Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone here ever heard of Cole Clark - aussie maker, building guitars with this bracing pattern - looks to me like the thing will fail in no time, but he has been building them for 5 years now. I was put onto these by a friend whoowns a shop and saw them at the winter NAMM. He plans to bring in the cheapest of the line, they will retail around 7-800 Cdn I think. Supposedly sound loud (I can understand why, there is nothing of any weight here)and quite good for the cash - the store already carries a range of Garrisons, up against these will compete. The bottom end ones have no purf or binding, and it will also be noticed that the top has a relif milled into it by the CNC that also carved the top - see all the ridges. The PU mounts onto the hardwood brace, and is called - you guessed it - the brace PU !!! Very interesting indeed ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

The GAL had a feature article on this maker a while back.
I don't know what kind of wood that is- it looks like some flatsawn hardwood.
I personally don't dig it too much....

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Hummm I own a couple Alverez Yairi's they have a through the top PIN plate but the bridge and saddle are independent of the pin plate and conventional top mounted. Actually the bridge plate incorperates a riser that is the pin plate. It is routed through the top and sets flush with the top, but the bridge its self is normal top mounted. It is kind of cool actually. Only Yairi's have this. Alverez Professionals, and Artist series are vary much conventional bridges.

It looks to me that the top on this is probably thicker than an x-braced top. The top is routed thin all the way around the perimeter. this is probably the reason the top works structuraly with this bracing.

Hopefully Kiwicraig will chime in here, we were chatting the other day about Cole Clark guitars. They're made by a couple of guys who used to work for Maton (where Tommy Emmanuel gets his guitars). Kiwi saw one of these that was cut in half as part of a display and was telling me about it. I've not seen one myself, but Kiwi likes em and they're pretty well thought of around here.

What you see in that bracing design is only part of the overall picture .
These are made by Adam Cole and Brad Clark . I think they have around 10 employees . Brad Clark was with Maton for 11 years as factory manager and later as their CEO . During his time there , Maton's production rose 650% !!! This guy is no slug !
They have thought outside the box (excuse the nonintended pun ) ,and not gone for the traditional bracing patterns, but developed this package .
You will note the lack of traditional bridge patch. Their bridge is low and deep (front to back). The inside surfaces of the top and back plates are not flat , but appear to have a scalloped surface. I am guessing that this is done in order to have the top move in an ideal manner to maximise it's movement (i.e. Chladni patterns) The join between sides and top/back is quite complex, with the edges of the plates contributing to what we call our kerfed linings. Everything done on a traditional X brace system has been just about done away with. It is a completley different package and principal. I don't believe it has made production any easier or cheaper , but improved the guitar's performance many fold . Pick one up and play it.........you'll hear immediatly the difference.The bass response is enormous , and the treble doesn't suffer because of it. In fact , I find them very well balanced .The models I have been trying are the "Fat Lady" series , and to be fair ,as the name suggests, are a big bodied instrument.
They are using " Bunya " as their soundboards . An Australian wood , they believe superior to Spruce .

I don't pretend to understand the complete build design, even after studying it for quite some time .
I would say that "the proof is in the pudding ", and these guitars are awesome

Regards to all KiwiCraig

p.s . I will email them to see if they would like to participate.KiwiCraig38876.2844791667

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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Interesting design. Actually I bet its plenty strong as it basically has 2 X braces replacing the 1 on a Martin.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Huhm! I don't like the neck block! Hey! There is no neck block. Looks like the neck is set right to the sides and SB! How do you reset this baby!

I do like Bunya though! I don't know if it's better than spurce, but it looks good!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I've heard good things about the sound, but sloppy things about the construction (sides let into a slit in the top/back, little to no kerfed lining, so no impact resistance). Still, the GAL article was an interesting read, although it didn't want to make me change anything I do/plan to do myself...