Charles F Morrison, Luthier

Thinking about it I realized that I haven't put any audio of any of my guitars on this site. I'll be working on getting a decent exposition of the Fortune sound possibilities, but in the meanwhile I thought I'd put up a nice piece played on a Classical guitar I built a while back. This was recorded raw, no reverb or mucking about with it's sound in any way other than converting it to mp3.

I'm not sure how to put audio files up on this site, so I'm just putting a link in this comment. I hope you enjoy it. The performer, Alfredo Muro is one of the great guitarists of our time.

Bachianinha6 on Morrison #211 performed by Alfredo Muro

Thanks for the compliment on the design. I'll look into what it takes to get the different personalities recorded. I've found it difficult to get a sense of what a guitar sounds like in person onto an audio file. Recording tends to flatten everything out and it can be difficult to get a good sense of the in person experience, especially with the variation in computer audio equipment, which tends to be rather poor.

This is a "Fortune Triad" guitar I recently built. Virtually everything about it is my own design, derived from almost 40 years of guitar playing and building. The body shape is one I came up with in the mid 1980s as is the initial neck design. I recently added a new bracing pattern, made the neck adjustable and adapted it to steel strings. Full access to 22 frets and an adjustable harmonic port finish it up. These guitars have a very distinctive loud and smooth sound along with the deepest bass available in a small body guitar (and many large bodies as well). The guitar can sound like two distinctly different guitars with a quick adjustment. Quite a nice trick. Strictly acoustic.

This is guitar #219, the first steel string acoustic I've built in roughly 20 years. This guitar pays tribute to Monte Novotny and the Bennet brothers, Reb and Andy, who were NBN guitars (1968-1976) in Longmont Colorado. They inspired me to start making guitars in 1974. For more info on NBN see the website devoted to these wonderfully unique guitars.

This guitar features the NBN concert size body and peghead shape, and a solid rosette similar to the black rosettes on NBNs. The bracing is an elongated X similar to those Monte was developing in the 80s before he died. Lots of things original to me though.

Top - Englemann Spruce (perfectly quarter sawn)

Back/sides - Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba, perfectly quarter sawn)

Neck - American Red Alder (with double action truss rod)

Fretboard/Bridge - Macassar Ebony

Nut/Saddle - Corian 1 3/4" nut width

YellowHeart wood binding

Very nice low action with a loud and clear sound. A great smaller performance guitar.

This guitar is for sale - $2500 contact me at chuck.morrison@gmail.com

Every once in a while a truly exceptional guitar comes along and this is it. #215 is built with an aged German Spruce top and Canadian Cyprus back/sides. The bridge is Laotian black and white Ebony. The very blond aesthetic is finished off with yellowheart binding and minimal purfling. This is the first guitar I've made with my Colorado mountain rosette design.

The sound is what distinguishes this guitar and it's the guitar by which all others will be judged (at least by me). It has a purity of tone in a tenor voice. The dynamic range is intense with incredible headroom. It doesn't break up at all when pushed to the limit. At the same time it can be played with incredible sensitivity and expression. IMHO, it would be a shame to consider this only a flamenco guitar.

#215 is not, and may never be for sale. It is available for playing should you be in the area. I do offer similarly made guitars on a custom order basis. See/hear videos of it being played (flamenco style) by two excellent Colorado guitarists on my web site.