Cello Nylon String

For this guitar the customer gave me a very simple brief – ‘I want a nylon string guitar that looks like a cello’. I said OK and then went away scratching my head, wondering what I had just agreed to. I broke down the various elements of the design and it quickly became clear – It was all about the headstock, F-holes and tail piece.

The headstock was hand-carved from a solid laminated block of carbon and features peg tuners from pegheds that actually have a 4:1 gear built into them, giving a very traditional look. The bridge and tail piece are custom-moulded carbon parts.

To keep the lines clean I created a special ball joint to hold on the tail piece, rather than a regular tie design. For the soundboard I used a solid cedar top laminated with a very fine skin of carbon. I used a very light carbon lattice bracing system, giving a very light and responsive soundboard. All these features really blended beautifully together and created a very unique instrument that exceeded both the customer and my own expectations.