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Peter Barton ~ luthier
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Classical Guitars

My classical guitars have been inspired by studying instruments I have had in for repair from some of the great makers of the 20th Century such as Hauser, Fleta, Aguado, Santos Hernandez, Simplicio, Arcangel Fernandez, Ramirez, Rubio, Fischer and Jose Romanillos. Also by the work of my contemporaries , Kevin Aram, Christopher Dean, Michael Gee, Gary Southwell, David Whiteman, Simon Ambridge and others.

I aim for the highest standards of craftsmanship together with using the very best woods available for the construction of my instruments. Since 1986 I have made it my priority to invest in the best quality timbers and have travelled widely to sawmills in Germany, Switzerland, Holland and India to select them. As a result I have a very good stock of well seasoned spruce, Indian rosewood, mahogany and ebony. I also have an exceptional stock of 30 year old beautiful Brazilian rosewood and carefully book match wood to make two, three and four piece backs. All my Brazilian rosewood stock is covered by CITES certification

The majority of my classical guitars are based on the form of the Hauser and Romanillos models. However I am open to using other forms and have recently completed a model based on the Macaferri style of classical guitar. They are not intended as exact copies but follow similar patterns of form and construction. I have developed a lightweight but strong fan strutting which gives my guitars a bright treble with a warm bass and a great depth of colour and even tone. Although most of my instruments are built with Alpine spruce soundboards I also make instruments using western red cedar. In both models my main consideration is to produce an instrument with a clear balanced tone, good sustain and projection.

I also want the instruments to be beautiful in design and decoration. I therefore make up all my own rosettes and purflings using ebony, maple, satinwood and mahogany veneers. I use a traditional V jointed head as I prefer the lower angle it gives to the head and it also requires a high level of craftsmanship to perfect.

I like to fit the very best machineheads and therefore use those by David Rodgers UK or Waverly USA

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