Something From Nothing

It was my admiration for the guitars of Jimmy D'Aquisto featured in Guitar Player magazine almost 50 years ago that sparked my initial interest in guitar building. Despite that interest, this project will be my first foray into creating an archtop guitar of my own, now motivated as much by the music they are known for as their existence as objects of beauty. Bob Benedetto's seminal book, Making an Archtop Guitar, has waited patiently in the bookshelf, and its day has finally come!Guitar by Fremiditi GuitarsSome contemporary jazz guitarists I've recently become aware of - notably Szymon Mika and Lage Lund - have provided the impetus to finally contemplate planing, chiselling and gouging a top and back out of some horrendously expensive wood, guided by the Benedetto book and the late, great Ken Parker's YouTube videos. Lately, I've also explored some analyses of John McLaughlin's chord voicings that have me hankering for a guitar with a shorter scale length more forgiving of someone…