MusicRadar

Herringbone edging and Tor-Tis scratchplate create seductive curves.

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

Perusing Mr Eggle’s super-clean internal and external workmanship immediately tells us he fully appreciates and complies with the punishing standards set by today’s finest acoustic makers.

Soundboard bracing is a black art, and each maker has their own method to create the voicing they want for a particular model. The Linville’s pattern follows a pre-war Martin layout, but uses slightly wider scalloped struts than usual. Also, the lower of the two lower bout tone bars is particularly radically scalloped - the result of post assembly tone tweaking by its maker. It highlights the kind of individual attention these guitars receive.

The design

This review model’s very subtly tobacco sunburst tinted top is an upgrade, while its remarkably straight grain, with light-catching visual texture, is pure natural beauty. Technically, the abalone in the sound hole rosette is also an upgrade, but its five-ply black/white fibre purfling is standard, as is the optional herringbone perimeter. And while the purfling cuts very clean lines, we could nit-pick about minor imperfections in the abalone inlay.

Tor-Tis scratchplates like this one offer an authentic reproduction, in both their colour and pattern, of the thick celluloid ones found on vintage acoustics. While the sides get no edging at all, the back’s central seam features the classic ‘old Style 28’ black/white zigzag wood marquetry strip.

The one-piece neck is bolted on using a dry mortise/tenon joint method, which is becoming increasingly common in high-end lutherie. Only the fingerboard extension is actually glued. Not only does this simplify any future neck resets, but many luthiers believe you also achieve superior wood-to-wood contact compared to a traditional dovetail.

Eggle doesn’t use an L-shaped neck block, but the upper bout is supported by the usual horizontal brace just above the soundhole and, above that, a very thick spruce pad, which is also utilised during the fretting process.

The Martin-style headstock features the traditional carved dart at its rear base, while its vibrantly grained Brazilian rosewood face carries an inlaid mother-of-pearl logo and ivoroid binding (another slight upgrade). These Waverly tuners look the part, and have smooth, solid mechanisms. Fingerboard and frets are beautifully finished and presented, although if you get the magnifying glass out you’ll spot some gaps in the inlay filler.

The expertly fitted nut and saddle are both cut from unbleached bone, and so have that naturally murky, translucent off cream look you find on vintage acoustics. Traditional and neatly finished, the bridge carries a set of abalone-dotted ebony pins. In keeping with the territory, we have a clear nitrocellulose lacquer finish that’s perfectly even and judiciously lightly coated, with the neck finished separately for a clean join.

The Linville neck may share Martin’s standard OM nut width but, with its modified ‘C’-profile shaft only 20mm (first fret) to 22mm (10th fret) deep and a couple of millimetres narrower at the octave, it feels noticeably slighter in the hand. Its optimal string spacing delivers plenty of breathing room. As its appearance suggests, the fingerboard is perfectly silky and its gleaming frets are flawlessly trimmed. We’ve mentioned that new nitrocellulose finishes can feel a bit sticky for some players, but Eggle considers this phenomenon a temporary quirk of this notoriously slow curing lacquer.