underneath. This led to my first
intonation-adjustable bridge and
it had a single piezo under the
leading edge of what I call the
sub-saddle (made from ebony).
I put slots in it and made bone
saddles with little pins in them
so the saddle could slide.
There have been improvements since then—the sub-saddle is now 3/4" deep and
the saddle pins have been
replaced with brass tabs. Also,
the underside of the sub-saddle
is segmented so each string acts
as if it has its own individual
support. This provides less likelihood of problems with warpage
of the sub-saddle, which would
cause uneven string pressure.
seen in lutherie or guitar
manufacturing?
I think one of the most
important advances in guitar
manufacturing is the widespread
use of CNC machines. These
machines make reproduction
very accurate and time efficient.
Also, polyester finishes are great
because they are extremely dura-
ble, as opposed to nitrocellulose
lacquer and acrylic urethanes.
Do you utilize CNC?
No.
Is there a particular current or
recent trend in lutherie that
you see going away in 15-20
years and is there one particu-
lar current or recent trend in
lutherie that you see having a
major effect on guitar makers
in 15-20 years?
The unsustainability of many
of the beautiful hardwoods is
an ongoing problem in the
guitar business. I use Honduras
mahogany for my hollow instru-
ments, and also for the necks of
other models. Honduras mahog-
any is the material that has been
used primarily and traditionally
for acoustic guitar bodies and
necks. It’s very stable, machines
easily, and has a wonderful tone
that’s sweet, warm, crisp, and
delicious. It has become harder
and harder to obtain, and the
quality I see has been going
down. The trees that are being
harvested are much younger,
and who knows how long the
supply will last. I think guitar
makers are going to have to start
using other woods. I have been
resisting the change, but I expect
it is inevitable.
A number of boutique luthiers
are hesitant about using CNC,
feeling that it may take away
from the handcrafted aspect of
a build. Is that your reasoning
as well?
I’m open to having someone else
do particular things for me on
CNC and I don’t see any shortcoming in that. The problem for
me is that I’m a small builder.
For instance, I’m building a
batch of five basses right now—
two of them are 34" scale, one
is a 35" scale, one is a 36" scale,
and the other is a prototype
for Steve Swallow. They’re all
different, both internally and
externally. How would I pay
for the tooling when the whole
mechanism of CNC is geared
towards production? That’s the
only thing that’s held me back as
far as that’s concerned.
There is one part of my hollowbody that is incredibly painstaking and there’s no advantage
to how I do it. It’s just the only
way I can, shy of using CNC.
Imagine a hollowbody instrument that’s been hogged out a
3" piece of mahogany that has
a waist cut. Trying to make that
material on the inside parallel
is a handcarving job for me. It’s
time consuming, it’s not fun,
and it’s not necessarily better.
It’s just the way I have to do it
[laughs]. That’s okay, I can do
it, but CNC would be great for
something like this.
An AE5 Swallow bass after it has been shaped on the pin router. “This one
features Steve Swallow’s very narrow neck—it might be the last body I
made for Steve,” says Citron. Photo by Janet Perr
What’s the ratio of guitars
to basses that you build? Is
it market driven or do you
build what’s inspiring you at
the time?
Except for a prototype that I’m
currently building for Steve
Swallow, everything is order driv-
en. As far as the ratio, it’s almost
all basses right now. What I’m
most known for are my hollow
basses and they require a lot of
time to build. Steve Swallow is out
there playing them, and while his
audience may be small, they are
loyal. People have been wanting
those instruments—either what he
plays, or what he plays modified
to be a hybrid between his bass
and my regular A-series basses.
bridge, the neck dimensions, and
tweak the electronics, among
other things to suit my customer’s needs. I generally build
between 12 and 20 instruments
per year with the Swallow bass
being my most popular model.
In your 40 years of build-
ing, what is one of the most
important advances you’ve
How many instruments do
you produce in a year and
how can people find out more
about them?
My website has beautiful,
detailed photos of all of my
models, as well as a price list,
photos of the shop, upcoming
events, and videos. Many of the
guitars and basses I build are
customized to the preferences
of each musician. I will often
change the string spacing at the
Given your expertise with hollowbody instruments, have you
ever had the desire to build a
traditional acoustic guitar?
Yes, yes I do [laughs]. I’ve been
thinking about it for a long time.
But as you get older, I think life
gets busier somehow and the
opportunities for messing around
get harder to squeeze in. What I
need to do is learn more before I
do it. Unlike many other builders, all this stuff has never really
been about the craft of building
for me. The craft is my vehicle to
hear what I imagine. For some
reason, I don’t really have the
desire to build a Martin guitar.
That said, my favorites are the
Martin D-35s from the ’60s, the
dreadnought Guilds of that period, and the huge Gibsons. But I
feel that before I build an acoustic
guitar, I want to really understand
what made those guitars sound
the way they do.
