Dominique and Arnoud Roudhloff were French makers trained in Mirecourt by their father Francois, who was himself an excellent guitar maker as well as a violin maker. The brothers moved to London in the 1830s and set up shop.
This guitar has a spruce front, supported by an X-brace – not all Melophonic guitars have identical bracing though – the positioning of outer braces vary between fan and more radial placement. This is not surprising, since it is natural to experiment. I have also experimented in this way. The sides are of Brazilian rosewood with a rosewood veneered mahogany back. The deep linings are also mahogany with a doubled lining for the front. The back has transverse mahogany braces at the waist and lower bout, but unusually, in the upper bout there is a large ” slipper ” instead of a brace. It is in the same position as the slipper in a through neck, but much bigger, and it is a separate piece that butts up against the top block. Quite why they did this is unclear to me, but it supports the upper bout well. The neck is veneered in rosewood, as are the back and front faces of the head. The neck is glued onto the top block, and clamped with a screw in typical French style. The sound of this instrument is enchanting – a gorgeous tone that is well focused, but rich in harmonics and warmth, with sweet trebles and a solid bass. The scale length is 631 mm. The nut width is rather narrow, so narrow in fact, that the slots in the head are tapered towards the nut. The copies I will make have no need to be that narrow, of course.
