Bill Clements from the Rosewood Guitar shop was nice enough to bring in his 1966 spruce top Ignacio Fleta guitar for me to check out this afternoon. We spent some time playing it in the showroom, comparing it to other instruments and looking inside with a mirror. It's probably the nicest Fleta that I've had the opportunity to play. Very big and elegant tone. Wish it were mine!
Purflings, Rosettes, Sunsets and the Art Museum...
It's been a busy week!
Checked out the woodworking exhibit at the Bellevue Art Musem. Definitely some cool stuff. Here's a picture of the inside of a weird wooden bee hive dome on the roof that I'm not entirely sure I was supposed to be in...
The sunsets have been pretty amazing this week. Here are a couple photos from just outside my shop in West Seattle. Beautiful clear views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains!
In guitar building news... I shipped out two guitars to Savage Classical on Monday. They should be up on the sight and available soon. Working on a new batch of instruments. Started making up some new bindings, purflings and inlaying a rosette into this perfect western red cedar top.
Bugs...
Cutting rosette tiles on the band saw as they try to run away like little bugs...
New Lutz Spruce/Claro Walnut Concert Model
New concert model with a beautiful Lutz Spruce top and flame Claro walnut back and sides. Big complex sound with a bit of the dry punchiness that comes with a less dense back and sides material. 650mm scale length. 52mm nut. Handmade Alessi tuners.
New Cedar Concert Model
New western red cedar and Indian rosewood concert model going out to Savage Classical on Monday!
Loud, balanced and complex voice. A bit warmer as cedar tends to be. 650mm scale length. 52mm nut. Handmade Alessi tuners.
Joining, Bending, Rosettes and More French Polishing...
Getting ready to photograph and ship out a couple guitars. I'm already starting up a new batch of instruments. Joining backs, bringing everything down thickness, bending sides and inlaying rosettes. I'm excited to use some of this really beautiful German spruce that has a fair amount of bearclaw figure in it. I also just got these new Alessi tuners in the mail yesterday. Very pretty!
Bridges and Finish Touch-up...
Two new guitars got bridges glued on today and yesterday. Doing some fussing and finish touch-up. Should be strung up by the end of the week!
Another one is on the way...
French Polishing and Other Random Stuff
Been plugging away at French polishing these two new guitars. Got a nice amber tint to them and I'm slowly building up body and finishing up the pore fill with pumice today.
In other news, I've got myself on a big Louis MacNeice kick recently. Not really normal for me, but I'm really enjoying it. I try to keep the non-guitar related stuff to a minimum on the blog, but sometimes it nice to share other things. This book Autumn Journal has a ton of great stuff in it and it's really fitting with my mood lately.
This isn't incredibly interesting, but, regarding his time in Spain, he references the tobacco that Romanillos also mentions in his book about Torres; another testimony that it wasn't entirely Tarrega's carelessness, but the quality of the tobacco that is to blame for all of the cigarette burns on his two guitars.
"...And we sat in trains all night
With the windows shut among civil guards and peasants
And tried to play piquet by a tiny light
And cursed the Spanish rain
And cursed their cigarettes which came to pieces..."
This is just pretty... and somewhat encouraging:
"...I wonder now whether anything is worth
The eyelid opening and the mind recalling.
And I think of Persephone gone down to dark,
No more a virgin, gone the garish meadow,
But why must she come back, why must the snowdrop
mark
That life goes on fore ever?
...Only the spider spinning out his reams
Of colourless thread says Only there are always
Interlopers, dreams,
Who let no dead dog lie nor death be final;
Suggesting, while he spins, that to-morrow will outweigh
To-night, that Becoming is a match for Being,
That to-morrow is also a day,
That I must leave my bed and face the music..."
Another One Ready For Finishing...
Ready For Frets and Finish...
These are somewhat out of process, but here are some photos of one of the new guitars just prior to being fretted and French polished.
