Patrick Woods is a local Winona Lake acoustic guitar virtuoso who has been touring the country and recording for a number of years. He is one of a core of players described as a Modern Fingerstylist… in the same genre of such players as Michael Hedges, Don Ross and Preston Reed. Patrick has received high accolades both from his fans and more importantly from his peers. He turns heads every time he plays and he had my head spinning as he played a few Donohue Guitars right there in my living room.

Patrick’s style of playing where both of his hands are fingering and tapping all over the neck requires a guitar that accommodates access similar to a double-cutaway electric guitar. So what better way than to have a double-cutaway acoustic guitar. Enter the Wechter double cutaway Pathfinder. What makes it an even better fit for Patrick is the fact that the neck is attached to the body at the 19th fret…another example of form following function.

It was obvious after watching him for a few minutes that he had had classical guitar training…his posture and chord formation provide efficient and ergonomic access to the fretboard and his attack was positive and consistent. I’m always amazed at how differently the same guitar can sound in the hands of different players. Each player seems to impart their signature method of fretting and string attack which can make similar notes and chords sound vastly different.

So after a few hours, he gave me a thumbs up on the guitars and we parted company for now. I plan to see him do a local show at the end of January in Mishawaka and have already ordered one of his CDs. I highly recommend checking out his site at www.pwguitars.com and viewing two of his many You Tube videos here and here.

JJ
12/13/09