• What do you strive to accomplish in your instruments?
  
• What models of guitar do you make?
  
• What is special about your guitars in terms of their craftsmanship?
  
• What types of wood do you use? Why?
  
• What is French polish and why do you use it?
  
• How do you look after a French polished instrument?
  
• What about humidity?
  
• How much will a Dominelli Guitar cost me, and what does this price include?
  
• What is your waiting list? How long can I expect to wait for a Guitar?
  
• Do you do repairs or restorations?

1) What do you strive to accomplish in your instruments?

As a luthier my goal is to build the finest guitars possible. I analyze instruments in terms of their sound, aesthetics, and playability, all of which are very important factors in creating a fine guitar.  Here is a brief look into these factors individually:

Sound:

 

Sound quality is the single most important thing that I strive for as luthier. A special instrument has a personality or character of sound that draws the listener in to its beauty.  Balance, separation, projection, warmth, volume and clarity play a large part in creating this sound. When the appreciative listener hears a guitar with all of these qualities, it is a very special thing. This is the ultimate goal. Although loud guitars are appealing to (and required by) many players, I do not feel that the pursuit of volume to the detriment of maintaining tonal quality is a valid pursuit. Getting it all is ideal! But I do strive to create a guitar with beautiful tonal quality as the most important factor! 

Fine classical guitars are born with great character, yet continue to improve in volume and tone as they get played in and age.   

Aesthetics:

 

For most musicians, how the guitar sounds is more important than how it looks. If the guitar sounds great it will always find a happy owner.  But to many instrument lovers and collectors (and increasingly to players),  aesthetics, and the work behind it, are deeply valued.

Traditionally, custom made marquetry (rosette, inlays, and purfling) played a big part in defining the look of the instrument. On the finest guitars, the marquetry is made by the luthier himself.

 

Photo showing one of my maple burl rosettes. The  "wheat" pattern marquetry and the inner and outer "ladder" patterns make for a simple, but attractive rosette.

In the past, all instrument makers made their own rosettes. In the 19th century, Antonio de Torres did some of the finest marquetry work in this respect. Today, there are many luthiers who do fine marquetry work, and many who use factory made rosettes. By making my own marquetry, not only am I able to make my instruments aesthetically unique, it also gives me more control over the final instrument as an aesthetic whole.  I find that the mass produced designs are too busy in terms of detail and colour, and generally fail to make a visual statement. The nicest marquetry today is still crafted by individual luthiers, like it was done in the past. Once you know the difference between factory and hand-made work, you will be able to tell them apart in seconds. It is worth the effort to design and make my own rosettes, as with every other part of the guitar. I do this for aesthetic reasons, and for the sake of keeping the true art of instrument making alive. The instrument buyer also has the added bonus of owning a truly unique product.

Playability:

 

This refers to how well the instrument feels in the hands of the player. It is extremely important for obvious reasons. The guitar should fret easily and accurately, without buzzing. It must also have accurate intonation. Getting an instrument to a high degree of playability takes a lot of practice. It is also a function of learning how to put an instrument together properly with the right neck projection, neck relief, bridge design, and set-up, etc. It is frequently done incorrectly, especially on cheaper instruments, although I have seen it done poorly on many expensive, otherwise nicely made guitars. Dominelli Guitars are expertly set-up in all respects when new. All are fitted with individually compensated bone nut and bone saddle. The string height may need to be adjusted to suit the owner's hand. It is often necessary for the owner to experiment with different string types in order to optimize the tone and playability of the guitar.

 

2) What models of guitar do you make?

 

Traditional classical made with Walnut back and sides, cedar top.

 

For the longest time I resisted offering particular "models" for sale. This was simply due to the fact that I have always done a lot of customizing for my clients, and adhering to particular models seemed constraining and impractical to me. But things have changed! I am offering some standard models yet I continue to customize my guitars to meet the needs of my clients. Any questions? Just ask me.

My Standard Models:  (available with lattice bracing or fan bracing)

1) Standard Concert Classical Guitar. $4700 Can / $4800 U.S.

I make my standard classicals with either Hauser 1 style fan bracing or my Dominelli lattice pattern. European spruce, Engelman spruce or Western Redcedar are used for the soundboard, and either Brazilian or East Indian rosewood are preferred for the backs and sides. I can make this guitar to your specifications such as scale length and neck width.

Other woods can be substituted for the traditionally used Indian or Brazilian rosewoods, such as Maple, Walnut, Koa, Cypress, or another type of rosewood.  

