After a 20-year hiatus, I am building steel string acoustic guitars again. They incorporate some unique features. I am using an adjustable neck joint that I invented that allows the player to adjust the string height (action) while the guitar is strung up and up to pitch by turning a screw in the heel of the guitar. It is similar in outward appearance to the Stauffer guitars made in Vienna in the early 19th Century. The construction is far more complex than Stauffer's design. My design maintains maximum wood-to-wood contact in the area between the neck and body. The details will be published soon on this site under the "Adjustable Neck Joint" tab above.

My first steel string guitar design is the Model 5. It is a large bodied guitar that has the width of the lower bout of the familiar dreadnaught, but in a more rounded, ergonomic shape. The first guitars all have a 24.9" string length. A 25.4" string length is in the works. Guitar Gallery has some nice pictures of a RJN-5, the RJN standing for "Rein Adjustable Neck" and the 5 being the size. A model 4 is in the works, with a 15" lower bout, which places it in the OM family.

An old picture of the French polish ingredients: