Acoustic Guitar: Alan Carruth

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Alan Carruth
The New Hampshire guitar maker specializes in fingerstyle steel-strings but also builds stringed instruments of virtually every type, shape, and form.

By Michael John Simmons

Photo Courtesy of Alan Carruth

To join a luthier’s guild in 17th-century Europe, you would be tested in your skill at building three different instruments—a guitar, a harp, and a violin, for example. Luthier Alan Carruth from Newport, New Hampshire, would have had no trouble acing that exam. “A couple of years ago I was getting ready to display at a music festival,” he recalls, “and I thought it would be fun to take one of every instrument I make. But when I added them all up and found I made 35 different types, I gave up that plan.”

It’s common for luthiers to specialize in one family of instruments, but Carruth found that making harps, hammered dulcimers, hurdy-gurdies, and violins, among others, helps him more deeply understand the inner workings of the guitar. “When you look at these instruments, there is a lot of commonality,” he says. “They all have strings, they’re all made of wood, they all move air. Certainly there are differences in the details—and the devil is in the details—but if you understand how a violin works, it will help you understand how a guitar works.”

CLASSICAL SENSIBILITY: CLARITY AND BALANCE
Carruth started his lutherie career in 1974, building classical guitars. “Even today, I tend to build steel-strings with more of a classical sensibility,” he says. “The classical guitar has a wide palette of tonal
colors. You don’t get that as much in many steel-strings, which tend to be built for flatpicking and to emphasize power rather than subtlety or are heavily braced to resist the tension of the strings. I build steel-strings to sound best for fingerpicking, and I strive for clarity and balance of tone.”

Carruth works alone, and every guitar he builds is essentially a custom order. “I do offer basic models of my classical, steel-string, and archtop guitars,” he says, “but they are just starting points.” His steel-strings, for
example, start at $2,700 and come in 000 (with a choice of 12- or 14-fret necks), jumbo, and small-jumbo sizes.

Customers can specify standard tonewoods such as mahogany, maple, or rosewood, or try more unusual choices, such as oak, laurel, Osage orange, or persimmon. “A lot of domestically grown timber makes wonderful sounding instruments,” Carruth says. “Persimmon, for example, is a member of the ebony family, although it’s a bit softer than most tropical varieties, and it has excellent balance and clarity. Another favorite of mine is Osage orange, which grows around Arkansas and sounds like Brazilian rosewood.”

Carruth offers two sizes of classical guitars: the Standard measures 36.5 cm (14.37 inches) across the lower bout and resembles instruments from early 20thcentury builders like Hermann Hauser, and the Grand Concert has a 37 cm (14.57-inch) lower bout and is based on later models like the Ramírez 1A. The base price for both models is $2,700.

Carruth’s basic archtop starts at $5,700, and is usually built with maple sides and back and a spruce top.

CROSS-BRACED BACK, STIFF TOP
The spirit of discovery that drives Carruth to build a broad range of instruments also leads him to explore the different aspects of his craft in greater depth. “I build my flattops with a cross-braced back, which is not that common,” he says. “I got the idea from luthier Fred Dickens, who suggested back in the ’70s that it made sense to get the top and the back working together. His concept was to tune the back so its resonance more closely matched the resonance of the top. This coupling of the top and back increases the bass response without having to thin the top or braces too much, which is a common method to increase bass. A stiffer top helps produce a stronger treble. All this works because cross braces can be more accurately tuned than standard ladder-style back braces.”

Although he works alone, Carruth takes time to share what he’s learned with others. “I don’t have apprentices, but I do teach students,” he says. “I’d recommend every builder teach someone to build a guitar. If you have to explain how and why you do something, it really clarifies your thinking and reveals any fuzziness in your ideas.”

Alan Carruth
51 Camel Hump Rd.
Newport, NH 03773
(603) 863-7064
www.alcarruthluthier.com

This article also appears in Acoustic Guitar, February 2006

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