2) Elevated Fingerboard Concert Classical  $5200 Can / $5300.U.S.

The Elevated Fingerboard model has a full 2cm elevation at the 12th fret, as measured from the top of the fingerboard to the binding. This greatly improves access to the upper register of the guitar without compromising the traditional beauty of the instrument. Many people love the modern look of this design. I'll make it with either Lattice or Traditional fan bracing, and I can build to your specs, such as scale length and neck width.

3) Flamenco Guitar.

I offer traditional blancas and negras. A few years ago I was building quite a few blancas - cypress back and sides. Lately I've been making more flamenca negras (rosewood back and sides). My flamenco guitars are virtually always made with a spruce soundboard - European, engelmann, lutz, or (occasionally) sitka spruce.  

5) Custom made instrument. 

I am a custom guitar maker, and it could be argued that every guitar I make is a custom guitar - because I will build it with the features you want.

However; I occasionally get a request for something that is very specific or unusual, such as a period instrument.  For example, In 2005 I built two 19th century style guitars; one of which was an 8-string guitar based on a Rene Lacote design. The other was an 1847 Louis Panormo copy. I welcome your ideas.

 

From left- Cambodian Rosewood classical, cypress flamenco, East Indian Rosewood classical. All are French polished.

 

 

3) What is special about your guitars in terms of their craftsmanship?

Craftsmanship refers to the skill of the maker. It refers to our ability to make a beautifully aesthetic and functioning object. The fine classical guitar must be more than a tool for making music; it must be a work of art as well. To help achieve this end, I custom make my own rosettes, purfling and marquetry. You won't find catalogue rosettes made in Russia, Spain, or Japan on any of my guitars.  

On my deluxe models, I use a v-joint between the headstock and neck. Jose Romanillos believed the v-joint to be stronger than the usual scarf joint. Both are plenty strong enough when executed properly. The value of the v-joint is in its beauty. Two hundred years ago, most luthiers used the v-joint. Today, suprisingly few luthiers do. It takes time and patience to execute accurately, and it cannot be cut by a machine. We should value this kind of workmanship; it has largely disappeared in our modern world.

 

 

       Working by hand gives me maximum contact with the materials. In order to make a predictable, and exceptional instrument, the luthier needs regular hands-on contact with the woods. For this reason I have choosen to build my guitars by hand, without lots of jigs and machinery.

 The process of hand building demands much more skill of the luthier, and of course it is slower. But there are advantages: the building process is flexible, allowing for changes to be made at any point in the building process. This flexibility helps to ensure that each guitar will sound how it was intended.

Contrast this with the approach taken by modern factories, which treat every piece of wood the same. The results are like what you'll find on a bell-curve: Some guitars are very good, some are very bad, and the majority are mediocre. There exists a popular misconception: That the factory instruments are consistent and predictable, while those of the luthier are inconsistent and unpredictable. I have found the opposite to be true. Experienced luthiers such as myself consistently make a superior product, time after time. Unsatisfied customers are extremely rare.

 

 

4) What types of wood do you use? Why?

For classical guitar soundboards, I use European Spruce, Engelman Spruce or Western Red Cedar. My lattice-braced classical guitars have thus far all been made with Western Red Cedar soundboards.

 

Any good luthier is going to be very choosy about the quality of wood they use. It makes no sense to start out with anything but the very best woods.

Most of the western red cedar I use comes from the Queen Charlotte Islands, and northern Vancouver Island. The finest cedar comes from these areas, which are heavily influenced by the marine environment. The growth rings in the wood are very even, and there is a higher proportion of spring wood to summer wood. This makes the wood lighter in weight. The growth rings are also very close, giving the cedar much stiffness. And because the trees are so massive, obtaining perfectly straight, hand split billets is relatively easy. These three factors - stiffness, light weight, and straight grain are very important for making a loud, reponsive instrument with beautiful tone quality. And I use these same criteria for selecting my spruce tops as well.

For the guitar back and sides I prefer using East Indian Rosewood (dalbergia latifolia) for its beauty and its high quality.  I love Brazilian rosewood (dalbergia negra) too, but due to over-harvesting, it is now an endangered species. For this reason, high grade (quarter sawn)  Brazilian Rosewood is extremely scarce and very expensive. I would rather not use the low-grade, flat sawn stuff that many builders use today. It is too vulnerable to warping and cracking. I do however, have a limited supply of perfectly quartered, air dried, 30 year old Brazilian rosewood waiting for that special commission. It is beautiful stuff.

