Looks like we have everything updated. Marion will edit these posts from Mooman later. Thanks a lot for putting everything in order, Marion.
-Joe Offer-
Thread #32314 Message #571204
Posted By: mooman
13-Oct-01 - 10:52 AM
Thread Name: Instruments PermaThread™
Subject: RE: Instruments PermaThread™
At 'Spaw's suggestion I am adding several new items to the Instruments Permathread and will add more as time goes on. The first of these concerns Lakewood Guitars as "Spaw seems to consider me the resident Lakewood expert. So here follows some information and links concerning Lakewood.Lakewood Guitars
Lakewood Guitars was established back in 1985 by Martin Seeliger in West Germany. For a time in the late 80s/early 90s production switched to a workshop/small factory in the former East Germany before reverting back to the current workshops in Giessen in Western Germany. The following links give an over view of the factory and the current Lakewood team.
For a relatively small operation, Lakewood offer a wide variety of instruments. These basically fall into the following categories
- "Auditorium" or A-series
- "Dreadnought" or D-series
- "Jumbo" or J-series
- "Grand Concert" or M-series
Dreadnought or Jumbo should be pretty self explanatory to most guitar users. Auditorium models to my eye slot somewhere between the classic 00 and 000 body size with a slotted headstock and 14 fret necks (12 is available as an option). Grand Concert models are probably something between the classic 000 and 0000 body size with 14 fret necks. In each series there area number of models (3 in the A-series) and seven each in the (D-, J- and M-series). The starting model in each series is typically solid cedar top with solid mahogany back and sides going up though various combinations to the top model with solid European spruce top with abalone inlays, back and sides of solid Brazilian rosewood and gold-plated tuners. All models feature scalloped bracing and high quality hardware such as Scaller tuners. The following link gives the specifications for each model.
Lakewood also have a Custom Shop which offers many options including three neck widths/profiles (my own personal guitar is an M-18 with "Ragtime" (48mm at nut) neck), twelve string models, left hand models, cutaway options, customised fingerboard inlays, slotted headstock on any model and onboard electronics (they use EMF pickups and electronics as standard. Also a range of custom woods including padouk, cherry, pear, Macassar ebony, turkey walnut, yew, myrtle, amarant and cypress are available.
Many Mudcatters will not be so familiar with Lakewood Guitars as some other more famous high-quality brands. However they have steadily developed am impressive list of users and are building up an international distributor and dealer base.
Having owned fine Guild, Gibson, Manson, Flambeau/Lowden and other guitars, I can say that my Lakewood is so far my favourite. With its wide fretboard and solid European spruce/Ovangkol combination, it is a great guitar for fine fingerpicking with a tremendous sustain and good balance across all strings. My personal setup is with Elixir 012. to 0.54 strings and the guitar is miked through a a Shure SM-57.
I hope this brief overview is helpful to those looking for a good quality and good value alternative to some of the better-known US and UK makers.
Happy picking!
mooman
OK...this next instrument permathread post concerns Paul Hathway instruments.Paul operates from East London and makes a wide variety of stringed instruments. The link above starts with his Octave Mandola page as that is the instrument of his that I own. My model is the plain and unbound model to the right of the top photo. Paul's instruments tend to be rather plain in terms of decoration but the tonewoods and body woods are of the highest quality. This makes a Hathway instrument a very good quality and fine sounding instrument at a very competitive price. Paul can fit pickups and electronics to any of his instruments on request.
For potential purchasers visiting London, Paul is very accommodating in allowing visitors to his workshop where he has a special room with a good 40 or 50 instruments set up ready to try out. When I was buying I had a choice of about five individual instruments in my price range and Paul very patiently waited while I took a good two hours to decide on the one I would take, a difficult decision as seemingly similar instruments each had a particular combination of qualities. For those unable to visit his workshop, several shops including Hobgoblin and Custy's in Ennis, Ireland carry his instruments.
Paul Hathway also makes mandolins, guitars and other modern instruments and renaissance instruments.
All in all, a very helpful maker who produces a wide range of affordable and fine-sounding instruments.
mooman
Finally in this short set of three posts on makers:Christopher Eccleshall
I first became acquainted with Chris Eccleshall instruments around 1980 when he was based in West London. The instrument I am holding in the lower photo here dates from then and is an Eccleshall A.5 "Pearly" mandolin with European spruce top and rosewood back and sides. The edges of the top and the soundhole are inlaid with abalone and the fingerboard is ebony. The mandolin has a very characteristic and bright sound with good balance and my setup is Elixir .010 to .034 mandolin strings with miking up though a Sure SM-57. By the way, the instrument in the upper photo is my Lakewood M-18 referred to in the one of the previous posts.
Chris Eccleshall has since moved to Dartington in Devon, UK and here is a link to his website. Chris has a loyal following of customers both for his original instruments and repair work (he is an authorised repairer for Guild, Gibson and Martin), some of whom are listed on his site.
Overall, an exceptional craftsman and outstanding quality individually-made instruments (both acoustic and electric).
Regarding Lakewood, Hathway, and Eccleshall instruments, I will be adding sound samples (.wav and .mp3) fairly soon to my personal website to give an idea of the sound of these instruments. I'll post again to this thread when these links are available.
Best regards,
mooman
P.S. Please forgive my appalling and uncharacteristic (!) spelling mistakes throughout the above three postings. At least the links seem to work this time!mooman
For those interested in Lakewood or Flambeau/Lowden guitars, click it here and for those interested in Eccleshall or Hathway instruments click on this one for some close-up photos of my own instruments.Best regards,
mooman