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As part of our ongoing Luthier Interview series, we
present our conversation with Michael Millard, founder
of Froggy Bottom Guitars. We will follow with another
interview every few weeks through the next couple of
months.
MF: When you first started building guitars,
what innovations or craftsmanship did you feel made
your guitars different? Are those goals the same today?
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Froggy Bottom MLDX
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Michael Millard: When I started Froggy Bottom
Guitars in the early seventies, I brought to my craft
the goal of specific functional responsiveness. That
is, I wished to listen carefully to a player's stated
needs from a given guitar, and then to build an instrument
that met or exceeded that player's hopes. Rather than
trying to sell an individual on the notion of buying
a generic Froggy guitar as the next cool thing, I recognized
that what people need from guitars varies widely, so
a guitar builder should be able to range widely in order
to meet those needs."
"To that end I developed building methodology
that was reliant more on care and consistency of workmanship
than on jigs and fixtures and elaborate tooling. This
provided me with facility in varying design features
(shape, depth, scale length, material thickness, etc...)
without major retooling, and thus enabled the above
mentioned responsiveness to various tonal preferences."
"Over thirty years later, we still build every
instrument we make in response to a specific order,
either from a dealer or directly from a player. And
we're still certainly striving each time to build the
guitar in the customer's 'mind's ear'. "
MF: What makes your guitars different from
other guitars of a similar build and value?
Michael Millard: "The beauty about guitars
is that they speak for themselves. Our instruments vary
widely, so comparison as a group becomes problematic.
Left to our own devices we tend to favor guitars with
full, rich, tonally complex voices. How those elements
combine in the voice of a particular guitar depends
on design parameters."
MF: What is the most common body shape you sell?
Why?
Michael Millard: "The guitar we build the
most of is still our model H-12, a twelve fret grand
concert guitar. Next in line is probably our model M,
which is a fourteen fret grand concert guitar with a
tighter waist and rounder lower bout than the H-12.
This is a result of market demand."
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Froggy Bottom H12
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MF: What are the most common woods sold for
back and sides? Why?
Michael Millard : "We build using primarily
rosewood (Indian, Madagascar, Brazilian), koa, mahogany,
and walnut. Occasionally maple. Different materials,
of course, yield different voicing, so the choice of
material is one of many considerations for shaping the
voice of a guitar."
MF: When designing a completely new model, what
process do you use to determine the woods used? Bracing
pattern? Etc.
Michael Millard : "To start with, for us
a completely new model is defined by the shape and the
scale length. Choice of materials and level of ornamentation
can be varied within a given model. We have always done
one-of-a-kind custom instruments, so the skills for
making a guitar that's a departure from an existing
model are well tuned. When a guitar appears in one of
our minds that seems like a good idea, we go ahead and
build one and take it from there. Our building methodology
is very flexible, so the difficulty of building outside
of our existing array of models is almost negligible."
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