"Is the Gruen E.Q.18 The 21st Century Flatpicking Guitar?"
by David McCarty
In the early 20th Century, the Oliver Ditson Co. introduced a guitar to the American marketplace that was considered too big and too strange-looking to ever be accepted by popular guitarists of the day. This monstrous instrument named after a famous battleship no less eventually went away, but was revived in the 1930s when its maker, C.F. Martin & Co., reintroduced the dreadnought body style with an improved bracing system. This time, the new D-18 and D-28 guitars were seen as successful evolutions in the natural history of the steel-string, flattop guitar instead of unusual curiosities. The dreadnought body style, as we all know, went on to become the most successful and widely imitated acoustic steel-string guitar in the world. Today, it's the standard instrument for most flatpickers.
Here in the year 2000, there's a new guitar design many readers of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine will dismiss as too big, too radical and not at all suitable to the kind of music we choose to play. But could history repeat itself and turn the remarkable E.Q.18 guitar design from [then] Los Angeles-based luthier Paul Gruen into the flatpicker's choice for the next millennium? Only time, and a few open-minded guitarists, will tell.
With its 18" wide lower bout (hence the name "E.Q. 18"), small center soundhole and four oval soundports in the top, and a floating bridge and tailpiece similar to an archtop guitar, the E.Q.18 certainly qualifies as a major departure from the Martin dreadnought design and its legion of imitators. But rather than just being different for the sake of being different, Gruen has a clear objective in creating this hybrid guitar that makes it versatile enough for use in a variety of styles.
As a flatpicking guitarist, Gruen has played bluegrass, jazz and Gypsy Swing. He always thought the guitars most commonly used for those styles -- the dreadnought flattop, the acoustic archtop, and the Selmer cutaway -- worked well within the limits of each style. But he felt a guitar combining some elements of each design could be versatile enough for percussive swing solos and rhythm, rich fingerstyle jazz guitar chord extensions, and even flattop acoustic lead guitar.
The resulting guitar borrows the X-braced top similar in general design to the common Martin bracing pattern; the Selmer concept of using a floating bridge and tailpiece on a flattop guitar; and an archtop's floating adjustable bridge and soundholes located near the rim of the guitar.
"It was an intuitive sense of what I wanted personally in a guitar. I wanted to build something that had many of the qualities of an archtop, but was not as specialized or limited as an archtop," Gruen explained. Hopefully, the large plates would contribute to volume, the shallow depth would add clarity and projection, the floating bridge and tailpiece would allow a lighter top, the X-bracing would favor smoothness and sustain, and the side-located soundholes would enhance the instrument's treble and overall presence.
The guitar's shape, he said, was influenced heavily by the design concepts of influential luthier Steve Klein, whose research into the acoustic properties of acoustic guitar bodies led him to create a more rounded, high-waisted design where the bridge is positioned closer to the center of the lower bout than on a dreadnought to allow for maximum distribution of the string's energy across the top's broadest area. One especially interesting aspect of the E.Q. 18 is that it comes with two "stoppers" which can be inserted into any two of the four oval soundholes, thereby altering the tonal balance of the instrument. The stoppers do change the sound noticeably when used, but after some experimentation, it seemed the "wide open" sound of the guitar without the stoppers was everyone's favorite.
Interesting theory, but how does it work in practice, especially as a flatpicking guitar? We tested the E.Q.18 in a variety of settings and got a broad range of reactions from guitarists who played it.
First and foremost, this is a guitar that works. Although the body is quite wide, it's also quite shallow and rests comfortably under the arm when playing. It feels more like an OM or 000 size guitar than a D. The 25.5" scale length is comparable to a Martin or Collings, and the neck is a comfortable "C" shape that felt good playing across its entire length. For a Martin-oriented player, a more V'ed neck would be preferable, and Gruen says that he can accommodate almost any request a player would make in the design and construction of his personal instrument.
The immediate reaction everyone had upon playing the guitar was that it was quite loud and projected tremendously. The sound didn't have the throaty rumble of a herringbone D-28, but that's to be expected in a guitar built with mahogany back and sides and a mountain cedar top. Again, Gruen says he'll build a guitar in Brazilian rosewood and Adirondack spruce for a player looking for a darker, more bluegrassy sound.
Universally, the players who had the chance to sample the E.Q.18 liked the sounds they were getting. The rhythm guitarist in my band, the Hot Club of Naptown, immediately adopted the guitar for a rehearsal and found it outstanding for projecting crisp swing chords from closed positions. When I used the guitar for some Django-style leads, it had much of the clarity and bite of a Selmer, but lacked the glassy treble tone so prevalent in guitars of that design. It wasn't bad, just slightly different. For the swing stuff, this guitar makes a tremendous compromise between an archtop and a flattop. For more modem jazz styles, the guitar had enormous sustain, like keeping the sustain pedal down on a piano.
When I took it out to my local bluegrass jam, I had a little more trepidation. I play frequently with a guitarist who owns the best non-scalloped D-18, a 1945 vintage instrument, I've ever heard. But even this vintage Martin lover took to the Gruen immediately, enjoying the bright, penetrating tone. For playing in a big bluegrass jam session, the Gruen design could just be a secret weapon for us flatpickers trying to be heard over a cacophony of banjo and fiddle players.
The design doesn't generate that deep bass rumble and powerful rhythm chop you get with a great D model, so it certainly wouldn't be my guitar of choice for fulltime bluegrass playing. But as a flatpicker's guitar used for anything from bluegrass lead solos to fiddle tunes to swing, the Gruen is a very serious instrument with a lot t offer. He emphasizes that the E.Q.18 is intended primarily as a modern jazz guitar for both fingerstyle and plectrum players. Depending on its intended usage, the guitar's attack and sustain can be controlled and modified by the final shaping of the guitar's bridge.
The guitar sent to FGM was a prototype which Gruen says will have undergone some changes by the time it enters production. The guitar's waist is being drawn in to make it easier to hold while sitting, and he's still working out certain cosmetic issues which can be tailored to the customer's desires such as the use of binding around the top and back; whether to use an elevated pickguard like an archtop or a thin guard glued to the top; the inclusion of a carved ebony tailpiece instead of the ugly metal tailpiece shown; and the development of a larger, more ornate headstock similar to the fancier jazz archtop guitars from Gibson, Epiphone, D' Angelico and others. But these issues, along with the variety of woods to be used and the choice of a 16", 17" or 18" body size can all be worked out by the customer, Gruen says. He's even building seven-string models to support the growing number of guitarists such as FGM's own Steve Kaufman who have added the seven-string guitar to their arsenal.
Is the Gruen E.Q.18 the' next big thing among flatpickers? Well, it certainly won't replace the D's, OM's and other traditional body styles pioneered by Martin and Gibson in the hearts of most flatpickers. But this guitar overcame a lot of skepticism on my part and among even hardcore bluegrass guitarists.
The Gruen E.Q. guitar currently goes for around [outdated] with case in the woods used on the test guitar. For more information, contact Paul Gruen at [old address], or eMail at PDGruen@aol.com
[This article was transcribed. A photostat of the origininal article from Flatpicking Guitar can be obtained by eMailing PDGruen@aol.com or by ordering a backissue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine at www.Flatpick.com.]
David McCarty - Flatpicking Guitar Magazine