Megan Henwood's Rosie

I was looking for an opportunity to try out a new idea, and I'd promised Megan a second guitar to complement "Coco".  I do think I’m very lucky to be able to put things like that together, and to make a lot of the decisions myself. Its a fantastic way of working, and always seems to turn out right. 

The body is a scaled down "Falstaff", with a little extra taken off the depth. I don’t think deep guitars do the business, in fact I’m sure I notice greater bass response from shallower bodies, something I first observed in one of Paul Simon’s guitars, and in Martin Carthy's  Martin.  The soundboard is cedar, trying very hard to get a different sound to Megan’s first Fylde.  Another trial run is the colour in the purflings.  It’s difficult to try new things, as its expensive to get small quantities of purflings made, and the end result can't be anticipated, I just need to do it and hope.  The idea here was to contrast gold against the brown timber. It’s a little more yellow than I hoped but it isn’t a natural dye and I think the brightness will fade soon enough.

12 frets - again, to provide Megan with two distinct sound sources. I’ve made one or two more based on this body size, so I'm starting to think of a name in case I make it a regular.