Since I've been waiting for shellac to dry, I've taken the opportunity to clean up the shop and record some new videos. My friend Miguel Mandelli stopped by yesterday to record some Bach and Villa-Lobos. Check em out!
New Guitars for Koblenz International Guitar Festival
First coats of shellac on a couple of new guitars that I'll be showing at the Koblenz International Guitar Festival next month. Spruce and pau ferro Modern Concert Model and Spruce and Indian rosewood Classic Concert Model.
International Guitar Week Graz
A few photos from the International Guitar Week at the Kunstuniversität Graz yesterday, where I had a small exhibition with my guitars. I had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful guitarists, attended an amazing masterclass with Paolo Pegoraro and heard two beautifully played student concerts: a program of 20th century music and transcriptions of Ravel and Debussy by the Tomasi-Musso Guitar Duo. I was also lucky enough to hear Petra Polackova play the entire Chaconne for me on two of my guitars!
Bindings, Spring Time and New Video
Over the past couple days, I've been doing bindings on four guitars! I didn't have a lot of time to take photos, but here are a few.
The weather turned yesterday rather suddenly and spring is officially here. Everything in our garden is in bloom and it's warm and sunny. The hedgehog family woke up and has been wandering around (unfortunately no photos) and the neighbor's turtle is out and about again too.
My friend Miguel Mandelli also stopped to record a video. He is a great Brazilian guitarist studying here in Graz. The piece is Tiento by Maurice Ohana. It's an old favorite of mine and a classic from the 20th century guitar repertoire. It's a little bombastic and dissonant at times, but a very cool piece and shows a lot of color. We'll be doing some more videos in the coming weeks of some more tonal pieces as well. :)
A Few New Photos
I've been quite busy as of late, so I haven't been posting so many photos. Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks. I upgraded my solera to make for easier changing of shapes (the prior solution with threaded inserts looked good, but was impractical as it turned out). Bent a bunch of sides on the iron. Reduced a large rectangular block of wood into hundreds of tiny triangular blocks of wood for tentallones. Mad a new rosette and braced some tops!
Making a Mess With Rosewood and Gluing Neck Blanks
Here are a few photos from the process of planing and scraping rosewood back and sides. Three backs and six sides make a lot of work and a lot shavings! Also a couple Spanish scarf joints and a V-joint for neck blanks.
New Rosettes and Planing Pau Ferro for Sides
Here are some photos through some of the steps of making new rosettes. These are all my own various takes on the Torres FE19 and FE09.
A quick time-lapse video of me planing Pau Ferro sides, also known as Bolivian rosewood or Brazilian ironwood. It is has a good density and hardness that is similar to Indian rosewood. The grain structure is more interlocked like mahogany though which makes a bit trickier to plane. One needs a sharp blade and some care to minimize tear-out. The up-side is that the pores are virtually non-existent.
Vinyl & Music Festival Vienna
Spent the weekend in Vienna showing guitars at the Vinyl and Music Festival. I usually only show at classical guitar festivals, so it was nice to get out of my nerd bubble for a bit and see a whole other nerd bubble! I met a lot of very nice people, played some cool instruments and, surprisingly, ended up making a few new classical guitar contacts. I also found a pretty cool Leo Brouwer record from 1978.
New Classic Concert Model
Tuners arrived today just in time to string up this new Classic Concert Model and still be able to take some photos before I head up to Vienna tomorrow. I won't be showing this guitar at the festival this weekend as it is going on its own trip all the way to Colorado. Very happy with how it turned out! European spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, Spanish cedar neck, ebony fingerboard, slightly narrower custom string spacing, handmade Alessi tuners with roller bearings and ebony buttons.
Some Kind of an Experiment
Strung up this new guitar last night and I'm very excited about how it turned out. It was a bit of an experiment. I was feeling particularly reckless when I started it and I decided to pick out a relatively plain-looking top (though quite good in terms of stiffness and runout) and pair it with a weird-looking maple/rosewood/walnut back. The idea was to make something a bit more unconventional in aesthetic, but very traditional in tonal character. The bracing is close to a Torres, which gives it a loose and open sound, but with a bit more lateral stiffness that brings it closer to a Granada style guitar in my opinion; the high-end is just a bit crisper, but not stiff at all. The first string is nice and even up the fretboard and has a gradual clear decay. There is kind of a hollow breath to the sound.
I'll be showing this guitar at the Vinyl and Music Festival in Vienna this coming weekend. Here a link for more information: http://www.vinyl-music.at/
