Goodall RCJ

Goodall Concert Jumbo

Photo by K. Proctor

This guitar just came in this evening... a Goodall RCJ (Rosewood/Sitka Spruce Concert Jumbo.)

I've been waiting for it so that I could post something about it. Yes, I know, I didn't post on Thursday again, but this is the reason I didn't do it!

The Goodall guitars are hand-built guitars in Hawaii from James Goodall and his small but capable staff. He produces about 500 guitars a year.

James Goodall was originally from San Diego and hung out at the American Dream guitar shop in the early 1970's... a small guitar manufacturing shop where Bob Taylor (Taylor Guitars) worked and eventually bought. Goodall was a seascape artist at the time and actually traded a painting in 1972 to afford some tonewood to build his first guitar! Although Goodall never worked for Taylor, they did know of each other. As many guitarists know, Bob Taylor along with partner Kurt Listug went on to form a huge company called Taylor Guitars that currently produces over 70,000 guitars per year. It's one of the most successful guitar companies in the world.

Goodall's yearly production of around 500 guitars is nowhere close to what Taylor builds. But each guitar is almost entirely made by hand. Considering that approximately 15 people work at the Goodall factory (from what I'm told), 500 guitars is an amazing amount of product. The attention to detail and the quality of the instruments are top notch. In comparison, The R. Taylor factory (Taylor's hand-built division) makes about 400 instruments per year, but they have about five people working in that division. R. Taylor shares a lot of its technology with the standard Taylor guitars and so they can produce more guitars with less people.

Goodall's guitars are very highly regarded by guitar enthusiasts. These guitars are often cited for their bell-like overtones and incredible clarity and sustain. From just the short time I've played the guitar, I can tell you that these claims are true. The Concert Jumbo is one amazing acoustic guitar!

This Goodall RCJ is outfitted with an LR Baggs Element undersaddle pickup. This pickup is considered one of the best of its type. I've yet to plug in the guitar to an amp, but will do that very soon.

More photos and a detailed description of the guitar and its sound will be coming in the near future after I've had a chance to live with it for a while. But in the meantime, the photo you see above was taken by its previous owner, Kyle Proctor. It's a wonderful photo and I asked his permission to show it to all of you.