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Matthew Mustapick Guitars
beauty    purpose    character

2714 Lafayette Street
Soquel, CA 95073
(831) 465-6803
matt@mustapickguitars.com
Instruments | Options | Ordering | Testimonials | Sounds

I offer all of my guitars in one style of appointments and trim, always with beautiful wood bindings and always with top quality materials and tuners. With respect to such considerations, the picture galleries on my site are entirely indicative of what's available at my base price. Some woods can be more expensive, and I do offer quite a few "structural" options that I describe here.

Cutaway - $500
Almost everyone is familiar with this feature. One side of the guitar is shaped in a graceful curve to allow easier access to the higher frets.

Ryan Armrest Bevel - $700
Originally popularized by Grit Laskin, then slightly modified by Kevin Ryan, the armrest bevel softens the corner where your arm rests on the body of the guitar. With Kevin's design, the lines of the guitar flow elegantly. I encourage anyone considering this option. The player's forearm can rest comfortably over the bevel in any position, encouraging the right hand to be more mobile along the strings and explore more tone colors.
Bloodwood bevel on an Arena.
Koa bevel on a Deep Baritone.

Side Soundport - no charge
This concept came originally from the great classical maker Robert Ruck, who puts two small holes on each side of the guitar, very close to where the neck joins the body, rather than one larger hole. The main advantage of the soundport is that it gives the player a "front row seat" to enjoy a strong direct signal from the soundbox. This feature takes nothing away from the forward projection of the instrument. From 20 feet away the guitar is just as loud. For anyone closer to the guitar, it adds a great deal of richness to the sound, owing to the dual sound source which creates a stereo field.

Multi-Scale Geometry - $400
Commonly referred to as Ralph Novax Fan-Frettingtm, this option allows for the bass strings to be a bit longer than the treble strings. This is an important feature of instruments with more than 6 strings, where the open strings will be called on to cover a range of more than two octaves. Some builders and players perceive other subtle benefits, so I'm often asked to include it on convential six-string instruments and I'm very happy to do so.

Extra Strings - $300 Per Extra String
Extra strings increase the range of the instrument and also increase the range of notes available to your left hand at any one time. I've been fortunate to have many opportunities to build such instruments and enjoy the process every time.

Manzer Wedgetm - $350
Linda Manzer came up with the idea of tapering the body of the guitar so that it is deeper on the side that rests on your leg than on the side where your arm reaches over the guitar. I offer a subtle take on this feature where the bass side of the lower bout is 1/2" less deep than than the treble side. The depth at the midline remains the same, so the change in depth for your right arm is 1/4". In combination with the bevel, as shown to the left, this creates one very comfortable instrument to play.

Tonewoods

Soundboard Woods - In general your choice of top wood will be included in my base price. I've had the plesaure of building with the finest grades of Sitka, Adirondack, Engelmann, European, Italian, and Carpathian spruce varieties, as well as cedar, Port Orford cedar, redwood, and koa.

Back and Side Woods
- Many of my customers choose from the particularly lovely sets I've been acquiring and keeping in the shop. I'm always happy to order other woods as well on my customer's behalf.
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