Dos guitarras

Here is a photo of #35 and #36 together before french polishing. They have been built together. 35 is Rio rosewood / Swiss spruce and 36 is Indian rosewood / cedar. Although one is cedar and one is spruce, they share a particular quality which testifies to their common birth. Both are dark and sweet, with something grave and grand and timeless in their voice, with great sustain, balance and clarity.

But they are different from each other in a way that i find most interesting. Its something that no builder i know could impart through artifice of technique, nor long experience. It is something which is a product of serendipity, that grace we gain through humility of attitude towards our work and the acknowledgement that, as luthiers, the beauty of our works is not simply the result of the conscious exercise of skill but it is a gift, from where we know not. And the more we, as luthiers, acknowledge this and open ourselves to it, the more our work assumes a beauty and significance greater than our own.