Frick went to the coast and\u2014to the wariness of some locals, but with the blessing of the harbor patrol\u2014cut into the log. \u201cIt was nearly two feet wide at the base. From the first whiff, I knew that it was Alaskan yellow cedar\u2014a very stiff wood that would be great for the back and sides of a flat-back archtop guitar,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cedar might seem like a curious choice for the back and sides of an archtop\u2014as they are traditionally made from maple\u2014but for the last decade Frick has quietly been pushing the envelope on the design of the archtop, once considered a jazz instrument but now being reappraised for use in a range of styles. \u201cWith flattops, everyone has an OM model, but with archtops it seems that you can do whatever you want,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Having noticed Frick\u2019s instruments online<\/a>, I visited his shop to get a closer look at his work. Frick, a soft-spoken and thoughtful man in his early 40s, had just completed a guitar for the Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration. It was laid out on a workbench, an overhead light emphasizing the complex sheen of its fresh French polish. \u201cIt\u2019s just pure ethanol and shellac. You can apply it without a respirator, in your shop or even bedroom or kitchen. It doesn\u2019t make your heart start beating fast, and it\u2019s not going to kill you,\u201d he says, referring to the hazards of working with nitrocellulose lacquer. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Frick holds up the guitar and points out its most nonstandard feature\u2014one that he\u2019s been using on most of his guitars\u2014an ice cream cone\u2013shaped neck heel whose purpose is as much functional as aesthetic. He explains that the guitar is made with a bolt-on neck and that the heel has a dial for easy adjustment of the neck angle: \u201cFor years I did mostly repair\u2014including a lot of neck resets\u2014and I like the idea of not ever having to do that on one of my guitars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018With flattops, everyone has an OM model, but with archtops it seems that you can do whatever you want.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Frick, who grew up in the Bay Area town of Moraga, took up the bass as a freshman in high school and formally studied the instrument at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). Having tooled around in his father\u2019s wood shop, he made himself an electric bass before becoming inspired to make an archtop guitar. \u201cI just thought they looked cool and thought that they\u2019d be fun to make,\u201d he says. \u201cAround 1995, I took one of Tom Ribbecke\u2019s archtop classes, and that\u2019s how I got into making them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somewhat uncommon for a luthier, Frick is also a professional musician\u2014until recently he played bass in the house band for the NPR storytelling series Snap Judgment<\/i>\u2014and, with a penchant for extended harmony, he enjoys playing jazz guitar as well. His musical life has informed his work as a luthier; he builds based on what he wants to hear. \u201cI\u2019m trying to move away from the traditional archtop sound to one that\u2019s less harsh and more bass-rich\u2014an instrument that still has the projection of an archtop and can be played fingerstyle,\u201d he says, quietly picking a complex chord progression on the Santa Barbara guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This sound has dictated Frick\u2019s modifications to the contours of both the guitar\u2019s soundboard <\/span>and back. When he first started building, he copied the dramatically carved arches of the prototypical example, but his own interpretation has evolved into a much subtler top arch, with widened X-bracing for a refined sound. Frick explains that he has recently been favoring flat backs on his archtops as well. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a hybrid between a flattop and an archtop,\u201d he says, playing a walking bass line. \u201cYou\u2019ve still got that high-end clarity you don\u2019t normally get from a flattop, that articulation, but with a little more bounce. You play [a flat-back archtop] fingerstyle and you feel the body jump when you hit those low notes.\u201d As Frick talks shop, I can\u2019t help but wonder what it\u2019s like to work as a luthier in San Francisco, one of the world\u2019s most expensive cities, with a median home price of $1.5 million and rising. Frick makes only a small handful of guitars per year, and with prices starting at $7,200 he must hardly be making a killing. I brought this up delicately. \u201cIt\u2019s true that more and more artists are leaving the city,\u201d he says, \u201cand the high-end guitar market isn\u2019t what it was, say, before 2008. But luckily, no matter what the economy<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s like, people are not going to stop needing repairs\u2014or booze.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n I mention that the repairs must not only be a reliable stream of income, but beneficial to his work as a luthier as well. Frick agrees, explaining that he\u2019s learned about what works and what doesn\u2019t in thousands of guitars of all types and makers. Further, it\u2019s caused him to consider future repairs in his own work. \u201cI finish the neck and body separately [to make neck removal easier],\u201d he says, motioning in the direction of finished guitar components awaiting assembly. \u201cYou want to plan ahead for the work that\u2019s inevitably going to happen later on\u2014you want these guitars to be around for a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"timfrick_log\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/timfrick_log.jpg?ssl=1\")
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