My New Guitar - Bog Oak
One of the guitars that really caught my eye when I first got into luthiery twenty years ago was one of Gary Southwell’s A- Series guitars with back and sides of Bog oak. The wonderful video at the bottom of this page explains the history of Bog oak better than I could so I encourage you to watch it. I was lucky enough to obtain a couple of sets a few years back and I decided to use one to build myself a new guitar in the hope that it might jumpstart my guitar playing once again. I used a well-aged top of Swiss spruce which may have more color and mottling than most players might like but I am a wood lover and enjoy the anomalies and color found in some of this old spruce. The detailing is simple with a black and white rosette inspired by the exquisite asymmetrical rosettes that Southwell has used on some of his guitars. I also installed my version of a zero fret which has a hand shaped stainless steel blank inserted into a pocket to allow for more adjustability than most zero fret designs. Having never built with this wood before, the sound of the guitar has exceeded my expectations with rich basses, a very robust mid-range, warm round trebles and an unusual amount of sustain.
