News & Notes
Updates from the bench, the shop, and the woods.
The website is currently being updated and refined. Thanks for your patience as we continue bringing everything up to the standard of the work itself.
A quick look at what’s happening in the shop: I’ve been focusing on new tooling and reorganizing the workspace to create a smoother, more efficient flow. Several builds are moving through the benches at once, and I’ve been finishing up the guitars headed to shows. It’s been a full stretch of work, but things are coming together nicely.
April 2-4, 2027
John O will be returning to the Artisan Guitar Show. I hope to have 3 or 4 guitars that will be available to audition.
A Long‑Overdue Website Update
Updating this website has been a project that started more than five years ago and somehow kept drifting to the back burner. I’ve always preferred building guitars over building web pages, and writing about either isn’t exactly my natural habitat. But eventually the...
Tap Tone — What Does It Really Mean?
Most people stop at the tap. They hear a ring, or they don’t, and they make a judgment. But for me, tapping is just the beginning — a quick first impression, not the verdict. Once I get the wood back into the shop, the real evaluation starts. I take each plate and...
As for its effect on the “tone”
I don't know for sure if I wrote this but I found it in my archives and sure sounds like me. Either way I totally agree with it: As for its effect on the “tone”, I can only comment that there is just no way to ascertain how changing any single element on a guitar is...
Nut & Saddle Compensation
My approach to compensation has evolved over the years as I’ve focused on stability, predictability, and the ability to fine‑tune intonation for each individual player. Today, I compensate both the nut and the saddle, but the geometry I use is different from what many...