Francis Jerome, Nullarbor Guitar (ART, OBJECTS 2021)

The Nullarbor Guitar gets its name due to it being brought to completion while crossing the Nullarbor Plain toward the 'Strings Attached' West Australian Guitar Festival in late 2019, where I had been invited to exhibit and give presentation 'The Philosophy of Luthiery'. The name also pays homage to a particularly dense piece of desert hardwood which comes from this region - ‘Obesa', of the Casuarina genus, used for the fretboard. In truth the guitar features timbers from many varying regions and climates; Obesa fretboard from the dry desert plains, to the Blackheart Sassafras back and sides from the damp cool temperate rainforests of Victoria and Tasmania, to the lutz Spruce soundboard from Alaska, a particularly lightweight piece of American Walnut sapwood for the neck, Indian rosewood binding, Australian Blackwood bridge, and a trademark head plate veneer of spalted Golden Bottlebrush milled from the yard where I grew up. The Nullarbor guitar speaks to me of journey and unification. Featuring a Multiscale (aka Fanned Fret) design with longer than standard string length on the bass side and slightly shorter on the treble side, this achieves a more optimised spread of string tension akin to the insides of a piano. The guitar presents extremely resonant and responsive. Some other unique design features that help attain this goal are the solid laminated Blackwood internal lining/rims, creating a very rigid frame for enhanced soundboard and back diaphragm movement as well as optimised energy transference through the sides, the acoustically lively Australian Blackwood bridge and bridge plate, fanned back bracing using aged/recycled western red cedar, helping to create a widely responsive and sympathetically resonant back plate, X-brace/Lattice brace hybrid on the soundboard engineered for even and efficient energy distribution, and stainless steel frets and hollow carbon fibre tube reinforcement in the neck increase string energy transmission into the soundbox. Aesthetically the overall adornment of the guitar was kept simple as to allow the striking appearance of the back, sides, headplate and the intricate detail of the hand carved rosette to speak uninterrupted. Single layer binding around the body and self-same binding on the fretboard, the black painted neck with low profile heel, a silky satin finish and no inlays aside from on the butt of the instrument (not pictured here) help to achieve a sense of minimalism while at the same time maintaining a sense of the exquisite through the overall execution of line and from.

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