Pete Brown Guitars

This guitar is still looking for a new home.

Despite its relatively small body, this guitar has surprising presence in the bass register, while notes played on the treble strings are round and sweet.

It's always a thrill to fit strings to a new guitar for the first time.

I'm reasonably satisfied with the back and sides of this guitar having carved, bent, and assembled them, even after acknowledging that the outcome is some way short of perfect.

The wood I've chosen to fabricate the back and sides of this instrument from is something of a mystery.

In keeping with the theme of this project, which is to make use of nondescript pieces of wood cluttering up the workshop, the bridge I'll fit to this instrument will be fabricated from a highly figured and seriously dense chunk of red gum (Eucalyptus cama…

As I prepared to begin carving the top of this guitar I found myself facing a dilemma, mainly because I don't know whether I'll repeat the exercise.

Given the significant investment of time and effort involved in crafting an archtop guitar, there's an argument for using the very best materials I can find.

It was my admiration for the archtop guitars of Jimmy D'Aquisto featured in Guitar Player magazine almost 50 years ago that sparked my initial interest in guitar building.

I have two back and side sets of higuerilla, one of which I'd classify as remarkable, with the other set attractive enough, but much plainer in appearance.

The lighting in my workshop is a stand-out feature I notice and appreciate every day.

It's taken such a long time to complete this guitar that it features a body shape I've long since modified.

With this - the first of a batch of five guitars - now strung up, I can begin to relax a little and allow myself a moment to enjoy the sense of achievement at having completed an instrument; for various reasons, it's been a while!

Here are some more photos of this 00 model guitar in East Indian rosewood and Engelmann spruce.

With a lower bout width of 14.5", a 12th fret body join, and a 24.9" scale length, what else could I call this new model but a "00"?

I had some spare time recently as I waiting for the lacquer I'd sprayed on my current batch of acoustic guitars to cure in readiness for polishing, and as I'm becoming a big fan of headless guitars, I put the guitar pictured together while I had the oppor…

I put this East Indian rosewood/European spruce guitar to one side as I proceeded with my usual process of wet sanding and buffing four other guitar bodies, the motivation being that I wanted to compare wet sanding with the dry sanding alternative.

Cheers, Pete

I'm definitely not the most experienced finisher around, and thought it wise recently to undertake something of a personal refresher course by sifting through some relevant forums and Facebook groups with a view to improving the quality of my finishes.

It's a fact of life that events and circumstances can conspire to delay and reshape our plans, and this has certainly been the case where the instrument pictured is concerned.

I'm still chasing rogue sanding scratches and polish residue on this Claro Walnut/Port Orford OM body, but I'm calling it "done" for the time being.

As keen as I am to string these guitars up and wave them goodbye, I have no choice but to wait several weeks for the lacquer top-coats to cure before I sand and polish them.

After what feels an eternity, I managed to begin the arduous process of applying finish to this crop of guitars this morning, with a seal coat of shellac applied ahead of the first coats of lacquer tomorrow.

With a template describing the bridge outline, and an appropriate jig to facilitate routing of the saddle slot, it's a fairly quick and easy job to fabricate these guitar bridges.

The back and sides of this guitar are of narra, which is an alternative name for a wood that's most often marketed here in Australia as New Guinea rosewood.