I made a custom guitar for Jake Carlon in Pullman WA. Jake came to Blaine last summer to meet me and look at my shop and some of my woods. He expressed a couple of preferences then. First and most important, he plays lefty. Second, he wanted a Torres FE5 body. Third, he loved the Movingui that I had for back and sides. So I made him a guitar. He is a rare player in that he plays guitar with the strings reversed – Left Handed. Most guitars are optimized for fretting with the left hand and plucking with the right hand (right handed). Setting up a guitar for a lefty player enables them to play easily and in tune. Here’s what Jake wrote about his new guitar.
Steve,
After spending some time for a few days with "Luz" I have to say this is incredible. This is one of the finest instruments I've ever owned/ played.
The Movingui looks absolutely stunning and goes so well with the Spruce, very handsome pairing. Overall aestetics are really tasteful and fun. The dark purfling and rosette is a wonderful contrast to the light color of the main body.
The tone is waking up more and more every time I go to play it and I can hear the harmonics and fundamental so clearly and the overall sound is incredibly clear. The whole register has a nice bold voice, and the top end really sparkles and doesn't become muted like other guitars sometimes do in the extremes of the registers. In comparison, my Cordoba sounds and feels so muddy and clumsy (guess that's what you get for buying a low end factory-made classical).
Playability is perfect. Action is right and the slightly larger frets really make fretting and vibrato easier than the smaller standard frets. The smaller body size of the instrument is also great, easier to rest my arm on while playing and I don't feel like I'm losing circulation.
You definitely made a lot of my colleagues jealous when I brought it to school earlier lol.
I want to say thank you for such incredible work and for making a real piece of art. I'm very glad I chose you to realize my new instrument.
Best,
Jake
I made a short video with pictures of Luz, played by Jake… He also wrote the tune!
