Stephen Grimes has been building guitars in Kula, Hawaii since 1982 where he has been producing a variety of instruments slowly and meticulously by hand, including unique and beautiful arch top and classical guitars, mandolins and ukuleles' for players like George Benson, Larry Coryell and Steve Miller to name but just a few.
Greatly influenced by the local music and guitar scene, un 1989, in collaboration with the master slack key artist Keola Beamer, Steve designed a double soundhole flat top "slack key" guitar. Similar in some ways to earlier designs by luthiers George Gilmore, Donald Merianthal, and Douglas Ching, this design splits the soundhole into two smaller holes and moves them to the sides of the fingerboard, allowing a larger area of the top to vibrate, producing deeper basses and greater sustain. The area of the two soundholes is similar to that of a conventional classical guitar, but this design splits the hole and moves it into the upper bout so that a larger, uninterrupted area of the soundboard can vibrate. The transverse brace, usually located just behind the soundhole in front of the bridge, can be moved up to the end of the fingerboard, effectively opening up the tone-producing potential of the soundboard. This makes it possible for the bass response of a larger guitar to be achieved in a smaller one, while maintaining a strong treble response. The proximity of the bass side hole makes the sound of the guitar much fuller and louder to the player.
