from Kenny Hill - NEW Golden Era Innovation calls again as "retired" luthier nears 50-year milestone

In December 2024, I closed my public guitar-making business. I sold the building and some of the wood and tools, which enabled me to kinda sorta retire. I kept the essential tools and materials and set up an adorable personal workshop and office at my home. For a year now, I have been having a sweet time creating instruments with a simplified aesthetic and process. This makes the work both easier for me and somewhat more affordable. For an old guy, having so much fun is really a blessing! But I’m still working so much.

I've enjoyed good working relationships with my two outstanding luthiers from the past few years, Agustin Gaytan and Owen Kelly. They are masters at producing the styles of guitars we have been making for the past twenty-five plus years. Those models and designs are still wonderful, and available on an individual custom basis.

And now I am also spending a lot of wonderful time at my own workbench, producing individual instruments myself — both to specific orders according to the needs of my clients, and also whimsical instruments, according to my own flights of fancy. It’s a lovely woodworking guitar playground that is relaxed, inspiring, and productive.

NEW MODEL STYLE: from Kenny Hill NEW GOLDEN ERA

For lack of a better idea, I’m calling these guitars Golden Era. My first built classical guitar was completed in 1976 — 50 years ago — in a shop very much like the one I’m working in now. I‘ve worked around the world, and I've returned to my roots. 1976 may have been the prime of life, but so is 2026 the prime, a Golden Era. At least so far…

For these new Golden Era guitars, I have deliberately peeled away any complexities that don’t directly contribute to sound and playability. The headstock design is a simple line with no flourish or decoration. The back and sides are simple joinery with no bindings or purflings.

The finish is a big change. I’m just doing a sealing coat of shellac and a couple of thin coats of satin lacquer, which produces a thin, warm, matte finish. No gloss! Less work. Less cost.

For woods, I still have an interesting collection of materials, and I’m getting more experimental with tone wood. I’m trying out various species of hardwoods from around the world. I’m much less concerned about odd grain patterns or small knots or other characteristics, or, for that matter, book-matching backs and sides. Wood is wood. Of course, the traditional woods are just as good as ever, and it’s useful to consider other woods as viable for sustainability and diversity of sources. And curiosity.

The Companion Model guitar is a case in point. This design really triggered the whole “New Model” pursuit. The original Companion is built with a small Torres FE 18 plantilla, a 620mm string length, and a fan-braced Indian rosewood soundboard. They said it couldn’t be done — or shouldn’t be done— but guess what? It works! I’ve tried out many variations of this, including using koa, maple, cypress, black acacia, and more. It’s fun, and the results are very nice. It’s a bit like cooking with whatever you find in the cupboards and fridge, and it can be very satisfying. 

Lately, I’ve been making some Companion “plus” instruments with more varieties of body size and string length. Also fun and good outcome.

FEATURES AND OPTIONS

The beating heart of this new Golden Era style is still the same. With the basic starting point of a traditional classical instrument, I have evolved with various design options that can be combined in different ways. These include:

Sound ports: I consider this a no-brainer; I always prefer them. Sounds better. Allows the body to “breathe” more effectively, which in turn allows the soundboard to move more freely.

Double-top, combined cedar and spruce: The outer wood presents the dominant sound, while the inner wood flavors the character. It’s the best of both worlds. It’s still similar to the traditional choice of spruce or cedar. Clearer or warmer? — but with the best of both. I don’t really know why this double top does what it does, but it increases and smooths out the dynamic range of both volume and tone color. 

Of course, building a traditional solid-top soundboard can produce a wonderful, lovable instrument. And it’s easier to build. Generally, I find my double-top to be wonderfully dynamic in both volume and color, and extremely flexible in response to my own musical intentions in guitar playing.

Elevated fingerboard: A basic part of my Signature instrument design for many years, this feature changes the angle at which the strings pull on the bridge. This creates the effect of a quicker response and a different kind of “depth of field” in the projection of the sound, more interesting and complex. It is more complicated to build. The elevated fingerboard also makes it somewhat easier to play in the upper registers above the 12th fret.

Lattice bracing: I make a lattice with both cedar and spruce, again trying to yield the best of both worlds. Combined with a double top, this creates a very even and balanced response all across and up and down the fingerboard. I use solid wood for the braces, no graphite — that’s a whole other world. I don’t like the way graphite smells or sounds.Traditional fan bracing is perfectly wonderful. It’s warm and traditional. I love it from the beginning! Nevertheless, I think lattice is quicker, and many players seem to gravitate toward it. In the end, I don’t know that one is better than the other; it’s just different. Personal preference. And fashion. I usually choose lattice, even though it’s more work.

Ergonomic design: This is one of the best things I’ve ever done. The body of the guitar is wedge-tapered from treble side to bass side, so it leans back on your lap a little bit, making the guitar feel more stable and less tippy. Then I make a pretty wide armrest where your right arm rests against the guitar. Pretty wide. That not only prevents a crease on your forearm from the sharp edge, but more importantly, it allows the right shoulder to stay back in a natural posture without having to twist out over the front of the guitar. Also, I often make a simple resting spot on the back of the instrument, where it meets the sternum. That just softens the way the instrument “nests” with the body. It’s just part of the ergonomic design. Super comfortable, life-changing really! Nowadays, I feel like anything else is just silly.

I don’t believe these design features hurt the sound. Many of the finest-sounding instruments I’ve ever produced have all of these ergonomic features.

True Temperament frets: This concept was originated by Anders Thidell in Sweden. It works a long way toward making every note on the fingerboard more accurately tuned to equal temperament. This is not some sort of microtonal scale; it's just tightening up the lovely equal temperament that Western music has adapted to, primarily through the piano keyboard. The sweetness of the intonation is just wonderful. In any key, it makes the guitar sound more well-rounded and balanced. It elevates the beauty of the sound. And it seems to work fine in alternate tunings. Not everyone has the ear to appreciate this, but I sure do. And even though it looks odd at first, it’s not hard to play; there’s really no adjustment period at all.

There are many choices — woods, tuners, string length, body size, cases, and probably many other things. Some are just decisions, some cost more.

Guitar is for playing, exploring imagination, pleasure, nostalgia, and curiosity. There's no such thing as a best guitar, and there definitely is no one-size-fits-all. Keeps it interesting. Me, I’m trying to retire, but there is still so much to do and so much to think about! And it seems like we’re just getting started…

-from Kenny Hill, a new Golden Era

from Kenny Hill - NEW Golden Era