1994 Everett Artist 000-Size Flattop Guitar

This guitar was ahead of the curve in 1994 when it was built -- and since then, its maker seems to have moved-up the boutique ladder quite well. It's essentially a modern take on an "OM" or long-scale 000-size guitar, but has some features that give it a more balanced, contemporary fingerpicking voice and better structural stability.

Tonewoods are solid cedar over solid Indian rosewood -- a combination that can be a bit dark and creamy and found more often on classical guitars -- and the top bracing is standard x-style, though the braces are quite beefed-up around the soundhole and very, very tapered as they leave the central x-shape forward of the bridge and down towards the lower bout. This last bit is clever as it stiffens the weakest part of the top but doesn't impact the most resonant part -- the lower bout. I'm aware that this is somewhat common these days, but the vast majority of '90s custom-built guitars I've encountered copied Martin-style bracing more directly.

This was brought in by a customer of mine and it got a fret level/dress and a good going-through setup-wise. The neck is incredibly thin front-to-back, so unfortunately a lot of the string tension is dealt with by the truss rod as opposed to the neck's wood itself. This meant that over time this guitar simply ran out of adjustment room on the rod and now it's wearing a set of 48w, 38w. 28w, 20w, 14, 10 strings to keep the neck happy and straight with the rod maxed-out. Otherwise the instrument has held-up very well.

The board has a flatter radius and medium-large frets. Because the neck is so shallow front-to-back, it feels something like playing an '80s Peavey where there's nothing to really get a grip on. This is both great and horrible depending on how you play, but it does let one run through things at breakneck speed.

The fretboard and bridge are rosewood as well.

An undersaddle pickup system is installed in this, so I made the most use of the low-ish saddle by adding some light string-ramps to get better back-angle (and thus signal to the pickup) from it.

Check out the curious binding on the bridge "wings."

The sealing wax and art nouveau label are pretty intense!