Hand Voicing

Hand voicing takes guitars to the next level. Hand voicing is how an instrument’s true soul is revealed, allowing that elusive, magical combination of exotic woods and odd angles to become something more than simply a finely crafted, beautiful box of air, but an extension of your body, a doorway to your soul. All Breedlove USA models are hand voiced and benefit from the full flower of Sound Optimization®, which starts with carefully weighing, measuring and sanding individually paired tops and backs to targeted frequencies. Modern technology plays a role, allowing crafters to zero in on mils and grams and hertz. But centuries of knowledge passed from bench to bench are important, too. Breedlove luthiers handle each piece of wood, getting a feel for its flex, its rigidity; they tap it with a mallet to hear its essential, elemental voice; and they ask it for direction, letting it guide them to its greatest expression. Hidden within your guitar is a wooden skeleton of braces, blocks, bridge plates and kerfing. Hand voicing, a careful dance of sanding and shaving a whisper of wood here and there, tends to each of these, to the relationship of one to another—to the soul.