For me one of the exciting discoveries at the Festival, and there were many, was the discovery of Thomas Lloyd Guitars.
Luthier, Chris Wynne, the Principal of Thomas Lloyd Guitars (check them out on the link above) who has been hand building and running Guitar Building Classes both in Australia and Italy for the past 20 years, had a stand at the Festival.
I was neither interested in purchasing any of Chris’s Guitars or taking his classes (and that is NO reflection on Chris or his Guitars) BUT what I was interested in sourcing Old Growth Australian Timbers for Back/Sides, Soundboards and Necks and this was a substantial part of Thomas Lloyd Guitars business.
Chris had on display a number of Guitars made from some of the most stunning sets of Australian Timber that I had ever see, this does not happen often, but I was “Blown away”. We, at Valleys Guitars, are often asked, “can we make in Australian Timber”, and I have to say that in the past, I have told Clients that they were far better looking at some of the Stunning Timbers that we have in our inventory from Brazil, Mexico Europe and the US, as the Australian Timber were just not up to speed, when one was to compare them with these imported timber.
I now find that this is just not the case,
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(CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND THEY WILL OPEN UP)
In pictures of one or two of the Guitars that Chris had on display, you will notice that they are
all matt finished, imagine the stunning “IN YOUR FACE” effect when finished in two
pack catalyzing Urethane:
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT the Timbers are Tiger Myrtle, Cooba and Sheoak.
I was particularly blow away with the Cooba. AND I am here to tell you that THEY ALL sound GREAT.
Further and this is HOT off the press, we at Valleys will be making a line of Acoustic Baritone Guitars in some of these woods and offering Guitars in these Timbers together with Fiddleback Blackwood and Blackheart Sassafras, and Soundboards in King William and Bunya Pine.
I believe that Chris builds exclusively in Australian Timbers and I admire him for this stance, we however at Valleys, don’t and won’t, but will be mixing and matching timbers to suit the Guitar and the clients requirements.
The exciting aspect of our NEW relationship is the availability of these beautiful Australian Timbers, hand picked by Chris (in the forests)and then quarter sawn, to bring out the inherent beauty of the Timber, together with the Stunning Acoustic attributes of these Australian Old Growth Timbers Matched with an appropriate top, be it an Australian top ,Italian Alpine or German Spruce, Adarondak, Cedar, Redwood or any other of the Tops that Valleys has in its extensive Inventory of beautiful and rare timbers, the availability of these timbers will add an exciting extension to our range.
I am able to tell you that very shortly, two of our NEW AUSTRALIAN TIMBERED BARITONE GUITARS will be seen in the hands of a couple of Australia’s Leading Country Music STARS, so watch this site for more info.
