 

3) Any major differences between the 2a/4a models that a prospective buyer should be aware of?

The main difference between the 2(small) and 4(large) guitars is size . The larger guitar will produce more bass-end.

 

4) I like flatpicking, open tuned blues, and jazz melodies come Django/Fats Waller. I do a lot of finger style playing: am I asking too much for you to venture an opinion on whether a Beardsell guitar would suit my style?

My clients are jazzers, flatpickers, strummers and finger-stylists alike, and I don't like to say its one or the other, I leave that to the player.

 

5) How many years have you been making guitars and how many do you produce in a year?

I've been making instruments for over ten years. Now I make about 15 - 18 guitars a year.

 

6) I'm interested in your nylon string guitars,and was wondering what kind of pickup you recommend and use?

I used to be more aware of pickup systems but since new ones show up all the time and peoples needs differ it would be a stretch to recommend one. Are you going to play loud, do you want accurate reproduction, do you want to plug in and go or do you have lots of processing? These points and some others are distinct and sometimes mutually exclusive! An internal mic might work at lower volumes as would a contact style pickup on the sound board, but both would require EQ I think. Because of the bridge I use (it employs six separate pins that act as saddles for the strings instead of one straight bone saddle-- for intonation compensation) you can't use a saddle pickup, but recently I've been looking into mounting pickups directly to the pins. Generally speaking,though I usually leave the electronics up to the buyer.

 

7) I'm really intrigued by your bracing technique - it's so exciting to be able to look inside the guitar via the soundports. I was curious about some of the unusual features:

a) There's a kind of ply block at the bottom of the lower bout
b) There's a jigsaw looking thin piece near the neck block on the top
c) The lattice braced top and x-braced back

The ply piece at the bottom of the lower bout is the End block. This is one of the two structural centres of the guitar so its important that it be very strong. The problem with solid wood is that it can crack if hit with enough force, and will expand/contract with temperature and humidity. When it's glued to other piece of wood that is doing the same thing at different rate, there could be trouble. So I use a high-grade Baltic Birch ply that is lighter, stronger and more stable.
I know its not as nice to look at but its a reasonable trade-off.
The jigsaw-looking piece near the neck block is called the upper face graft and it supports and deadens the area under the fingerboard between the block and soundhole. It's applied cross-grain to counter-act the tension of the neck pushing the fingerboard, the soundboard area directly beneath it, and the headblock into the soundhole. Because the soundhole on the top is fairly narrow it's not a big concern. Its funny shape is to accommodate the active area of the top in the upper bout, as I feel this is where the nice trebles exist. You may have noticed the Upper Transverse brace doesn't touch the top right behind this area. Anyway, all steel-string guitars have a graft of some sort.
As far as bracing is concerned , I found that the lattice bracing was the easiest way to achieve tonal evenness. After that its just question of making it loud... You may have noticed the sides are laminated. They're quite stiff. Like a drum rim. Basically I view the guitar sides as mounting platform not only for the top but the back as well. And to keep the back moving without being sloppy was the Kasha-style radial braces. The back helps shape the bottom end.

 

8) I'm interested in ordering a guitar and I'd like some advice about woods. I haven't actually concentrated on acoustic music in quite a while. I play a combination of fingerstyle and pick. I have a very offbeat style of electric guitar playing...very jazzy with avant garde overtones. This probably doesn't help out too much but I am open to your recommendations regarding materials.

I could list all the woods I have in stock but I don't think that would mean much. Simply put the harder denser woods will make brighter guitars and the lighter, more open-grained woods make rounder darker sounding guitars. The top is probably the most important choice in this regard - my faves are Red (adirondack), Engleman, and German spruces. Engleman is mellower, maybe less tonally complex than the other two, and all three have very pale colour. Sitka spruce is great for volume and brightness, Cedar is a nice choice for darker tone. Any of these will work well with Indian rosewood, which is the old standby and does not add to the overall price.

Other woods in this price category up to say $200 extra are Bubinga (red, dense, figured), Imbuia( green-brown, med-dense, no figure-beautiful grain), Maple-hard(pale , dense, figured)andBig leaf(pale-brown,med-dense, figured), Myrtle(pale-tan, light density, med-figure), English sycamore( pale, med-dense, figured), Makore(pale-red, med-dense, figured), Aspen(pale,light,figured) and Canadian black cherry. I have Cocobolo(Red-black-orange, dense, no figure but intensely beautiful!) in the $300-$500. And Brazilian rosewood-often considered the panacea of guitar woods - in the 5 to 15 hundred dollar range. Of course, there are many other possibilities, and i can procure just about anything- price allowing.

 

9) I would like to know more about the design and the other mandolins you build. How does the one with the side ports differ, in terms of sound, from an oval hole or an F hole?

The contruction is basically like an X-braced A-style, although parallel bracing would work equally well. Its voice, I think also reflects the A-style "openess" as opposed to the more muted F-style sound. I've made some mandos with cedar tops which give a bit darker tone, but generally I use Engleman spruce for tops. The single piece bridge could easily be substituted with an adjustable one, but I think the lighter non-adjustable ones sound better. I probably won't use the Monteleone tailpiece unless specified , though they work and look good.

The soundholes shape and placement matters less than their combined size relative to the size of the box. ie the larger the openings the higher the tuning of the box. Also the holes have a "loosening "effect on the top meaning the looser the top the lower the pitch. (bigger hole less top area.) The side soundhole means more top area, and therefore cavity and box pitch can be controlled by thickness and hole size.

 

10) My guitars follow me around to places where there is a huge variability in the humidity and temperature. In the past, that has led to a braz. box cracking, being fixed on warrantee, cracking again and then literally 'imploding... even though it had a dampit and the ameritage case humidity gauge being constant at around 50%. I'd prefer not to take the risk and want to use well quartered braz instead of partially/fully slab. What's your thought on that?

I don't think you have to worry about the stability, or lack of it, from flat sawn woods. Wood expands and contracts across the grain, so perfectly quartered wood will actually be more vulnerable to movement caused by heat/humidity. Its largely a question of seasoning and how stable the wood is before building.