Chatelier Frères, Guitares d'artisan

A passionate instrument maker, he has, in addition to making guitars, extensive experience in the craftsmanship of a variety of musical items including the baroque-style Lute, the hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes and the harpsichord. His insight, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and knowledge of mechanics applied to the construction of instruments have been “key” to making this dream happen.

A guitarist and avid guitar collector, he has spent years searching for the perfect instrument. His knowledge of wood, guitar types and construction details such as types of bracing gave him the initial inspiration to create a completely original guitar model rather than copy existing types.

For a long time, we thought that it would be great to have a small to medium sized acoustic guitar adapted to both flat picking and finger picking.
Most guitars of this type are OM, small instruments with great tone and balance, but with some compromise on the fullness of the low range bass sounds despite lively medium tones and measuring between 49 cm long and 30 wide, or they are dreadnoughts measuring 50cm/40cm featuring a full bass resonance and tight mediums, ideal for picking, rythmn and solos, but less comfortable for arpeggio and finger-picking.
Intermediary models (auditorium) lack the tone of the OM and the tight mid ranges of Dreadnought and they are still quite big (50/40 cm).
So the challenge was to create a model combining the advantages of the OM and dreadnought that had the following features:

A full tone allowing guitarists to use the whole neck without any compromises on expression, nuance and sustain.
Tight mid ranges that are warm and not aggressive.
Warm and sweet high tones, with clear pitch especially on the B note which has a tendency to blur.
Full, rounded and resonating bass sound .
A comfortable shape allowing for optimal elbow positioning with the hand falling naturally near the soundhole and ample space for anchoring on the knee.

Having experimented with these ideas, we arrived at the present design for our model :

Long diapason for fullness.
Body is 50 cm long, 39 cm wide, with its waist measuring 24 cm, its shoulders 28.6 cm.
9.4 cm width at the end of the neck, 11.3 cm at the end of the bottom (compared to 12 for a D shape and 10.6 and 10.9 for an OM)
Thin braces maximum 8mm with a forward shifted X (to enhance response and ease), frets positioned like the OM with maximum high range advantage as the table is longer in the back. Braces are also lighter for the high notes.
For the first model, a choice of rosewood for warmth and depth and Engelmann for sweetness and sustain.

The prototype turned out to be outstanding ( ) so we experimented further with different wood essences.
Every time, the tone, sustain and warmth of the sound remained true to plan and we registered our trademark and started showing it to guitarists and guitar collectors.