Turnstone tGe

The Turnstone Guitar Company is run by luthier Rosie Heydenrych in her Sussex workshop. She’s been building since 2010, having caught the guitar bug at the age of 17 – first as a player, but then, after studying business at university, being drawn more towards building. “It just drew me in and ignited something inside me,” she says, “I don’t know what it was. Just the processes, the woodworking, the materials, everything.” Since that time she has been custom-building acoustic guitars using traditional materials, with models of her own design.

In recent years, she has turned her attention to the sourcing of indigenous woods. Discovering English walnut piqued her interest and got her thinking about whether it would be possible to build a guitar using purely homegrown timbers. Subsequently, the E Series – that’s E for ‘English’ – came about. “It wasn’t something I wanted to pigeonhole myself by only doing,” she continues, “but it was something I was keen to promote as a signature idea.”

The TGE model here is a medley of English timbers with walnut back and sides, an ash neck and bog oak fingerboard and bridge. When it came to finding a suitable wood for the soundboard, Rosie turned to yew. “I’d used it on the back and sides of another guitar and it imparted this lovely shimmery tone and it’s actually the only native softwood that is indigenous in the UK – you get Western red cedar and Monterey cypress, but they’re not indigenous. You usually use a softwood for the top, although yew is a harder wood than you would normally use, I think it’s got characteristics that make a really nice soundboard.” Even the bindings, interior kerfing and bracing are made from English woods, while the central theme of walnut, bog oak and yew are drawn together in the guitar’s rosette. Yew also makes another appearance in the fretboard markers.

It’s a visually striking instrument and the sound it produces is sweet and eventempered with no midrange muddiness or youthful harshness in the trebles detectable at all. It will be interesting to hear how the woods open up over the years, but, for now, anyone who is tempted to sample this particular ‘full English’ is guaranteed satisfaction!

Luthier Rosie explains more about the TGE’s squared-off heel: “It’s something I’ve started doing more and more – for aesthetic reasons, because it’s slightly different, but also from the player’s point of view. It’s got more of an L-shape so your hand can get in a little bit, whereas with a tapered one your hand is cut off. It just gives the hand a little more comfort and manoeuvrability” The headstock motif is fashioned after a turnstone with wings spread, outlined via the walnut fascia being carved back to reveal the lighter ash interior. The tuners are Gotoh 510s – one of the only nonindigenous components on the TGE – while the fingerstyle-friendly 45mm nut and C radius neck guarantee the player a smooth ride 1

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The walnut and yew binding has a subtle rolled edge on the guitar’s lower bout, much slimmer in design than the bevels on other similar models. Dubbed ‘Rosie’s Rollover’, the smoothed-off edge means extra right-arm comfort for the player 4 The yew soundboard shares a very similar grain pattern to spruce, but has a slightly more gentle voice in practice, owing to the slightly increased stiffness of the timber. The tone of the TGE is a refined but balanced mix between treble, mids and bass