 |
Jonathan Lee:
Walden's Main Man
By Nick Brown
Australia's Mixdown magazine, April 2011
What’s your personal history as a guitar builder
and with Walden?
I began my journey like many before me – as a
failed rock star. Having put those aspirations
aside, I was lucky to have the opportunity to
pursue a long-time dream of learning the art of
guitar building at Charles Fox’s American School
of Lutherie in Northern California. Charles and I
quickly developed a close friendship and realised
we shared many values and visions. In 1996 we
formed CFox Guitars, Inc. and built hundreds of
handmade instruments that are well respected
to this day. What I learned during those years
became the foundation for my philosophy of
guitar design and construction. After we closed
the CFox operation in 2001, I began working
directly with Walden guitars as their Research
and Development Manager, and I’m currently the
Chief Designer for Walden and President of the
Walden factory. I spent a great deal of time at
the Walden shop in northern China during those
earlier years, defining the materials we could use,
and rebuilt and redesigned many jigs, fixtures
and moulds. I then retrained staff on many of the
procedures, such as fret work, finish sanding, etc.
 |
With a market that is constantly being refined
and having to offer higher quality for lower
prices, how do you compete?
Guitars are as good as they have ever been. This
is a good thing. Guitars are as affordable as they
have ever been. This too is a good thing, since it
allows more people access to guitars as musical
instruments, not just the “guitar-shaped objects”
of the past that hurt so much to play that they
ended up in a closet somewhere. Walden does
not make the cheapest instruments and we never
will. We focus our efforts on building legitimate
musical instruments that will stand the test of
time. We see our important points of difference
in three general categories:
Ethics:
We believe that operating in a moral, socially responsible
way is an important part of our
process. We believe that a guitarist cares not only
how nice the instrument is, but also who built it.
Walden is one of the only brands that owns its
own Mainland China factory, while many of our
competitors job out their manufacturing (the
Nike sneaker model). We operate at high ethical
standards. Staff work five days a week, eight hours a day. If we work overtime,
we work until 9pm only.
Retirement and health insurance is mandatory.
Wages are above local standards. Minimum age
is a high school graduate. Workstations are well
lit and conditions are in line with any first-world
wood shop. Compare that with the “sweatshop”
many folks think of when they picture the typical
Chinese factory. If you are not purchasing guitars
from that kind of operation, Walden becomes
one of the few available choices.
Innovation:
By owning our own factory, we control the
materials, designs and processes that we use to
build our instruments. We do not have to fit our
guitars into someone else’s mould and change
the headstock for individuality. We are currently
the only Asian manufacturer using a bolt-on neck
to body joint, which is a more stable, unintended stress-
free joint compared to what I like to call
the “Asian dovetail”, which is forced together
and leads to all kinds of potential problems. We
incorporate a narrow-profile graphite reinforced
neck on our high end instruments (1000 Series
and above) and a glass-fibre reinforced neck
on our mid-range guitars (500-700 Series). This
neck design results in a more stable neck that
resists twisting and warping. A result of being
stiffer is that the bass resonant frequency of the
neck increases and problems with wolf-tones
are reduced. No other production shop builds
with this kind of additional neck reinforcement.
Walden in partnership with Graphtech (maker of
Tusq) worked together to develop the Fossalite
nut and saddle material, which is optimised
for mid-priced instruments. Beginning 2011,
all Walden 300 series through 700 series are
installed with Fossalite.
Tradition:
Building a legitimate instrument that both stands
the test of time and sounds great relies on
respecting key fundamentals of guitar building.
Our shop pays strict attention to humidity
control, with numerous climate control rooms
set to 45 per cent relative humidity. This allows
us to keep our materials at the correct moisture
content critical towards helping an instrument
survive the elements. We have based our bracing
designs and measurements on an authentic 1942
Dreadnought and have referenced the specific
body shapes from that pre-war era. The important end result is a guitar that
is not overbuilt like so
many of our Asian competitors.
Can you explain the concept behind the
Madera line (Certified FSC Pure wood)?
Walden’s Madera line of FSC-Pure instruments
are among only a few guitars built entirely out
of FSC certified woods today. FSC, or “Forest
Stewardship Council”, is a non-governmental,
not-for-profit organisation that sets the standard
for responsibly forested products and materials.
Every member in the supply chain from forest
through completed product must have a FSC
Chain-Of-Custody (COC) Certification. As a
COC holder, Walden must track all the FSC-Pure
woods we purchase throughout our building
process and only purchase from FSC COC mills.
That mill must also track their wood processing
and purchase from FSC-certified forests. FSC certified forests must develop and
follow a long-term forest management plan to ensure
the resources are well-managed. For example,
the FSC-Pure Central American mahogany
comes from a forest with a 70-year cut plan
and GPS coordinates for each tree. Every FSC
COC holder and forest must be audited by a
third party every year to ensure compliance.
And TFT (The Forest Trust)?
TFT, or “The Forest Trust”, is another global
non-profit organisation. Their focus is working
with companies and communities to develop
responsible products through reducing forest
destruction and empowering local forest dependent
communities. They have staff assisting
local communities to achieve Verified Legal
Origin status and eventually FSC Certification.
At the moment, Walden is working with TFT to map our wood supply chain, beginning
with our
first-line suppliers through mill to forest to ensure
everything is legal. We are committed to building
with legal materials, and anticipate through
our partnership with TFT we can create full
transparency throughout our wood supply chain.
Your lines cover a fair spectrum of specs and
prices – how are models/designs decided on?
We seek to provide the Walden owner with many
options for his/her budget. For example, we do
not offer only one dreadnought body shape in
our solid-top 500 series. The Orchestra Model
(O), Grand Auditorium (G), Travel (T), etc. all
provide different voices and playing experiences
tailored to the player’s needs and desires. Our
500 series is where our offerings are broadest and
as we move upwards, selection and number of
models is more limited. Our 600 series represents
an upgrade in materials and trim; 700 series adds
a solid wood back. Our 1000 series and above
apply hand made guitar construction techniques
to our line including our graphite reinforced
neck, hand cut bone nuts and saddles, wood
binding and a general increase in overall wood
quality. In this line, we also offer the 1-3/4” nut
width preferred by finger-stylists on our Grand
Auditorium and Orchestra Models.