A few words from Paul Martin

I've just received a testimonial from Paul Martin who commissioned an 'Ulladale'. Here's what he thinks.

Taran Guitars like their maker Rory Dowling are a phenomenon in the acoustic world. Not content with the traditional tone production of the well known makers or the exotic tone woods sought by many smaller luthiers, Dowling seeks to question and redefine the whole character of the instrument, the sound that it makes and its response to the player.

Producing instruments from his small workshop in Edinburgh, he insists on designing and making in harmony with his clients who are encouraged to contribute to the process so that the instrument will fit the player. Scale length, body dimensions and even string spacing are discussed, qualities of tone and sustain worked hard for.

The materials are of course selected not only for their tone qualities but for simple beauty, the craftsmanship is outstanding with shape, proportion, detail and structure all given considerable attention. Neck joints are perfect with both heel and inside stock elegantly shaped with economically simple lines. Purfling is immaculately placed, bracing carved to remove surplus and unnecessary material and the body French polished inside. The flawless melamine lacquer finish is applied by David Wilson. David has more than 30 years of experience finishing Stefan Sobell’s instruments.

The ebony fretboard on the ‘Ulladale’ is extremely fine against the Scottish Sycamore back and sides, all beautifully figured. Neck profile is well considered and plays easily up to the 12^th fret where it joins the body and a sharp 90 degree cutaway gives access to the remaining 8 frets.

Rory Dowling’s instruments make you want to play them, they are rewarding with a complexity of harmonics and overtones which demand to be explored and improvised.

Paul Martin

Thank you Paul, I love my Job!

www.taranguitars.co.uk

Tirga Beag

Since Chelthenham, I've been very busy! On top of commission work I've been designing my new Tigra Beag. Here she is so far. She's undergone some serious design changes to my orginal design, the first being the shape and size. She is similar in shape to my Tirga Mhor (jumbo)but a lot smaller, Wider and deeper than my Taran Mhor (om) however. I'm looking as ever for power and fullness with a dynamically rich tone. The back and sides are Madagascan Rosewood, with Caucasian Spruce Soundboard and Quilted Sapelle Bindings.
I'll post more very soon. Click on any picture to enlarge.
www.taranguitars.co.uk

Ulladale goes home

Here's Paul Martin, proud owner offer his new Sycamore - European Ulladale.
Paul had a very defined brief when he first visited my workshop. His guitar had to be capable of playing in open tunings without losing clarity in the lower register. He also required a neck that was very specific to him, a wide flat C was the final choice. The Ulladale is a wide but shallow bodied, long scale guitar.
This collaboration between Paul & I has produced one of my strongest guitars to date. Paul has been playing guitars for many years now and said that his Ulladale 'is the best guitar, with out exception that' he has ever played. I was please too.

Finished Ulladales

Here they are, the finished Ulladales. Its been 8 months of head scratching and experiments but it's been worth every moment.
I'm really happy with these two guitars. The Sycamore & European spruce has a wonderfully full mellow tone, with the best balance across the range I've heard in an instrument tuned to an open tuning. As all good guitars it plays all the way to the 20th fret without a wolf note and has rich prolific harmonics.
The Indian Rosewood & Caucasian Spruce is unbelievably dynamic; I'm more scared of breaking strings than the tone breaking up, it just gets fuller the more you push it. At low levels, it still sings clearly with harmonically rich grace.

Anyway, best stop before I get carried away. You'll guess that I'm excited.
Both of these guitars will be on show at the Acoustic Guitar Show in Cheltenham this weekend. (13th - 14th of September 08) (www.guitar-show.com)

I hope very much to see you there.

Ulladales in mid construction

Here are two new Ulladales that are mid way through construction. The first is English Sycamore and the second Indian Rosewood. Both will have Caucasian Spruce tops.

I've been doing tests with different soundboard material, shapes and bracing patterns on my prototype Ulladale. I'm on the third prototype soundboard now and the results are impressive. It's great to be able to change things quickly to see the differences that alterations can make.

These two will be ready to go to Dave Wilson in few weeks, I'll report then.

