Luthier
Tom Sands Guitars
- Luthier
- Tom Sands
- Founded
- 2015
- Location
- Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Based in Yorkshire, England, former Somogyi apprentice Tom Sands is building some of the most beautiful, unique and responsive acoustic guitars in the world today. Across three base models (S, M, L) Tom is pushing the boundaries of what the acoustic guitar can do through innovations in design.
“When I'm thinking about guitars, when I'm thinking about designing guitars, I almost try not to think about guitars. I try to draw inspiration and influence from external sources outside of the guitar world. The less is more philosophy is where I'm increasingly trying to move towards... to kind of strip away anything that's not needed and really just focus on pure design, placing the real emphasis on the materials,” says Tom.
“If you don’t take a step outside of your field, then you risk your work becoming generic.”
“I wanted a small, a medium, and a large. They were all going to be different. All going to have different body sizes, scale lengths, feels to them, all for different objectives. It seemed to me that there was just loads of overlap between one builder to the others. One builder was building an 0M but to me, it was more like a 00 style. And then some people were building a small jumbo, but it was like an 0M, and it was just confusing. So I wanted to kind of strip all that away and kind of start from scratch.”
The Guitars
Tom offers three base models—S, M, L—and gives each its own name. Below we explore each in more detail
Models
Standard specifications
- Soundboard
- European spruce or Redwood
- Back and sides
- Wenge
- Neck
- Mahogany
- Neck profile
- Medium C
- Fingerboard
- Ebony
- Inlay
- None
- Tuners
- Gotoh 510
- Nut material
- Bone
- Nut width
- 1.75"
- Scale length
- 24.75”
- Peg head veneer
- To match fingerboard and bridge
- Pickguard
- none
- Rosette
- Plain copper ring
- Purfling
- Custom
- Back strip
- None
- Body binding
- Rocklike ebano
- Bridge
- Ebony
- Pins
- Ebony
- Saddle material
- Bone
- String spacing
- 2.25"
Tom’s notes
“The Model S is what I like to call my fireside guitar. It's the end of the day, kind of sitting on the couch with a whiskey, just relaxing, kind of guitar. It's comfortable. It's 12 frets to the body. It's short scale. But it's got plenty of oomph to it and really nice and sweet; it projects, but it's got that kind of open spectrum sound. It's got plenty of bass response, plenty of volume and headroom, but still nice and small and compact and comfortable.”
Standard specifications
- Soundboard
- European spruce or Redwood
- Back and sides
- Wenge
- Neck
- Mahogany
- Neck profile
- Medium C
- Fingerboard
- Ebony
- Inlay
- None
- Tuners
- Gotoh 510
- Nut material
- Bone
- Nut width
- 1.75"
- Scale length
- 25”
- Peg head veneer
- To match fingerboard and bridge
- Pickguard
- none
- Rosette
- Plain copper ring
- Purfling
- Custom
- Back strip
- None
- Body binding
- Rocklike ebano
- Bridge
- Ebony
- Pins
- Ebony
- Saddle material
- Bone
- String spacing
- 2.25"
Tom's notes
“The standard M has a 25-inch scale length, with a 16-inch lower bout—so it's got quite a substantial lower bout. But I also really love to build this as a 12 fret, as well, just placing the bridge right in center of the lower bout.”
Standard specifications
- Soundboard
- European spruce or Redwood
- Back and sides
- Wenge
- Neck
- Mahogany
- Neck profile
- Medium C
- Fingerboard
- Ebony
- Inlay
- None
- Tuners
- Gotoh 510
- Nut material
- Bone
- Nut width
- 1.75"
- Scale length
- 25.23”
- Peg head veneer
- To match fingerboard and bridge
- Pickguard
- none
- Rosette
- Plain copper ring
- Purfling
- Custom
- Back strip
- None
- Body binding
- Rocklike ebano
- Bridge
- Ebony
- Pins
- Ebony
- Saddle material
- Bone
- String spacing
- 2.25"
Tom's notes
“I just wanted something that was really going to make people kind of stand up and pay attention, so yeah, you know, three guitars that are very different from each other. They all have nods to Ervin's work, but also speak of my own design aesthetic.”