Building The Instrument
Peter Hopkin's fascination with the carved archtop began in 1973, when his father built a Gibson A-5 mandolin.
"I was in awe of the process, of the fact that he could take a solid piece of wood and, with his hands, create a musical instrument of such sublime beauty!"
Today, Peter continues to impart that reverence for the creative process into each one of his hand-crafted archtop guitars.
Starting with select spruce and maple tonewoods, he begins to draw out the tonal qualities unique to the carved archtop, finished with the understated elegance of fine ebony, abalone and mother of pearl. "The most important consideration has to be tone, that balanced blend of a rich, deep bass all the way through to a clear, ringing treble. Once you've achieved that, when you combine it with the classic lines of the traditional archtop, that's the ultimate guitar!"
All woods, whether Sitka spruce sound boards, "big leaf" maple backs and sides, or Eastern maple necks are hand selected for colour, figure and grain, and then seasoned in the workshop until ready for use.
Tops and backs are carved, scraped and planed to exacting tolerances and then further hand-tuned to ensure optimum resonance and tonality in each individual guitar.