New Rosette, Bending Sides and Wedged Spanish Heel

Very slowly, but surely making progress in the new shop; I'm still spending a fair amount of time running around and trying to find tools though. I cut and chiselled out the wedged channels for the sides. Glued up and cut the mosaic crosses for a new rosette. I was kindly given a bunch of veneer by a friend here and I decided to use it in the next rosette. I believe that it is Indian rosewood, beech, and the red might be Padouk, but I'm honestly not sure. I'm back to bending by hand, which is slightly more time consuming, but I realize that I've missed it. That's it for now. Buying a new bandsaw and lots of other tools this weekend...

New Glue Pot, Planing and Sawing Rosewood

This glue new Herdim glue pot is one of the few "power" tools I've got in the new shop. No more band saw and no more thickness sander sadly. I was hesitant to part with my old hold-heat glue pot, but I quite like this one and appreciate that one can adjust the temperature much more than I imagined.

Spent the afternoon sharpening blades, joined some boards, cut the waste off of a set of Indian rosewood sides to use for bindings later and then started bringing them down to thickness. Getting some nice clean rosewood shavings!

Getting back to work

Laying out and cutting a V-joint for a neck blank. All you need is a small hand saw, a sharp chisel and a good light.

Two short demo videos in the new shop

Here are a couple of recent demo videos that I recorded in the new shop last week. This is the Torres/Romanillos model guitar that I made for myself at the end of last year. It is a very traditional design based off of the Antonio de Torres guitar owned by Francisco Tarrega and a relatively similar José Romanillos guitar.

Slowly Making Progress in the New Shop

Slowly making progress in the workshop after the holidays. Making shelves, hanging up tools, making a new solera and getting ready to start work again in the coming weeks. It's cold and snowy outside!

Last Three Guitars of The Year

Finished stringing up these three guitars over the last few days. Two Romanillos/Torres models and one Torres model. I'm happy to say that I've finally managed to set one of these aside for myself. Very much enjoying it!

Clear and complex tone. Loose action with a good amount of bloom to the note, but with enough detail and definition to be articulate, provide a rich tonal palette and a balanced frequency response.

  • European spruce top
  • Indian rosewood back and sides
  • Honduran mahogany neck on the first. Spanish cedar necks on the other two
  • Macassar ebony fingerboards on the Romanillos models. East Indian ebony on the Torres
  • Combination of cocobolo and rosewood headplate veneers
  • Hand engraved Alessi tuners on the two Romanillos models and Gotoh premium tuners on the Torres

Three New Guitars Ready For Finish

Three new guitars ready for polish! These will done by the end of November and the last three of 2016. I haven't had much time to take photos of them in progress, but here a few while planing fingerboards and a bunch of prior to sealing bindings and the first coats of shellac. 

Pile of Shavings

Spent the day planing, starting to brace tops and gluing center strips on backs. Accidentally stayed up until two in the morning looking at new tools online...

Two New Guitars Off The Bench

Just strung up these two guitars yesterday. Very happy with how they turned out! Light, lively and balanced.

Both are Torres models and made with basically the same materials. The second has a custom 636mm scale length with a 50mm nut. The other is standard 650mm and 52mm. European spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, Spanish cedar neck, ebony fretboard, Hand engraved Alessi tuners on one and Gotoh premium tuners on the other.