[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Thanks AcousticDreams. At this point the guitar has been strung up for less than a week and it has a temporary Maple saddle while it settles into it's new life as a guitar.

I had tonal goals for this guitar and all indicators are I am getting what I want. To put a recording out now would not represent what the guitar will sound like when it is demoed at the Artisan Show in a few weeks.

I've been working through this new guitar break-in period long enough to know where it is going. I can describe that:

First off, my guitars have a characteristic sound and response that I have spent the last 24 years working to define and achieve. My targets are: even response across the strings and up and down the fretboard.
I shoot for clean fundamentals and controlled overtones, which is to say if you strum an open E chord, I want to hear the fundamental tones of each string and I want to keep hearing them from each string until they gradually fade out at the same time. Overtones are OK but they should never cloud up the fundamentals.

I want fast response with in-your-face presence and clean, full round trebles
which carry over to clarify the mids and keep the strong base response crisp.

One of my favorite top woods is Western Red Cedar. I like how fast it responds and how full and rich it is. Western Red Cedar has a reputation for not having a lot of headroom. I have long devoted myself to proving that myth can be debunked when the guitar is properly braced and voiced.

There are a number of Leopardwood species out there. I'm using the heavier one that has similar characteristics to Wenge. Like Wenge it leans more toward Rosewood than Mahogany.

I individually voice my tops and backs to work with each other. Having a clean resonate back contributes greatly to the air inside the guitar where the sound marinates before being broadcast off/through the top.

Dustin Furlow will be demoing my guitars at noon on Sunday at the upcoming Artisan show. There is not a way to get a clean representative recording at one of these events. Hopefully, you can make it to the show. If not there will be AGFers attending who can say whether I reached my goals. I'm getting some early interest in this guitar and hopefully it will sell there. If it does please know I still have more sister sets of both the Leopardwood and Cedar.

Mark

Fantastic Description of your goals! And is exactly what I have discovered is best for my style of music. Especially since I use two, three, four open chord configurations on a regular basis.

Unfortunately I have had little experience with Western Red Cedar. From your description sounds very inviting, especially since you can get the headroom needed.

While I am reasonably familiar with the other woods that look similar to Leopardwood (but are totally different, such as Lacewood & Silky Oak, and are much lighter in weight and specific gravity) I did not know that there were other species of the South American Leopard wood. Would love to learn more about this.