After playing an EndurNeck™ equipped .strandberg* guitar at the Uppsala International Guitar Festival last October, one of incredibly talented luthier Thomas Fredholm’s wait-listed customers was able to convince both Thomas and myself that he deserved the first ever acoustic guitar with EndurNeck™. Thomas and I were both exhibiting, so we had a chance to talk things through, and I had no doubts he would make it justice.
Thomas does all work using traditional methods, and was a little apprehensive of crafting the “high tech” profile and asked if I could mill the center section on my CNC. Normally, I don’t take on this kind of project, but at the same time, it seemed like a very worthwhile project, so I agreed. I can’t wait to see the finished result!
I got the guitar on Thursday. I must say it exceeded my expectations widely. The sound is really superb. Thomas claims that the sound of his guitars is as close to a pre-war Martin as one can get and i can only agree. On my request it was built for medium (013-056) strings, a little heavier than the light set with heavy top that Thomas normally uses. This gives a warmer mellower sound and a bit more sustain at he cost of a little stiffer feel.
The guitar is due to be Plek treated later this year after the play in period. This will, i hope, remedy a little of the stiff feeling. I own several other Plek treated guitars and it works wonder on playablilty.
The endureneck design works as i expected it to. Despite the stiff strings i can play it longer than my Plek treated Taylor. I’m in the process of rounding the edges between the surfaces. On delivery Thomas had not done this but left it to me to establish the right radius. I goal is to keep this as small as possible in order to maximize support from the surfaces but at the same time have a large enough radius not to notice the edge. This meant a little larger radius between the 2nd an 4th fret on the upper edge.
Other custom details on the guitar are a compensated nut and a armrest in order to facilitate long plying sessions. The design will be finalized in September and i will bring the intrument to Uppsala guitar festival for anyone intrerested
Awesome to hear, Stefan. I look forward to pictures of it.
Hi Ola,
Is the Endurneck profile different (aside from neck width, obviously) when you build classical or steel string acoustic guitars, to factor for the classical or flatpicking position? Or do the angle of the different surfaces, neck width, etc. differ?
The concept behind the EndurNeck is really that it consists of two opposite trapezoids at each and of the neck and a smooth transition in between. Each measurement and dimension can be tailored to the player within that, but we have tried to reach an optimal relationship in the production guitars that we sell. For an acoustic guitar, the playable area of the neck is typically shorter, so in this instance, we “compressed” the profile somewhat.
Hi Ola,
Is the Endurneck profile different (aside from neck width) for classical or steel string acoustic guitars? Or do the optimum angle between surfaces, neck depth etc, remain the same across all three types?
Abhijit