When Stuart Campbell shared some photos of his latest guitar build, it was so beautiful we wanted to share it with you too.
Stuart used walnut for the back and sides and an unusual cut of Douglas Fir for the soundboard (both from Logie Timber, as was some ‘ordinary’ Douglas Fir for the internal bracing).
Stuart says:
“When I saw the video that Olly posted back in December 2024 about some Douglas Fir with an unusual pattern, I was intrigued.
Olly said neither he nor anyone else at the mill had seen anything like this before, but was certain it had occurred as part of its growth, although what had caused it was unknown. So I did a bit of research and from what I found (there wasn’t much online) the pattern was called ‘silking’, meaning the grain was structurally cross-bonded. This meant the timber was stiffer and stronger than usual.
From a guitar building point of view, stiffness is very desirable. This discovery had me thinking about how I might be able to use it to build a guitar with particular sonic properties – tone and sustain. So here it is – and, yes, the tone is WOW! Thanks to Olly for posting the video.”
Thanks to Stuart for sharing his beautiful guitar, and to Olly for sharing his video about this unusual type of Douglas Fir – he can’t have imagined what a beautiful instrument it would have lead to. Now just to persuade Stuart to share a video of it being played.. Watch this space!
UPDATE!
Stuart has sent us a video of him playing his beautiful guitar! (see below)
Stuart is building again, he says, ‘I’ve just started a new guitar build specifically for Portsoy Folk Club. The club has set up a prize draw for this guitar: tickets are £10.00 and are limited to a maximum of 250. I’ve started a blog on https://bothyfolk.org/ showing the build process as it happens.’
Why not take a look, enter the draw and you never know, you might win just such a guitar of your very own.
