A Comment on Symmetry

by Thomas Greene

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 8, #4, 1980



There is a particular symmetry of adornment with which I’m quite taken. Albeit not the first guy to do it, I match the pickguard to the peghead veneer, the bridge to the fingerboard and the neck to the body wood.

I am a bit disappointed in the many luthiers who put such integrity into their work only to debase the beauty of a fine handcrafted instrument with a plastic pickguard. I use wood veneer for both pickguard and peghead, cut from the same stock so the color and figure will be consistent, and each is bookmatched. A thin black/white/black purfling strip in the center joint of each make them so much prettier.