/ Return - History

In the year 2000, Everett started offering a guitar that was built in concert
with the famed Terada Factory in Japan.

The Laurel Series.

Each Laurel was sent to the Everett Workshop in Atlanta where it was completed.

128 Laurels were built over a 3 year period.

The Laurel Production was completed in 2003.

If you are one of the lucky ones to have a Laurel on your knee,
you know what a great guitar it is.

These 8 photos represent months of work. They follow the construction of an Laurel O model.

Here she is all shiny and ready for assembly (mahogany O model cutaway). It would be impossible for me to show all the tooling the highly respected Terada workshop has. They have been building guitars for many decades and rely on craftsmanship more than computers. So do I. You end up with a guitar that breathes and sounds like a musical instrument instead of simply a product from a factory.

Here the Specialist is checking the angles of the neck before gluing the bridge. Neck pitch is important to allow the proper amount of torque on the top while giving us low action. The guitar has already been fretted at this point. I supply the factory with a unique fret wire for my guitars. It is slightly taller than the usual fretwire. This allows less work for your left hand and more time before needing a fret job.

Next the guitar is shipped to my workshop in Atlanta.

I reach in the soundhole with a series of small tools, then sandpaper, to work the bracing for the individual guitar. I work the top to a specific rebound flexibility. The other photo shows me flexing the bridge while voicing the top.

This photo is set up as a 'demo' to illustrate what goes on inside the guitar.

Sometimes it only takes about 45 minutes, sometimes hours. Whatever it takes, each guitar top is individually voiced, by me, to the particular guitar's body.

After voicing the top, I detail the guitar. This includes truing the frets, bone nut, and saddle. Then I rebuff the guitar to it's original shine, and clean the interior. I'm not putting my name on it until everything is right.

When the guitar is finally completed to my requirements, it gets the Everett label with wax seal.

Here I'm reaming out the bridge holes for the wooden bridge pins. I like to match the bridge pins to the tuner buttons: ivoroid and abalone pins with chrome buttons / ebony and abalone pins with ebony buttons / rosewood and abalone pins with 'tortoiseshell' buttons, ... And last the guitar is adjusted to the customer's playing style and string preference.

You get a lot of personal attention with an Everett Laurel.