Ulladale Tests

I finished my prototype Ulladale a few weeks ago and here it is.
The Ulladale is my largest model to date. It is designed for open tunings, D & G especially but it can handle open C with no problems, just clear effortless tone. A lot of people have played her now and the feed back has been good, there are still a few things that I want to change it is a prototype after all and that's why I made it.

The original brief was set by Paul Martin (playing above). Paul played semi professionally but sadly had an accident that leave him unable to play. When he saw my work he was inspired to start playing again but needed an instrument which would enable him to play in open tuning and an instrument that would utilize these tunings. I came up with is what you see, its a long scale 12th fret to body guitar with a wider lower bout. It has a relatively shallow sound box for the size of instrument. The wider bout enables the lower frequencies to sing out, this may have been lost if the body was to deep. I also wanted a guitar that was playable, not too large so the smaller player could comfortably play but not so small that the notes couldn't get out. You'll note the cut away is of Maccaferri flavour. It is one of the only cut aways that make any visual & functional sense to me hence its use.

The sound from the prototype is one of clarity and power. If you play a harmonic anywhere on the 12th every string bursts into life. Paul pointed out the there are Sub Harmonics. All in all a singing instrument that I'm very pleased with.

Meilein Parlor Guitar

Meilein is one of the most beautiful Hebridean beaches, I thought it would be a fitting name for my wee parlor guitar & here she is.
I wanted, as ever a rich & powerful sound. The Meilein delivers this in abundance, the lively little Maple body produces a wonderfully warm, clear singing tone with lots of volume.

A friend said "it's louder than my OM, how'd you do that?"
"You've got to pay attention to every tiny detail, thats how!"

Toby Mottershead also came down to give her a play, now he wants one.

Nuts!

I got the Tigra Mhor (Jumbo) and Meilein Parlor guitar back from my man David Wilson last week all beautiful and shinny. They have had strings on for a week now and had a fret dress, so now it's time to set them up.

This is how I do my nuts. I use bone as standard, I have used Corian which is great however a little brittle for nuts on the bass side.

I first cut a rough blank for 6mm by 8mm stock, then use the magic half pencil to give the exact string base height.

Then the spacing, as with everything it has it be perfect. Equal space between stings is marked out and slots cut using my fancy nut saws. Files are a nightmare I could never get the slots to the correct width but these things are great they come in all the gauge sizes and cut a perfect round bottomed slot.

Next the nut is checked for correct break angles and for no pinching, then sized and polished.

After this is done the saddle is intonated and the parlor guitar set up. I'll go through that bit another time, its a lengthy process.

You Tube

I've put some videos of Toby Mottershead (the lead man from the infamous Black Diamond Express) up on You Tube for everyone. He's playing a new Indian Taran Beag, the sound was recorded by Robbie Wills. Toby played a great version of Roll & Tumble, quite a few folky numbers and some slow blues. 

See what you think and let me know.

I've got my website ready, I'm just waiting for a few things and than it will be up, I'm very excited!

New Wood

I've just got some Caucasian Spruce (Picea Orientalis) in. I've been reading alot about this stuff & wanted to see for myself if its true. 'Caucasian Spruce is native to the Caucasus and adjacent northeast Turkey'. Its got a very good weight to strength (stiffness) ratio. For tonewoods its cut high in the mountains on north facing slopes, because the growing season is short the annular growth ring count per inch is high making it very stiff. I'm going to use it on a few new guitars to see what it's like. I'm very excited! I've also got some British Columbine Sitka & Western Red Cedar which I'll be testing along side my European Spruce.


Here's some of my Honduras Rosewood. This is remarkable stuff it's got the tap tone of a piece of metal. Its little lighter than Cocobolo but a lot easier on the hands. Cocobolo is bad for my hands & the dust is toxic so I won't be using it again.

I'm still trying to track down some Scottish Sycamore as I would like to use some native hardwood in my work, however its hard to come across quality stock. But for now here's some of my Rippled European Maple. This stuff is beautiful in every way, I put one of the plates though the sanding master so you can see the Ripple. This set has Parlor Guitar written all over it, what do you think?

