Steel String Cutaway by Chuck DeHart

In rosewood with sitka spruce top, this steel string cutaway is auditorium-sized, built with forms from the earlier classical guitars. The fingerboard is wider than the usual steel string and the instrument is built for sustain. To really enjoy it, you need to plug in the DeArmond soundhole pickup. At 28 years old, it has held up well and is still my guitar for small parties. People usually gasp when they see it for the first time at campfires. I named it "The Mountain" and it includes this theme in the headstock and the wood burned veneer label inside.

Thanks and Enjoy, Chuck. October 2013.(Email me here)

Check out the custom made rosette, bound fingerboard, rosewood pickguard, wood burned label, and the grain of the sitka spruce in the top and back braces.

Some other links at the Hollow Road Guitar Shop, Chuck's Instrument Website:

Most of these are pictures taken after 28 years of service. The one on the right is from 2002, by Diane Elliott. This guitar is on its second case. It is especially fun with the soundhole pickup, making it quite suitable for acoustic, jazz and some hard rock. The instrument has a modified-Spanish footer neck that gives extra reach under the 14th fret instead of a dovetail or bolt on neck. The single neck/heel system adds to the integrity of the guitar. Rosewood sides, back, fingerboard, pick guard, faceplate and coco bolo bindings.

Note the three-piece neck with bookmatched hard curly maple and coco bolo core (pictured below). The neck includes two pieces of aluminum reinforcement rod. "Modified-Spanish footer" means that the bass side is glued into a slot at the 14th fret while the treble/cutaway side is attached to a ledge on the footer/heel block. The block is made from glued-up short sections of the neck stock, then carved and fitted for the sides. You have to compare these pictures to other cutaways to see how the block is carved out from under the fingerboard. Check out also the thumb rest on the bass side of the heel.

Another view of the front and the view of the tail. Not bad for 28 years old.

An old picture of the interior of the top (below left). Note circular reinforcement of soundhole and rosette inlay. Not something you are likely to find in other than a hand made instrument. Below right, a recent photo of the wood burned label inside.