Custom Made Guitars
Angus Guitars are hand built to custom specification by expert guitar builder Chris Graham in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. Each guitar is made with solid timber which has been carefully selected for both sound and appearance. There are many different styles and options to choose from.
“Most of the guitars are a custom build, where the buyer chooses style, timbers and many combinations of inlay, tuners etc. I am able to access most timbers and accommodate most designs of inlay. I am happy to experiment with woods, however, I would rather not experiment on a custom build. I tend to try out timbers at my own expense. Some timbers I am discovering are just not suitable for guitars. I have used, Mahogany, Maple, Indian Rosewood, African Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood, Kauri, Matai, Walnut and Tasmanian Blackwood. All of these timbers have great tone quality, although some are much more difficult to work with. Matai, while being a beautiful native NZ timber with great tone qualities, is very brittle and has a strong tendency to split.
I have built a number of styles: classical, thin line classical, Dreadnought, 12 string, and what I call a C series or Campanio. The most common guitar I build is the OM or concert guitar. This is a medium size guitar with a big sound. After building an OM guitar for myself I began to see why this guitar has become so popular. The body at its widest point is about 20mm less than a dreadnought and the thickest point of the guitar body is also about 20mm less than a dreadnought. This means that the guitar is very easy to handle and particularly suitable for solo artists. The small size doesn’t seem to lose out at all in tone or volume. In fact, the first comment people usually make is “Wow that’s a big sound for a small guitar”. I have played dreadnought guitars most of my life, however, the compact nature and clear tones of the OM concert guitar has won me over.
Talk to Chris if you would like to know more.