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.
