Copy of a Guitar by Ettienne LaPrevotte, Paris, ca. 1835

This copy has been an interesting project because la Prevotte was well known for both his violins and his guitars.

Both were highly experimental and his guitars employed much of the violin makers craft – carved back without barring and a thick belly with only 2 longitudinal bars in the style of violin bassbars. Like most French guitars, the sides were quite low. LaPrevotte employed an oval soundhole, which was his trademark.

I have used a single piece of maple with wings in the lower bout, for the back and a matching maple for the sides. The head is maple, veneered with ebony and the neck is Cuban cedar, carved in the style of Lacote, as the LaPrevottes usually were. The purflings are of ebony and boxwood. The head is assembled in the same way as the Lacote heads intended for his patent machines, which LaPrevotte often imitated. The machines on this guitar are the Lacote style heads by Rodgers.

The neck setup of La Prevotte is also slightly unusual. He employed the usual 17 frets, but the neck is slightly angled back (about 2degrees) and the ebony fingerboard on the body sits on a thin wedge of cedar. This creates quite a high saddle and a considerable gap between belly and strings. It also has the effect of increasing the turning moment on the bridge as a counter to the quite thick belly at the bridge area. On this instrument I have slightly extended the range, by fitting 18 frets and a 19th fret for the top string .

SOLD: I have just begun work on a second La Prevotte copy. Photos of the progress of work to follow.:

Here are some photos of the work in progress

Final assembly and cleaning - Purflings and fingerboard  

Fretting, Varnishing and Bridge fit-out.

The La Prevotte- style Tie Bridge