Stephen's Extended Cutaway

Stephen Davies Biography

Stephen Davies was a luthier and guitar player with a degree in music and a background in classical and jazz guitar styles. One night while playing with a jazz band at a blues dive he decided to transpose a bridge to a song by Theloneous Monk up an octave. He blew the part and later that evening, after being given a hard time by the other band members, asked the question "Why did that happen?" With years of classical guitar training, it occurred to him the obvious problem was improper hand position caused by the thumb being forced out of position by the heel on his guitar. Realizing the obvious solution was to remove the heel of the guitar, Davies set about working on structural designs that would accomplish this without compromising the integrity of the instrument. Within a few years, initial prototypes were built on acoustic steel-string guitars which were met with an enthusiastic response from players. Several players especially liked the design and many of the earliest prototypes were sold to players the likes of Pat Metheny, Kenny Burrell, Kevin Eubanks, and others. Further designs and prototypes were built adapting the EC to electric as well as acoustic guitars and developing models for construction in any of the popular formats. Patents and trademarks were granted worldwide in the late eighties and instruments using the Extended Cutaway design have been built since.