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What’s in Process |
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During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Spanish guitarist and guitar maker Antonio Torres (1817-1892) gave birth to what is now known as the modern classical guitar. At the request of his friend and professional guitarist Julian Arcas, Torres manipulated bracing patterns and dimensions of the body and came up with something that pleased both Arcas and the rest of the guitar community. Before Torres began his illustrious career, guitars were built with small bodies and a short scale length that produced little tone or volume. Torres sought to build those complaints out of the instrument. He made the body larger, expanded the string length and made the body deeper. All of these improvements coupled with the innovations in fan bracing patterns made big news and changed the shape of the guitar world throughout Europe, and his innovations gradually spread to the rest of the world. Torres’ ideas were adopted by the shops of Manuel Ramirez in Spain and Herman Hauser in Germany, who, with the help of the young guitarist Andres Segovia, further developed the classical guitar.
Through the years and continuing today, musicians have voiced their needs and wants to luthiers in order to get exactly what they desire in an instrument. Over the course of one hundred and fifty years the guitar has taken many shapes and sizes. Many people—luthiers and musicians alike—have put forth ideas in hopes of coming up with the perfect guitar. Those who succeeded did so because their instruments matched both their customers’ and the builder’s ideas of the perfect guitar. While mass producers of instruments may produce a fine instrument, they are not able to match design and materials for consistent results and the evolution of their design often comes to a standstill. At Woodsound Studio I strive to to fulfill the needs of many players by producing guitars with a variety of balanced tonal schemes. I achieve this through one-off production, the manipulation of bracing patterns, and the selection of appropriate woods and finishes, coupled with a subtle blend of trim and appointments. The Pinkham GuitarsI offer both steel string and classical instruments in varying grades to meet your desires and, with advanced designs, to improve your ability. Beginning with my conservatory models through the elite master models, you will see, feel, and hear the difference in my instruments. In addition to guitars, Woodsound Studio produces a line of fine hand-built mandolins.
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The
development of the modern guitar from its ancestral roots
has followed two parallel routes—the classical guitar and
the steel string guitar. 
The
development of the steel string guitar began in 1811 when Christian
Fredrich Martin was apprenticed to Johann Stauffer, a Viennese maker
of guitars and other instruments at the age of 15. Upon completing
his apprenticeship, he returned to his birthplace, Mark Neukirchen,
Germany, but imigrated soon after to the United States, eventually
settling in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where there was a thriving German
community. Here he established his guitar building business, building
the gut-strung European guitar but with the the innovation of using
x-bracing under the soundboard. Carrying on the family business,
Martin's descendants saw the demand for a new style of guitar, one
which could generate a larger volume of sound and blend well with
much louder banjos, mandolins, and fiddles when played at barn dances.
By 1900 the development of steel strings, which produce a louder
sound than gut strings, necessitated a stronger x-brace under the
soundboard. These two elements together produce the desired characteristics
of the modern steel string guitar. 
The
Blodgett Mandolins