Acoustic Guitar Construction

They're about 20 miles from me and I've never heard of them (but then again they may never have heard of me either:)). I believe Ken is spot on, they are modifiers.

They are selling wood, quite a bit of it, on eBay. (What a trade name - Shabby Chic; both words are pejorative as far as I am concerned).

Response:

Hi David,
Some are, some aren't. For guitars with wedge bodies, those backs are always solid woods. For certain mods like baritones, those are made from Recording King ROS-06's which have laminated back and sides. Basically if I replace the back, it is solid, otherwise it is what came on the original guitar. Best regards,

-James @ Shabby Chic Guitars

Thanks for getting the info Dave. It is an interesting response. The Recording King ROS-06s appear to sell for about $300 as is. If the mod made by Shabby Chic is to simply shave the braces, my guess is it probably helps, but seems limited to those easily accessed from the sound hole. Selectively thinning the top say, at the edges, would be ruled out entirely. Hard to imagine replacing the whole top for the price they charge. Yet they also talk about shellac finish and I wonder if the Recording Kings come with that from the factory. So maybe they do replace the top.

The whole idea of taking a cheap factory guitar and modifying the important parts has its merits. Ken recognized just set up has a lot of effect compared to the amount of work it requires - a lot of bang for the buck. I did that on a <$100 off shore Gibson Maestro a friend of mine bought a few years back, replacing the nut and saddle in the process, smoothing the edges of the frets, changing the angle of attack the strings made on the saddle by carving simple ramps into the bridge, and adjusting the relief in the neck. The sonic result was remarkable even though the B&S were laminated and I suspected the top as well. It was also much easier to play, with fewer problems of intonation, no buzzing, smoother feel. Shabby Chic is starting with a better grade of instrument than the Maestro.

Since there is so much emphasis on appearance these days, "factory seconds" might be a very worthwhile area to explore, especially if one could choose the specific "seconds" to use. I would go for sub assemblies before they were glued up into a whole instrument. Ideally, necks, back & sides, and tops separately, suffering from knots, cracks, worm holes, discoloration, etc. I might prefer to make my own fingerboards, depending. The biggest problem would be one is stuck with the factory design, though the Recording King ROS-06 is appealing with nothing wrong with it.

This noted, it is still very hard for me to understand their choice of brand name.

On this concept of slight modification and proper set-up I must admit I got the idea from Denny Zager, who is doing quite well selling his "easy play" guitars. I had a few here in the shop -- they do a nice job.