I recently built some classical guitars with Cambodian Rosewood (dalbergia bariensis & dalbergia cochinchinensis). Although lighter in colour than either East Indian or Brazilian, it is harder and heavier than both of them, giving it the potential for making excellent concert guitars. Cambodian rosewood is not well known in North America yet. It is a rare and special wood.

I would like to make more classical guitars with other members of the Dalbergia genus, such as Cocobola, Madagascar, and Honduran Rosewoods. High-grade wood is still available in these species, and they are excellent alternatives to the more traditional East Indian or Brazilian Rosewoods. Maple, Koa, Claro Walnut, and Cypress are four other woods I love to build guitars with. 

 

Guitar made with Italian Spruce and the finest Brazilain Rosewood. Binding is ebony.

 

They are all fine woods with a long history in instrument making.

Why I use any particular wood is a function of its structural and tonal qualities, availability, marketability, and cost. As the traditional woods are becoming rapidly depleted many new species are being used as alternatives. Brazilian rosewood is now  an endangered species. How much longer will high quality East Indian rosewood be available? In the short term, there are plenty of excellent alternatives to the traditionally favoured woods.

Antonio de Torres, who can be considered the father of the modern classical guitar, employed many unusual woods for his guitars. He used Brazilian rosewood when he could get it, but also used locust, maple, cypress, and pear wood for the backs and sides of his instruments.

 

5) What is French polish and why do you use it?

I studied French polishing with Geza Burghardt, a master luthier and French polisher from Hungary, who now lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. I appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge.  

Strictly speaking, French polishing is a technique, not a finish. Today, however, a French polished finish means a shellac based finish applied by hand with a special pad. When it was first used (probably in the 1700's) various natural resins were added to the shellac to alter its aesthetic and structural properties. The recipe I use contains some of these natural resins to make it tougher and more resistant to wear than a finish consisting purely of shellac.

I French polish my instruments for several reasons. First, it is the most beautiful finish, and is the only finish which organically compliments the completed instrument. The warm amber tones of shellac bring out the true beauty of wood like no other finish material can.

Secondly, French polishing is thin enough not to inhibit the way a fine instrument is made to vibrate. It is the right finish for musical reasons. In theory, many other finishing materials can be applied thinly, as manufacturers always claim. In practice, they are invariably too thick. As an instrument repairman I witnessed this on a daily basis. I was asked by several flamenco and classical guitar owners if I would strip the polyester varnish off the soundboards of their factory made guitars and replace the finish with a French polish. In every instance, the sound of the guitars was greatly improved. Some of the first instruments I made were sprayed with nitro-cellulose lacquer. Nitro-lacquer must be sprayed on quite thick, so as to ensure that the finish is not rubbed through when it is level sanded and buffed to a high gloss. This extra thickness does protect the instrument well, but it also restricts the sound. Nitrocellulose laquer and polyester varnish were designed for factory mass-production, not for making fine classical guitars.

Thirdly, French polished shellac is extremely repairable. Touching up scratches, dings, and wear spots is relatively fast and easy. This does not constitute re-finishing. It is expected that a French polish finish will need re-touching at some point to renew its luster and life. Other finishes get damaged and worn too, but most of the time they are difficult, costly, or impossible to repair without major intervention.

Lastly, shellac has stood the test of time. It is centuries old, and has proven itself as the superior finish for fine classical guitars.

 

                                                                        

 

6) How do you look after a French polished instrument?

Shellac, the main ingredient in the finish is sensitive to heat and moisture. Make sure that you do not let your skin come into direct contact with the guitar if you are hot and sweaty. Most classical guitarists put a thin cotton towel between themselves and the guitar. After the guitar has been played, wipe off any sweat, or grime on the finish with a soft flannel cloth. Keep the instrument stored in its case when not in use. If the finish starts to look aged or 'pebbly' over time, find a competent luthier to re-touch the finish. This is usually a simple procedure, unless the finish has been seriously damaged or neglected.

 

7) What about humidity?

Wood shrinks and expands with changes in relative humidity. If the air is very damp, wood will absorb moisture from the air and expand. If the air is very dry, wood will lose its moisture to the surrounding air and shrink. A steamy jungle environment will have a relative humidity (r.h.) of 100%. A house with central heating in the Canadian prairies in winter can be as low as 0% r.h. That is dry!

