Forster Charlie

This design may perhaps be the first real new approach to archtop making in decades. It seems jazz players want something that is both modern and classic, and that is what Nigel Forster has come up with here.

Despite being slim bodied the instrument is loud and full acoustically. The soundboard is aged European spruce, the back and sides are aged American maple. The neck is reclaimed Honduras mahogany and the fretboard, bridge and finger-rest are all solid polished ebony. It just feels “right.”

This design has so many benefits for the player - improved sustain, great access to the upper frets. Set up is super accurate with a truss rod that travels the whole length from nut to saddle, and a compensated zero fret and saddle makes for super accurate intonation over the whole fretboard. The tone and volume controls are hidden away under the ebony finger-rest.

Unlike many modern archtops, the strings are earthed at the tail so no annoying buzz that often comes with wooden tailpieces which seem to be in vogue. Add to this classic tone from a Kent Armstrong jazz humbucker and we’ve got a great blend of old and new.

So why “Charlie”? Well to many jazzers it would be the Charlie Christian, but to Nigel Forster it’s Charlie Ferguson, his late grandfather -  a wonderful jazz and swing player, and a gentle man who taught Nigel to play when he was a boy.

Now this is not the sort of work for which Nigel Forster is known, but he's been playing jazz guitar since he was 13. Archtops have always interested him. And after years of making carved top Celtic instruments the leap into making archtop  guitars was, well...more of a sidestep than a leap.

The Charlie is an incredible instrumet that will fill you wish a sense of wonder.