Western Red Cedar/Figured European Maple
The inspiration for this guitar came about after seeing a beautiful set of tuning machines produced by Rob Rodgers. He utilized metal plates that were made using a similar process to Japanese Makume-gane. Wikipedia states that a close translation of Makume-gane is “wood-grain metal” or “wood-eye metal”.
Whatever the translation, both the client and I fell for the combination of the metal and Snakewood. We carried the Snakewood into the headstock, rosette and binding on the body of the guitar. Wanting to expand his modest guitar collection beyond the typical combination of spruce and rosewood, we elected to pair a Western Red cedar top with a beautiful set of quilted European maple. This is the second guitar that I have made with this combination and both have had a wide tonal palette with deep rich basses and clear singing trebles. I believe that maple has been under-rated as a wood for classical guitars.