David Pelter 2024 No. 43 – UK

A one-of-a-kind guitar! We have the chance to offer one of the very few guitars made by the British builder David Pelter who is making incredible lattice guitars. First of all the guitar is a beauty, then the sound is unique, loud with deep basses and long clear trebles. Unlike the Australian lattice, the guitar is light and has a pure clear sound. To be discovered

Let’s see the specifications :

• Cedar top with stepped lattice bracing using balsa and carbon reinforcement
• Indian rosewood solid back and sides with double thickness sides
• the back reinforcement is made with 4 ladder
• Armrest, and fingerboard in Ebony
• Ebano bridge with 12-hole-tie block: 16 gr.
• Full French polish
• the frets are Jescar Evogold FW43080
• weight: 174 gr.
• cavity resonance: 78,2 Hz
• set-up at the 12 fret : treble 3 mm and bass 4mm

Here is some technical information from David himself :

The character of my latest instrument/design is so very unusual that I am quite sure you will find it very different. The depth of bass is quite unlike any other instrument that I have either made or heard. It is a guitar that sounds like a cello in the bass but with rich creamy trebles that are round and full, have a bell like quality and sustain forever.I think before I mentioned that the natural resonance of the body was 73hz and the top 171hz but in fact by changing the nut and saddle from bone to brass these resonances have now lowered to 69hz and 168hz. I have compared the sound against many of the video samples on your website and I am sure you will not be disappointed when you eventually get the chance to hear and play it.

In simple terms, the top has a stepped thickness where large parts of the lower bout areas are exceptionally thinned to 1mm…..not unlike a Smallman. The lattice bracing is using balsa and carbon. The back is double thickness, arched but not carved and heavily braced both with 4 cross braces and 2 longitudinal braces that are housed into the neck and heal blocks. Sides are double thickness and linings are heavy and solid to resist the loss of vibrations. The brass nut/saddle adds a great deal of time-consuming work but brings a magnificence and special quality to the sound.

The type I build I use is more of the European style than the Australian style. I adopt a traditional back rather than the carved type and thin it so the back becomes an active part. My sides generally are doubled to reduce the loss of energy away from the two vibrating plates….top and back. My internal tone bar just south of the soundhole is open i.e raised above the extended lattice on the bass side only. All in all, my style of building is designed to capture the majority additional volume from this style of building but retaining a warmer European sound rather than pushing the boundaries of the DT/lattice and getting highest volume but ending up with a thinner more brittle sound.  

My guitars are played by Craig Ogden.

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