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Been starting on a couple other guitars while waiting for veneer to arrive from Spain, cutting out and gluing up neck blanks. Headstock joints and stacked heels. There's an interesting photo of the v-joint in a plane shaving after cleaning up the glued joint. Excited to figure out a new binding and purfling scheme for the last guitar that I recently closed up.
A few photos of the final assembly just prior to gluing the back on.
Spring really showed up all of the sudden here in Graz. It's sunny and warm every day now. I'm not used to that having lived in Seattle for so long; it feels like it should still be grey and depressing outside. In any case, it's been nice to be able to open the windows and work with a breeze. The humidity is perfect as well.
Finally finished the new solera. All spruce. Light and easy to fine tune as things inevitably move over the years. I attached the little L-shaped blocks with threaded inserts and machine screws which is an upgrade over the last one. Excited to be moving on and getting the first Austrian guitar put together.
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...
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!
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
