My very good friend and guitar expert Juan Millan, from Madrid, asked me to make a modern, small bodied, old style, Ragtime guitar. Almost all the ideas are his. So it is right to name this model the ASAP JM after him. And this is the result.

Top, back and sides are made from figured, quartersawn mahogany with herringbone purfling, abalone soundhole and zipper back strip. The wide, vee shaped (boat) neck is laminated from mahogany and flamed maple with veneer details. The slotted headstock has Waverly tuners and a rio rosewood facing. Flat, wide fingerboard, tail inlay and bridge are also rio. Body joint is at the 12th fret and the scale length is a short 628mm. The flamed maple binding follows round the heel and tail inlay.

What else? The top is very thin and lightly braced to take 0.11 guage strings. The X-brace is pushed back a little. The high gloss finish is tinted a little red to richen the mahogany. And a zero fret,

Juan tells me that it sounds just the way he wanted and ideally suits the fingerpicking style he wanted it for. I just think it looks great and was surprised by how much I liked the sound.

Through Juan showing his guitar to friends I have got to make a few of these in slightly differing versions. But always to the same basic pattern.

Thanks for the idea Juan.