Northworthy
Mayfield
What’s sweet and lovely, beautifully proportioned and has
an affinity with Derbyshire, asks Neville Marten? No, not Lizzie
Bennett, played by Jennifer Ehle in BBC l’s Pride And Prejudice,
but this classic beauty from Northworthy.
Okay, so I’m in love with Jennifer, or Lizzie, from that wonderful
BBC dramatisation, but what better excuse to introduce the theme
of Derbyshire, where this elegant guitar was made. Just think of
those handsome peaks and that... no... perhaps I should leave it
there...
Northworthy hail from near Ashbourne, where the water springs up
naturally from the ground and we eventually buy it bottled from
Tesco. Northworthy was the name given to the area now generally
known as Amber Valley, but was changed by the Danes to Derby when
they paid a visit during the 8th century. And if we are to draw
comparisons from those pastoral surroundings then let’s say
the Mayfield seems a pure and natural guitar; its tone is unadulteratedly
clear and sweet and the word synthetic appears to be absent from
maker Alan Marshall's vocabulary — not a hint of plastic in
sight.
Construction
The smallest instrument in the Northworthy range, the Mayfield’s
rosewood back and sides are mated to a top made from the closest
grained spruce; onto this construction is grafted a neck of cedar
(classical guitars often use this musical timber) and onto that
a headstock made from the same material. The fingerboard is pearl-dotted
ebony, the bridge rosewood and the binding all wood — mahogany,
ebony and home grown sycamore in this case — while the headstock
is veneered in two piece Rio rosewood, bookmatched to show off its
striking grain. Headstock and soundhole inlays are abalone. The
nut and bridge are both bone and the only metal in sight is on the
gold-finished Gotoh heads, a single end-pin strap button and six
brass bridge pins. Brass? Yes, not your average bridge pin material,
but while not attaching any scientific evidence to their theory,
Northworthy maintain that brass makes the guitar sound sweeter.
I’d say that’s not far fetched at all; brass is a wonderful
tone metal — bells are made from it, remember — and
we all know the best sounding Telecasters have brass bridge saddles.
Inside, all is impeccable. The top is quite thinly made but supported
by X-braced struts and some reinforcement around the soundhole and
beneath the bridge. Kerfing is hand cut sycamore. "We have
a friendly sawmill just down the road," explains Alan Marshall,
"and they use a lot of this wood to make fence posts. We buy
them and leave them lying around for a year or so to dry out and
season, and then use them for things like kerfing, binding and bridge
plates."
Designing an attractive headstock is not easy; it can be the crowning
glory or seal the fate of your guitar. Thankfully the Mayfield’s
is styled neatly and in a traditional manner, even to the point
of being scarfed on; quality acoustics are often done this way,
the idea being to keep the grain of the wood running straight, even
though the headstock pitches back by a few degrees. It’s more
important on necks like this, or those made from mahogany, where
the grain is not as close as that of, say, maple. As far as neck
adjustment goes, Northworthy are unusual in that their truss rods
are dual action — i.e. they work actively to pull the neck
back and forward. This can be seen as a bonus, as in the normal
course of events a neck that’s severely crowned, or overbowed,
can often not be fixed by just slackening the rod in the usual way.
Alan Marshall explained that the pretty shape of the Mayfield is
a refinement of an old classical guitar outline: "We were given
this turn of the century classical guitar mould some years ago and
it sat around for a long time," he told me. "Then one
day we decided to do something with it and this is the result, after
a fair bit of refining. Actually the first guitar we made in this
shape was for Gordon Giltrap and the Mayfield is the natural evolution
of that."
The finish has been very well executed and Alan tells me it’s
polyurethane over a base of polyester. It’s been kept thin
and film-like due to a lot of intercoat sanding, with the top receiving
three or four fewer applications than the sides, rims and neck.
It certainly retains the necessary delicacy for a fine acoustic
tone.
In Use
Putting your hand around the neck of this guitar you notice its
slimmish dimensions; the shallow D shape is the same depth from
first fret to heel. "This is something we stumbled upon to
initially," says Alan. "1 found I liked it and a lot of
the folk players who use our guitars liked it too. Where it’s
really handy is if you’re using a Shubb capo; you don’t
need to keep adjusting it the higher up the neck it goes."
Tonally the Mayfield is as virtuous as Miss Lizzie Bennett. Although
rather diminutive it possesses bags of rich bass and a treble that’s
so sweet it’s not true. For fingerpicking it’s a dream,
as the lightest touch still seems to project the sound for miles
— perfect for live, unmiked work, where an expressive tone
that carries to the back of the hall is a great boon. Strum it hard
and the guitar still copes; in fact it barks right back at you and
even using a heavy pick, which I prefer, creates no distortion or
mush. I think ‘responsive’ is a good, if qualitatively
inadequate, way to describe it.
I did find the action a little hard for my taste and a touch too
much relief in the neck for my liking — I’m a perfectly
straight kind of a guy, if you know what I mean. But a slight truss
rod adjustment would have the string height just right. Northworthy's
truss rods also work the opposite way to most others, so clockwise
slackens and anti-clockwise tightens.
Any gripes? The 20 wide oval frets are well seated and their tops
polished to perfection, but I'd run a fine file over the ends: it
looks - and feels - as though they've been shaped but not finished,
so they appear quite sharp. Th ebony fingerboard is itself bound
in a thin strip of the same material, in order to conceal the fret
tangs and hopefully make for a cleaner finish. I'm not sure that
I see any real benefit here; there's little cosmetic improvement
and it will only make refretting more of a pain.
Conclusion
When we compose reviews at Guitarist, everyone's opinion is taken
into account, and the truth is that hardly a word has been said
against Northworthy's Mayfield; everybody's played it and commented
on it's exceptional tone and attractive appearance. It's acquitted
itself in a variety of styles and not all acoustics can boast of
that.
I haven't even mentioned price or value. But I guessed £1,200
and Martyn Booth agreed; Tim Slater said several hundred pounds
more and Jordan McLachlan thought it would be well over the thousand.
In fact the Mayfield costs a paltry £850 (at the time of writing
1995) and when you consider the benefits of having a guitar handmade
by a British luthier, we reckon fingerpickers will be beating a
muddy path to Alan Marshall's door.
As I write this, Pride and Prejudice is approaching its final episode,
where everything come right, Lizzie marries her man and lives happily
ever after in Derbyshire (actually I'd marry the guy if I could
live in that house!). And talking of marriages, mate this Derbyshire
lass to any player who loves a thing of beauty, sweetness and serenity
- i.e. a fine acoustic guitar! - and there's a match made in heaven.
SPEC CHECK
Northworthy Mayfield
Country of manufacture: England
Top: spruce
Back and sides: rosewood
Neck: cedar
Fingerboard: ebony
Bridge: rosewood with brass bridge pins
Frets: 20 wide oval
Nut and saddle: bone
Width at nut: 44mm
Scale length: 952mm
Body width: 370mm
Body depth: 100mm
Case: to order
Left-handers: yes, no charge
Electric's: most brands of system fitted to customers' requirements
General feel: great sounding and well-made guitar, which gained
a lot of admirers while here. Sweet treble and a lot more bass than
might have been expected from an instrument of this size. Fantastic
value too.
Guitarist December 1995
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