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Archive for the 'Arch-top Guitars' Category

Guitar Maker – Foster Guitars

Saturday, January 21st, 2006

Jimmy Foster, of Foster Guitars, makes some of the most amazing acoustic and arch-top jazz guitars that you’ll ever find – all from his base in New Orleans. He has been practicing the luthier’s art for well over 30 years now and, just as importantly, he’s been playing guitar for over 35 years as well – somewhat of a rarity among guitar builders. It’s from a player’s perspective, plus his commitment to perfection, that defines the character and professionalism of each and every Foster Guitar.

Early on, Jimmy’s musical idols were artists such as Chet Atkins, Les Paul, and Tony Mottola but, as his talents developed, Jimmy’s taste turned toward the jazz influences of players like Howard Roberts, Johnny Smith, and George Van Eps. With this in mind, Jimmy Foster began to concentrate on arch-top guitars as his main interest.

Jimmy Foster believes guitars should have beautiful wood. Making a guitar takes a lot of time and effort, and spending $100.00 or $200.00 more on buying higher quality tone woods is not really an issue at all. When the wood is delivered to the shop, Jimmy picks the best pieces for his guitars and ships the rest of it back to the supplier. It goes without saying that the customer will appreciate the beautiful woods that Foster Guitars use. Of course it also goes without saying that the most figured pieces are reserved for Foster’s higher end models.

As far as the types of wood are concerned, there are a variety of different woods that Foster Guitars use to get different results for the customers needs.Â Sitka Spruce is always good for the tops, and Jimmy believes that it is the best wood for the 17â€ guitar. Foster Guitars also use European spruce as well but the Sitka makes a better sounding guitar in Jimmy’s view. Western Cedar is used on the 15â€ models because it makes the smaller bodied guitar sound fat and warm. For the Backs and side Foster Guitars uses Mahogany on the 15â€ and the entry level 17â€ archtops as it is an excellent tone wood for that model. Highly figured or quilted maple is used for the backs and sides of Foster Guitars’ 17â€ higher level archtops and Macassar Ebony is used for the fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece and pickguard.

Great tone woods play an essential and critical part in making a great guitar, but, it is the way in which the maker carves and works the wood that is the final determining factor in how the guitar is going to sound. Each and every piece of wood has different characteristics about it. Another determining factor on the way a guitar is going to sound can be adjusted by the thickness of the top and the pattern and way in which the braces are shaped. If, for instance, the wood for the top has hard tight grain, then Jimmy likes to make the braces tall and slim like a wedge shape and then make the top slightly thinner. If the wood is softer then he’ll usually leave the top slightly thicker. In general though Foster Guitars uses wedge shaped braces made from Sitka Spruce. The types, or pattern, of the bracing also will determine how the guitar will sound. Jimmy tends to use X bracing and parallel bracing on his archtop guitars. On the parallel bracing he tilts the bass side out more than the treble side. This gives the guitar a punchy bright high end while retaining a warm low end.

Referred to as an “everyday man”, Jimmy loves to talk to his customers and welcomes their input into the planning and building of their custom instrument. After visiting his superb website we just knew we had to feature some of Foster Guitars wonderful instruments on iLuthier. To check out some of Jimmy’s guitars in the gallery, click here.

To go to the Foster Guitars website, click here.

New Arch Top Jazz Guitar Tailpiece Gold RGHL9J
US $46.99
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 12:08:45 PDT
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Washburn J-6 Archtop Jazz Guitar
US $400.00 (0 Bid)
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 13:44:53 PDT
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Godin Multiac Jazz Spruce Electric Guitar Archtop Acoustic Spruce Top NEW
US $1,799.00
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 17:03:01 PDT
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HOFNER HCT-J17 JAZZ ARCHTOP L5 ELECTRIC ACOUSTIC GUITAR CHERRY SUNBURST
US $379.99 (0 Bid)
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 17:20:21 PDT
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New Archtop Jazz Guitar Bridge Rosewood Chrome Hardware guitar parts
US $16.99
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 19:06:50 PDT
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Collectible 40th Ann. Peerless Leela Jazz archtop guitar NAMM Demo w/ Hardcase
US $2,150.00
Auction Ends: Saturday May-19-2012 22:09:02 PDT
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JAZZ GUITAR SOLOING METHOD for Archtop, Electric, Acoustic
US $29.95 (0 Bid)
Auction Ends: Sunday May-20-2012 8:55:11 PDT
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1950'S AIRLINE KAY 17" ARCHTOP JAZZ ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC GUITAR SPRUCE TOP
US $399.99 (0 Bid)
Auction Ends: Sunday May-20-2012 9:09:47 PDT
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Joining Archtop Backs & Faces

Thursday, December 8th, 2005

Here are some tips For Joining Archetop or violin backs & faces… There are at least two streams of thought for this which I’ll cover – “dead flat” and “spring”.

With the dead flat method you basically take some very light passes over the jointer or with your hand plane – so light in fact that you take just the slightest amount off of the plate’s joint. You can then finish off with a DEAD flat sanding block around 2″ or 3″ wide and 16″ to 18″ long. You might want to laminate this – so that there’s less warpage – out of mahogany or hard maple. Anything which is dimensionally stable will do. Alternatively you could use a scrap piece of 1″ thick glass or granite.

After you’ve made your “block” you can then glue a strip of 100 grit to the flat side with contact cement, and being careful to keep it flat on the surface, dress the archtop joint until it’s free of tiny scallops and other planer marks.

NOTE: To do this properly on your jointer you need to line up both infeed and outfeed tables exactly with a good metal straight edge. If either one is tipped up or down, even a hair, they can’t plane straight. You might be able to get away with it a bit more for furniture projects and the like but even a slight alignment problem would show up on archtop plates.

The second method essentially asks you to do away with the above advice and actually create a gappy or “spring” joint. A lot of the old time woodworkers went to a lot of trouble to create this joint so that the two pieces would then be pulled together when clamped. The reasoning behind this is that you want a bit of pressure on the ends of the plates because the end grain is subject to quicker drying which tends to pull on the joint at the ends – in theory evening things out.

The way to go about making a joint such as this is to apply more downward pressure as you approach the middle of the plate and then ease off at the ends. That should leave you with a barely visible gap in the middle of a short piece, a somewhat more visible gap on a larger piece. You should still be able to push the joint together fairly easily with hand pressure though so there’s no light visible.