The best environment (in terms of relative humidity) in which to build a guitar will vary depending on where that instrument is going to live. Generally, the safest range to build in is between 40 and 60% relative humidity. I build my guitars and store all of my wood in a climate controlled shop where I keep the r.h. levels between 45 an 50%.  

 Steel-string manufacturers like Martin, Larrivee, and Godin generally assemble around 45% r.h.. Most of the Japanese classical guitars built in the 1970's were assembled between 55-60% relative humidity. Many of the older Spanish instruments were assembled in excessively damp conditions, leaving them highly vulnerable to cracking and warping when they reached drier environments. 

Guitar owners should try to keep the humidity level where thier instrument is stored as close as possible to the relative humidity under which the instrument was constructed. In some areas where the R.H. levels do not vary much, this will not be a concern, but in other places it is extremely important. Dryness is generally more of a threat to an instrument than high humidity, but both extremes should be avoided. Changes in the wood do not happen immediately. If you notice that the fret ends have started to protrude out of the edges of the fingerboard, this means that the instrument has been getting dried out and the ebony has shrunk. If the string action has dropped over the course of a few days or if the soundboard and back have started to flatten out, this indicates excessive dryness too. An open crack is another unfortunate sign!

The ways in which an instrument will respond to excessively high humidity are harder to spot. A softening of the finish, a bulging soundboard, higher action, or a muting of the sound are some of the signs. The easiest thing to do is to invest in an inexpensive hygrometer, and keep it in the place where the guitar is stored. Keep the guitar case out of extreme environments such as cars in the summer or cold car trunks in the winter. Do not put a guitar directly beside a heater or close to a fireplace. Looking after a fine guitar may sound complicated after reading all this, but it is not. It is just a matter of knowing the climatic characteristics of where you live, and responding appropriately.

 

8) How much will a Dominelli Guitar cost me, and what does this price include?

Classical Guitars: 

My standard concert classical model is $4700 Can/ $4800 U.S. Concert Classical with Elevated Fingerboard is $5200 Can / 5300 U.S. This price includes my finest East Indian Rosewood, Engelmann or European spruce or western red cedar for the soundboard,  Irving Sloane or Gotoh 510 premium tuners, and a deluxe, double arch TKL case.

 Here is a list of possible up-grades and their cost:

-Elevated fingerboard: add $500

-Brazilian Rosewood: (straight grain, quarter-sawn 2 piece back) add $2000

-Brazilian Rosewood: (straight grain, quarter sawn, 3 piece back) add $1200

-Cambodian Rosewood, Koa, Bosnian Maple, or Claro  Walnut: inquire. Price will depend on availability.

-Cypress for Classical: no additional cost

-V-Jointed headstock: add $250

-Tuners: Allese, Gilbert, Graf, Rodgers, etc: available at List Price 

Flamenco Guitars: 

Standard "Gypsy style" flamenca blanca is $3500 Can $3600 U.S.. Spruce or Red cedar soundboard, Yellow cedar or Spanish cypress back and sides, Spanish Cedar neck. Price includes Gotoh brass tuners w/ ebony knobs, and double arch TKL case.

-East Indian rosewood back and sides (negra) - add $100

Deluxe Model Flamenco (Blanca or Negra): $4500 Can / $4600 U.S. The deluxe has the same aesthetic attention to detail as my concert classical guitars. Fine marquetry/binding work, and all the other appointments, including high grade tuning machines.

-East Indian Rosewood back and sides : add $150

-Brazilian Rosewood 2 piece back: add $2000

-Brazilian Rosewood 3 piece back: add $1200

-Koa, Walnut, Maple, or Cuban Mahogany: inquire

-V-Jointed headstock: add $250

-Friction Pegs: no additional cost

Special Order Guitars: For example, a Lacote or Panormo Copy, or an 8-string classical. The cost of a special order guitar will depend on the materials used and the work involved, after discussing the project with the client. Not necesarily more costly than my standard classical guitar. Price is guaranteed at the time of order.

9) What is your waiting list? How long can I expect to wait for a Guitar?

My wait list for commissioned guitars is now about  8 months .

If you do not want to wait, see my Guitars For Sale Page. I often have one or two guitars available for purchase. These stock guitars have a one week trial period. If it prooves unsuitable I will give you a full refund upon safe return of the guitar. 

 

Yes. For more details you can go to the "Repair and Restoration" page of this site. If you have an instrument that needs a repair I would be interested in seeing it. Just contact me.