Custom Shop
Our Custom Shop supplies independent luthiers and boutique guitar manufacturers with tops and backs for their own guitar models.
Every project is developed in close collaboration with the customer. We respect the originality of every design, and treat each project with complete confidentiality.
Projects can begin from a 3D CAD or a physical body model. We work together with you to refine the laminated structure and create components ready for production.
Our laminated construction recipes offer a wide range of structural and acoustic possibilities. By selecting and combining different tops and backs, we help you achieve the response, feel, and tonal character that best match your design.
Customers Examples
D'Arcy Guitars
NYC, USA
D’arcy provided us their design and we worked together on finding the right laminate recipe for the shape.
Lottonen Guitars
Finland
For Lottonen Guitars we supply plates of his signature cost design, which he used for decades. This case included the manufacturing of custom pressing molds. This enables for the customer more efficient manufacturing and small batch production.
Liljeström Guitars
Finland
In this case our plates were found to enable another beautiful custom design. Liljeström also works closely with us in review of the new recipe prototypes.
Recipes
We have narrowed the field to five recipes through extensive research and development, shaped by direct feedback and collaboration with our customers.
The recipes cover the spectrum from acoustically resonant all the way to stiff and reflective. Whether you follow the traditional approach using the same recipe for both the top and back, or combine different recipes to fine-tune the instrument’s character, excellent results can be achieved either way.
Every recipe is structurally sound, providing builders with a solid, reliable starting point for their builds. More to each one below!
D ~ 2,5 mm
The overall stiffness of this is intentionally moderate, making the bracing design a critical part of the equation. This gives experienced builders considerable freedom to shape the instrument’s voice, responsiveness, and dynamic character.
The lightweight nature of the structure lends itself to an instrument that responds readily to the player’s touch.
While it requires a thorough understanding of acoustic instrument design and the instrument’s energy transfer system as a whole, builders are rewarded with an open, lively instrument whose character can be fine-tuned to their own vision.
K ~ 3,5 mm
The K construction offers a balanced combination of structural stability and acoustic responsiveness. While stiffer than the D construction, it still allows the builder to influence the instrument’s tonal character through bracing design and body geometry.
The structure responds naturally to the player’s dynamics while maintaining predictable mechanical behaviours.
This provides an excellent platform for builders who are looking to create instruments with unique fine tuned acoustic properties, while having the benefit of added structural integrity.
C ~ 4,5 mm
The C construction has been developed for applications where structural stability and predictable acoustic behaviour are the primary objectives. Compared to our other constructions, it provides the most stiffness and is less influenced by variations in bracing design.
This is the best platform for instruments which require consistent mechanical performance and reliable behaviour under higher playing loads, as well as for playing under high amplified conditions.
It allows builders to focus on the overall instrument design while minimizing the influence of structural variables. For builders who are looking for similar sonical properties found in major manufactured models, this is the recipe.
