Michael McBroom

	All three of my six-string models are available in a variety of woods at no additional charge. Soundboard Woods: For soundboard woods, I offer Canadian Lutz spruce, Western redcedar, and redwood. Canadian Lutz is a special spruce, a hybrid of sitka, Engelmann, and white spruce.  Its coloration can vary, and often will have the pinkish cast characteristic of sitka.  Its sound qualities, however, are superior.  I find that Lutz sounds very similar to the best quality European spruce.  An advantage to the Lutz I obtain is that it comes from old-growth trees in Western British Columbia, where they are selected and logged individually by hand by loggers who specialize in tone wood.  By contrast, most of the Euro spruce on the market today is coming from trees that are scarcely over 100 years old.  These younger trees tend to have more widely spaced grain lines, which in some cases result in tops that are not as stiff as I prefer. The Western redcedar that I use for soundboard wood also comes from Western British Columbia and is also logged by folks who specialize in tone wood.  My suppliers provide me with top grade cedar, which is some of the best tone wood I have ever seen.  Personally, I love the sound of a classical with a cedar top.  The trebles are bright and the basses are warm.  The wood is a bit softer than spruce, and requires a bit more care during the construction process, but to me, it's worth it. The redwood I use comes from a stash of old growth California redwood I acquired.  My supplies of redwood are somewhat limited, and it is getting harder to find good redwood suitable for guitar tops, but I have enough to last a while.   Redwood's sound is somewhere between that of spruce and cedar.  It has the nice, bright trebles of cedar, and the brassier basses of spruce.  Some would say it is the best of both worlds. Back and Side Woods: My wood of choice for a guitar's back and sides is Indian rosewood.  I find it to be a superior tone wood for classical guitars.  For this reason, I offer Indian rosewood as the base selection.  Other woods for backs and sides are available at no additional charge.  They include padauk, grenadillo, palo escrito, and either Peruvian or Mayan walnut. Neck Woods and Materials: For the neck wood I use on my classicals, I prefer Spanish cedar, which has been the traditional neck wood amongst the luthiers of Spain for hundreds of years.  It is slightly lighter than mahogany, so the guitar tends to be a bit less neck heavy.  If you prefer mahogany, however, I can supply it at no additional charge.  I use mahogany only on the Fingerstyle model steel-string acoustic. My fingerboards are ebony -- of course!  I slot my fingerboards using a special fixture on a table saw with a custom fret slotting blade.  This guarantees the accuracy of fret placement to the thousandth of an inch, and results in an instrument that plays consistently in tune across the fingerboard.  Standard tuners on my classicals are the gold-plated Hauser-style Schallers.  The Schallers are as smooth and accurate as other tuners costing hundreds of dollars more.  For the Fingerstyle model 6-string, I prefer the gold-plated Gotohs with a 16:1 ratio.  They are probably the best all around value in a steel-string tuner.  Smooth, accurate, and they stay in tune. Whether classical or steel-string, if you prefer not to have gold-plated tuners, I can supply chrome-plated models at no additional charge.  Of course, if you have a tuner preference,  I can also supply most any brand you prefer, but there will be an upcharge, which will vary depending on the brand selected.	The McBroom Concert Model: optional European  spruce soundboard with Indian rosewood back and sides
Copyright © 2006 Michael McBroom, all rights reserved