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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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
Cleaned this new Classic Concert model up today and started putting on the first coats of shellac.
Here are a few photos and another little time-lapse video during the process of bracing soundboards, gluing in linings and fitting everything in preparation to close the box.
I'm excited to be one of the few musical instrument makers participating in the Vinyl & Music Festival this year in Vienna. The event also happens to host the Vienna International Gig Poster Show. It looks like it'll be a lot of fun and the organizers are super nice, so come say hello and check out some cool stuff!
Website: http://www.vinyl-music.at/
Vinyl & Music Fest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/138969916834278/
Vienna International Gig Poster Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1826197334090756/
Here's a quick video of me bending a rosewood side. Below, are also a few photos from the last weeks of planing backs, sides and tops, and the newest rosettes for the coming guitars. One is a pretty straightforward Torres/Hauser inspired rosette and the other is kind of a cool simple rosette inspired by some of the older Viennese style guitars by Hauser Sr.
