jamie mcclennan

 
smithmcclennanunplugged.jpg
 

Mr McClennan's guitar

We went for Indian Rosewood double-sides with German Spruce which helped us achieve the requirements for him.

Jamie was looking for a guitar with real depth and warmth but with clarity and good separation across a dynamic range. The double-sides help this massively by adding more mass to the guitar and thus, more tone. The German Spruce top had a cut date of 1989, safe to say it was ready to use! A beautiful wood that has real power and clarity, but with that added warmth you get from good German Spruce. Also, building with double-sides the top can be thinned more in areas as the sides are doing more work to counteract the string pull. This, along with a super stiff edge that the double-sides creates for the soundboard to connect with, makes for a more responsive soundboard which helps the dynamics and clarity as well as making the instrument more playable. A win-win!

Jamie was looking for a bigger instrument to his last one but was unsure about how it would affect his playing position. The arched back that I use along with a Laskin Bevel helped this. Jamie said when he collected it "How come it feels smaller than my Martin, and it's, what, 20mm wider and deeper?" Good ergonomics, I guess!

Jamie plays with his wife Emily Smith as well as with James Fagan in the mighty James Brothers and many more as well.

It was an absolute pleasure to work on this project!

Thanks Jamie!

 
 

“I’ve been playing my Taran guitar for a couple of years now, it was super responsive upon first play and has only got better with age, maturing and mellowing out with every gig. The reason I wanted one of Rory’s guitars was for the responsiveness and richness of sound when playing acoustic. It has both in spades and looks beautiful. I’ve never played a gig without someone asking me about the guitar, both to comment on how it sounds and how stunning it looks. I spoke with Rory throughout the build process but pretty much left it to him to decide what would work best for me as he’d come and seen me play a couple of times and knew what I sounded like and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. It’s a fantastic feeling to have such a beautifully crafted guitar to play anytime I want.”

Jamie McClennan, 2017

www.jamiemcclennan.com 

www.emilysmith.org

www.thejamesbrothers.co.uk