Sophia Jarlov, Acoustic guitar in Kahikatea and Solomon Island Rosewood (ART, OBJECTS 2022)

Photos:

Daniel Allen

This is the second guitar I've made - a 7/8th size dreadnaught acoustic, to go with my much simpler 'backpacker' guitar. The guitar has a softwood top in New Zealand native Kahikatea, chosen for its beautiful pale colour, interesting grain and acoustic properties. The back and sides are Solomon Island Rosewood, which glows under a linseed oil-based finish. The Pau Fero fretboard sits on a hand-carved mahogany neck. The herringbone rosette around the soundhole is echoed by the binding, which uses Kahikatea for the external strip, resulting in an inlaid look. Rimu touches are used throughout (headstock, tail, heel cap) in a nod to the original plan of rimu back and sides before one of them split! There are themes throughout: the curves of the art-deco style headstock and repeated at the end of the fretboard, and on the bridge. "V" angles inspired by the herringbone pattern were also created using the kahikatea grain in the headstock, and in the angled tail strip detail. The inside of the guitar is fine tuned using an "X brace" system, and the guitar has an incredible sound, with notes across the musical spectrum echoing out of the sound hole. It's not only a beautiful object, which has pride of place in my living room, but an object to be loved and used every day.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.