Sungha Jung Build Thread
For most of you, Sungha Jung needs no introduction. Hailing from South Korea, Sungha is one of the world’s most renowned fingerstyle guitarists, with a YouTube following of over 7 million people! His intricate playing style and musicality have captivated audiences around the globe.
Over the past few years we’ve been delighted to see and hear Sungha Jung demoing some of our guitars through our fantastic dealers in Seoul, WoodSound. His effortless touch and expressive sound pair beautifully with the tone of a Taran Guitar.
We’re now incredibly excited to share that we’ve been working closely with Sungha and have recently started crafting his very own Tirga Beag! Designed primarily for recording this custom build will highlight our signature Taran sound - crystal clear, well balanced, with rich, articulate trebles.
To achieve this, we’ve chosen:
Back and sides: Stunning Madagascan Rosewood for its depth and clarity.
Soundboard: Master grade Italian Spruce to capture every nuance of Sungha’s playing.
Neck: Scottish Walnut - a recent favourite of ours - adding a touch of warmth to complement the guitar’s clarity.
Starting The Build
The first part of our build process is to get the “prep” work done. This means joining the soundboard and back, thicknessing the plates and sides, bending the sides and getting the rest of the materials for the build roughed out (e.g. neck, fingerboard, headplates, braces etc.).
Once these elements are ready, we give the wood time to settle. Even with well-seasoned materials, the process of thicknessing and bending introduces tension — the wood needs time to adjust to its new form. Our warm and carefully controlled workshop provides the perfect environment for this stage.
Once everything has settled, the build will begin in earnest, and we’re looking forward to sharing the journey with you.
Constructing the Sides
With the wood now rested, our head luthier Zachie has set Sungha’s build in motion.
The way that our sides are constructed has evolved a lot over the past few years. While the core philosophy remains the same, we’ve made many subtle refinements - and together, those small changes make a tangible difference to the final sound of the instrument.
The principle is simple: we want the sides to be as rigid and lightweight as possible. This helps to ensure the energy from the strings stays focused in the soundboard rather than being lost to the sides. We often liken it to a drum, where the flexible drumskin creates the sound, and the solid metal rim and rigid sides helps to concentrate and direct the energy into that skin.
Our fully kerfed laminated sides are incredibly stiff and lightweight. Over time, we’ve refined this even further by adding internal linings. These linings act a little like the metal rim of the drum, reinforcing the structure and helping to concentrate vibration in the top.
The material choice for the linings is an important consideration as different woods can impart different tonal characteristics. For Sungha’s Tirga Beag, we’ve selected some beautiful Indian Rosewood for the linings. This pairing supports the clarity, balance and expressive trebles we’re aiming for - all hallmarks of the Taran sound.
We love to obsess over the details and one of our favourites at the moment is the profile that we cut into the linings. It’s a tiny element - but hopefully one that brings a smile to the player when they spot it.
We’re thrilled to have Sungha’s guitar underway and can’t wait to share the next stages of the build with you soon.
The Soundboard
The next stage of Sungha’s build is the soundboard, and we’ve selected a stunning mastergrade Italian spruce top for this guitar. Italian spruce is a tonewood we’ve worked with extensively over the years, it complements the rich, dynamic, and articulate voice our instruments are known for. This particular top has beautifully even grain, is exceptionally light and stiff, and has a lovely “pop” when tapped - always a good sign.
First, Zachie created one of our signature hot sand-faded Scottish burr elm rosettes. This is a delicate and time consuming process that requires a lot of patience! Hot sand fading is an old marquetry technique that we’ve been adapting and refining for many years. The Scottish burr elm brings a rich palette of colours and texture, and paired with rippled maple veneers, it’s going to tie together the aesthetics of Sungha’s guitar perfectly.
With the rosette inlaid, we then move on to bracing the top. The braces of an acoustic guitar have a crucial job. The soundboard, which is typically less than 3mm thick, must withstand around 60-70kg of string tension while remaining responsive enough to transmit every nuance of the player’s touch. That balance of strength and sensitivity wouldn’t be possible without the braces.
We glue them in a pattern we’ve developed to manage and distribute those tensions in a way that supports the soundboard’s responsiveness. Once glued, Zachie carefully removes some of the weight from each brace to prepare for the next critical step: voicing the soundboard. The top is then fitted and glued to the sides, ready to be brought fully to life.
Voicing the Soundboard
Voicing is one of the most critical and expressive stages in our building process. At this point, we tune the response level of the soundboard to suit the player—refining the tone, dynamic range, and articulation by carefully removing weight from the braces.
This video gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how we voiced Sungha’s Tirga Beag!
Bracing the Back
For many years, we’ve used our own compression braces to hold the back of the guitar in its cylindrical form. Unlike standard ladder braces, they allow the back to vibrate much more freely, bringing out more tonal colour from the back. While this design has worked brilliantly for us, we’re always looking for ways to refine and improve. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been quietly developing a new approach to our compression bracing.
Our original compression brace relied on the top of the brace to hold the back’s radius. However, as other elements of the guitar’s structure evolved - particularly the increased stiffness of the sides - we realised that once the back was glued in place, the top of the brace was no longer structurally necessary. This allowed us to remove it entirely, resulting in a lighter, more responsive brace.
To take full advantage of the stiffness of the sides, we went back to the drawing board to redesign the braces profile. The new brace design introduces a high point that works in tandem with the sides to create a cantilever - strong, yet flexible.
We also introduced a system of small gold or silver ferrules set through the peaks of the braces. Before the back is glued on, these ferrules act as anchor points for cords that can be tightened or loosened. This gives us precise control over the radius of the back across its length, allowing for fine adjustments before committing to glueing it to the sides.
We’ve been using this new iteration for over a year now, and we’re thrilled with the results. For Sungha’s guitar, we’ve used Yew for the braces—a wood that not only looks beautiful but performs exceptionally well in creating a responsive, lively back.
