Charles fox exhibited at the festival again this year and as one would expect ,attended with a range of stunning instruments. none the least of which was his SJ-!4 Ergo Noir 2005 Guitar or as I like to call it his

Ebony Guitar,( pictured here), this Stunning Instrument is FULL of innovative Features, or possibly more accuratively put ,”Recent Design Trends” such as a Wedge-shaped body,elevated Finger Board and a double top soundboard or Sandwich Laminated Top.

Charles also had a number of other Instruments that engaged the many people that filed past his stand during the Festival.

Charles ,along with a number of other builders exhibiting, were advocating the advantages of the “Double Top”, two very thin pieces (1 mm thick) of soundboard material, be it spruce,Redwood cedar or the like sandwiched between a very thin layer of honey combed Nomex material making  the top, not only very thin and light but extremely strong ,so much so that Charles is making Guitars without any top bracing whatsoever.This Ultra Low Mass Parabolic Soundboard weighs  about 40% than a normal solid wood soundboard and does NOT require Bracing of the top

Charles is seen here holding an OM Cutaway style of Instrument which has been constructed using this method, this Instrument had NO top bracing, of any kind whatsoever.

I had an opportunity to play one of these guitars and was immediately struck by just how light it was, but more importantly, how open and loud the instrument played, further I was very impressed by the evenness and balance across the strings which was immediately evident.

As a lot of you would already be aware, Charles was and is always ready to answer question not only about his instruments and methods of construction, but about anything to do with LUTHERI in general.

I was very interested in this form of construction particularly as it referenced to Acoustic Baritone Construction.

Here is a Photo of Picture of the Laminated top with the Nomex type material displayed lying on top of it. Just note how thin the top is. I estimate that the Laminated top is no thicker than 2.5 mm.