Fine handcrafted custom guitars for serious musicians.

Focusing on Playability

The Player's Comfort Bevels

William (Grit) Laskin is generally credited with the modern guitar bevel. Since his first designs many luthiers have picked up the idea. 

As mentioned before, as a custom guitar builder, I focus on five key areas when making a guitar. These are tone, intonation, playability, durability, and beauty. This page is dedicated to playability, namely comfort when playing. As a lifetime musician I understand what it means have discomfort while playing the guitar. Some of my clients play professionally for hours a day, some clients have shoulder and back problems that require special designs for comfort. The popularity of the comfort bevels has grown rapidly in recent years.

I offer three bevels:

The arm bevel: Located on the top side of the lower bout. This particular bevel design is by Kevin Ryan, who has graciously given me permission to adapt it to my instruments.

The rib bevel: Located on the back waist, I first saw this design on a Mark Maingard guitar.  I like it, and Mark has given me permission to use the design. Again, Grit Laskin is the original author of back bevel as well.

The cutaway bevel: I first saw this design on electric guitars. The design allow the fingers to flow over the edge of the cutaway and reach just a little extra without the sharp edge of the guitar cramping your style.

I offer these bevels as options on all models. You can chose any one or a combination.

Ave Maria Grand Auditorium w/German Spruce top, Cocobolo sides and back, Brazilian Rosewood bevels
and binding, Narrowline Pearl Fingerboard Purfling, sound port, and Blue Paua package.