The Bedell craftsmen team recently completed a unique and challenging project in cooperation with the folks at Artisan Guitars. The goal was to craft three custom all mahogany instruments (learn more about sourcing mahogany in Guatemala) – in Dreadnought, Orchestra and Parlor body shapes – with custom color work. Bedell utilized the finest mahogany from our custom stack and built the guitar bodies using our new sound profiling process. After the body shapes were constructed, the team jumped into the process of creating the custom color work. The custom finish was created using “reverse grain fill”, which is typically translucent and applied to the wood prior to a high gloss finish. In this case, the Mahogany was sprayed the distinctive colors, then a white grain fill applied over top, followed by a high gloss finish. These new guitars have been aptly named the “Nashville Songwriter Series.”

Of this process, Bedell’s Miles Benefield commented, “At Bedell Guitars, we are always up for a good challenge. The Artisan team came to us with structural and aesthetic challenges; not only create amazing sounding sound profiled instruments in each body shape, but also treat them with a highly unique and complicated finish process. The end result is more than we could have hoped for. The instruments are stunning visually and tonally. They play fantastic and we look forward to building more!”

All three of these new custom Bedell guitars can be viewed and played by stopping by Artisan Guitars in Nashville, TN. And, if you’re keen on  hearing these instruments but you are not located in Nashville – you can visit Artisan online and hear audio samples today! Check out this link to see and hear these customs!

Artisan’s Bill Warmoth explains, “The invitation to partner with Bedell Guitars in launching their Custom Shop offerings was a welcomed opportunity. In recent years while visiting their booth at NAMM I witnessed an extraordinary quality in the sound of their guitars being deep, full, and resonant. Tom explained they had incorporated a special voicing technique termed ‘Sound Profiling’.

We visited their operations in Bend this past September, where we handpicked sets of Honduran Mahogany from their wood library. These are some of the highest quality Mahogany sets we have seen.

The design elements for our Nashville Songwriter Series were inspired by the many songwriters who call our iconic town ‘home’. They need a guitar that works as hard as they do, and an all-mahogany guitar is uniquely matched with vocals. The extraordinary custom finishes were to represent some basic everyday elements in the lives of Nashville’s songwriters (faded blue jeans for the Broadway Blue, red brick of the Ryman for Solo Red, and lots of coffee).

Bedell’s Sound Profiling process has created an astounding tonal range in each of the three body sizes, with an exceptional bass element, sturdy mid’s, and chiming trebles. From parlor to dreadnought, these guitars cover a full range of songwriting crafts. We couldn’t be more pleased with Bedell’s partnering collaboration to create these special guitars.”