ABOUT BRIGHT STAR GUITARS

I was told by a business that sells custom guitars to not call them again about selling my guitars until I had built 50. This fellow claimed that it took 50 to build good ones. If I had believed him, I’d have quit on the spot as I was 66 years old and just don’t have time to build 50 to become good at it! Instead of quitting, I decided to build guitars that would be so good, he would beg me to sell them. And, of course, I would sweetly tell him that I had not yet built 50 and hang up!

BUILDING THE GUITAR

Here’s the reality. It will probably take 50 to have all the hand skills to build a cosmetically perfect guitar. I’m not sure any of them are cosmetically perfect. However, with today’s computer modeling and a lot of study by some very talented people, we know what makes a guitar that listeners like to hear and players like to play. And with that information, I can build guitars that are as good as that set of wood will let me.

I use the techniques and design specifications provided by Australian engineer and luthier Trevor Gore. He has a companion set of two books that are my reference guides, and I have attended multiple workshops when he visits the States. There are lots of hobby builders using his recommendations, and I see the commercial builders advertising more of his design / build practices all the time.

To learn more about Trevor Gore’s methods and how his thinking evolved, check out the podcast Luthier on Luthier: Trevor Gore from 8/8/2019.

Here's the reason’s you’ll like my guitars

The Science

They are extremely responsive. This means the top and back a thickness that has been calculated and manufactured to a calculated and measured thickness. Each piece of wood has different properties, and this calculation based on each top / back tells me how to consistently bring them to the correct responsive and tonal range.

Yes, I tap a lot. But I don’t depend on my ears to tell me if it is correct. I measure the frequency (FFT) and modify to get the frequency within range.

All my guitars have a final setup across the PLEK machine and by a set-up luthier who is a magician. Thanks Parris Guitars — Brian and Rance!

Carbon Fiber

If there is a mantra in guitar building, it is Light and Stiff. Carbon Fiber allows me to use lighter materials while making the component stiffer. I use Carbon Fiber cloth in my bridge plates to help hold the radius. Holding the radius provides more pre-load to the top, which promotes responsiveness. It creates a sort of spring under the saddle so that as the strings push down, the top bounces back faster.

PLEK

I build my guitars right up to the very end and then take them to Parris Guitar Repair for PLEK-ing and final set-up.

You’ll have a choice of the final set-up’s action — extra-low for fingerpicking, low for both finger-picking and flat-picking, and standard if you are a hard strummer and flatpicker. If you have played one of my guitars, I always have them set up for extra-low. The great thing about PLEK’ed guitars is that to change the action, you simply change the saddle out. For me, if I need the extra-low to be higher, I just put a little piece of rosewood veneer under the saddle. In the case of guitar #09, I actually have two saddles, and can just switch them out. There is a lot of info and argument about PLEK-ing. I’m sold on it and use the PLEK machine exclusively on my guitars.

Tapping

Tapping the plates, body, braces and everything else used to be an art. Trevor Gore has made it a science. For each body size, he provides a range of frequencies that create a great sound and playability. I tap, and a FFT analysis program on my iPad does the listening. I tap the plates to determine their thickness, tap the back to move it to the proper range when braces, and tap the body to bring the entire instrument in to range.

High Performance Bridge

I also use a Carbon Fiber cloth strip in my bridges. Gore recommends bridge weight to be 25 grams or less. The luthier’s challenge is to provide enough glue area so the bridge doesn’t come loose, driving weight up, while keeping the bridge small as possible to keep the weight down.

Here’s an example of this mass problem based on my custom-designed Pyramid Bridge.
30.5 grams if made out of Ebony
25.5 grams if made out of Rosewood
19.5 grams if made out of cherry that has a Rosewood insert that the saddle sits in

Necks

My necks are machined on my ShopBot CNC machine. I use mahogany with a scarf joint.
I use Allied Lutherie double action truss rods. I put a Birds Beak detail at the headstock joint to the profile. This detail is more than cosmetic. It is a brace to strengthen the most fragile part of the neck. After building to typical neck set dimension, my friend Shane Green figured out that our tops were so responsive that the top lifted when loaded by the strings, and we needed to reduce the neck set angle.

Construction Differences

I think in terms of: What are 20 things that make a better guitar that no one of them alone would make a difference?

The #1 thing on that list is using laminated linings instead of traditional kerfings.

Kerfings are the little strips in the corner where the sides meet the top and back. These strips provide a glue surface hold the body together. They glue the top to the sides in about 30 minutes and the same for the back to sides. Laminated Linings are where the luthier bends strips of hard wood to fit the sides, and then glues each strip in one at at time. It takes two days to totally get these linings in. Here’s why this lining technique is so important. These stiff linings keep the sides and top (sides and back) from moving while being played. All the energy the strings are putting into the guitar comes back out as sound. With kerfing, the joints move and absorb some of the energy.

The 2nd thing on my list is to use vacuum pressing whenever possible.

Vacuum pressing takes an investment to get started. But once you have the vacuum pump and a pressing frame, glue joints become better than any other way to accomplish this task. The vacuum press gets all the air out of the glue joints. This really matters on the braces and bridge plate being glued in. I think of every little air bubble under a brace as a small dampener that robs just a smidge of sound and responsiveness. The vacuum press also makes it easier to make custom decorations by pressing veneers to bindings and backstrips.