And lastly some European Walnut (Juglans Regia) not to be confused with American Black walnut (Juglans Nigra). The two are similar however European is a little more stable than American although not quite as dense its got a more interesting grain pattern. I don't have a favorite & use both for different reasons. You get a wonderfully warm mellow tone from Walnut, similar to Mahogany but with more depth.

Hofner Club 50

I've just finished restoring a 1958 Hofner Club 50. When it was dropped off it had no hardware apart from the pickups and was in desperate need of a re-fret and finish touch up. The control panel hole had been enlarged for some unknown reason so I made a Rosewood plate for it to sit on. Worked very well don't you think. The re-fret went really well bringing to whole instrument back to life.
The owner said that he plugged it into his value amp & could have been in the Beatles.
I always love bring these old instruments back to life.

Sandy Bells

I took the New Indian Taran Beag to my local folk Pub (the infamous Sandy Bells) the other night to get some feed back. People always take great interest when you say that you make guitars. Anders Ingram (Playing in pic) said he was really impressed, especially when he played it hard, "most guitars growl back at you if you push them past a point or feel like they've got nothing to give, but this one doesn't, it keeps giving the more you push but without getting mushy." He also said that he liked the tone & the clarity of the balanced range.
I'm really pleased that people are so interested in my work, I'll be in the Bells with more Guitars soon.
Til next time.

New work!

Here are a few pictures of my Jumbo and the Parlor guitars, I don't have any names as yet but see what you think.

The Jumbo is based on the standard size although not as deep as some 118mm at deepest point, the shape is my own like all of my models, 406mm at the widest & 504 mm by length, its got a 650mm scale. Three piece Hondraus Mahogany (A bit controversial I know but I had it and didn't want to waste it), Swiss Alpine bear claw spruce & Brazilian Mahogany & Indian Rosewood 3 piece neck. From the Tap tests I've done it already sounds like a freight train of a guitar.

The Parlor again is my own shape, 364mm at the widest & 470 by length its a got a 645mm scale. Rippled European Maple back & side with a Swiss Alpine spruce top, the neck is a 3 piece Brazilian Mahogany & American Black Walnut with a slotted head stock.

There both off to be finished next week I'll report on the sounds when they return.

Indian Taran Beag

So here's the Indian Taran Beag with its bonny blue detailing. Its down with Dave Wilson at the moment having its finish put on, Melamine Lacquer laid on in thin coats & brought up to a high shine. I can't wait to get it back, I'll pick it up when I drop of the Parlor & Jumbo that I'm working on just now. This will be the first guitar that I've had sprayed, all the others have been French polished. Those of you that have polished will Know how time consuming a process it is, I'm really please that I found Dave & that he's happy to finish my instruments.

I will report on the finished guitar soon.

A happy Customer

A happy customer, I've just delivered a Cocobolo Taran Mhor to Vicky Thomson up in Aberdeenshire. We are both very happy with the sound of the guitar, the bass has wonderful depth & sustain with trebles that ring, the note separation is great, something Vicky requested as it suits her playing style. For her I think that the volume was the most impressive factor, the Cocobolo's density & thus resonate qualities enable quiet playing without losing the clarity of the notes as well as the control in volume at her finger tips. It gave the feeling of having no limit to its power, something I want in all my instruments.

February saw the last of the French Polished guitars I will be doing. I finally tracked down a fantastic guitar sprayer in Northumberland. His number was given to me kindly by Nigel Forster. I'll be taking my next Taran Beag to him at the beginning of March, I know the results will be excellent.

Purfling & Back Strips

I like to keep things simple when it comes to details, using shape & proportion as the main aesthetic, using line & colour as means of highlighting a shape or tone of wood colour. I once made a piece of furniture using American Black Walnut & turquoise Formica, I remember thinking at the time that this colour combination would look fantastic on a guitar.

I buy in colour veneers to make my own purfling. Here is a simple jig for gluing strips up. If I need lots of one type, I’ll make up wider strips and cut them down on a veneer knife.

This blue & black strip is for the back of an Indian Taran Beag 667. Once the strip has dried, I square up one side & glue it into the 2mm slot routed in the back. When dry it is flushed off with a block plane & the back is ready for the spruce graft & braces. I'll put pics up of this process soon.