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This is the second guitar in the Seasons presentation
series — the
Winter archtop. |
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This OM bodied classical is the first in a
four part presentation series. Each of the four guitars in the
set will be ornamented to represent a season of the year. This
one is Autumn. |
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No, this isn't how luthiers transport wine.
It is, however, my attempt
at measuring the effect of side ports on a guitar. I have used the results of this experiment to determine
the best placement of a port on an actual instrument. |
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Here's the fruit of the porting experiment. |
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Yet another interesting experiment. Two nearly
identical guitars. The only difference is the top bracing pattern.
These are also my first in a new Small
Jumbo size. |
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This special order “Viello” is a larger
version of my 5 string folk viola. The 18" long body
was made to played upright like a 'cello. |
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Another special order instrument. This guitar
has an ergonomically wedge-shaped body. |
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Sometimes you just have to give the machinery
a rest and do some music. This is an early holiday
gift from me to you.
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This harp was built for Lorraine Saltre, the
wife of my friend John Bigelow. Click
on the link to see and hear
it. |
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This Tenor Violin is the first instrument
completed from my new shop in Newport, NH. It is tuned an octave
below the violin, between the viola and ‘cello of the standard
quartet, and is played upright on an endpin. The violin style
arches and shallow ribs give it a distinctly “violin-like” timbre
in it’s tuning range. A small body with
a great big
voice
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This poor thing was dropped on it's
head. I got to do a fair amount of rebuilding on this 12-string
guitar I made way back in 1987. The top was badly damaged in
a very unfortunate fall. The distraught owner was delighted with
the repair which was completed in time for the annual NEFFA (New
England Folk Festival Association) doings.
I got to indulge myself a bit, with the owner's
blessings. My trademark basket-weave rosette has more than a bit
of pearl in it. Since I had to replace the fingerboard anyway, I
created fret position markers in Maxfield Parish-like phases of
the moon. |
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I’ve been having some fun with different
woods lately. Here are a few shots of an experimental
OM style guitar with the back and sides of persimmon wood.
Persimmon is the North American representative of the ebony family,
but the wood is most usually white. The fingerboard is also persimmon,
showing some of the gray streaking that shows up once in a while.
The instrument was deliberately kept simple at the customer’s
request.
The persimmon wood was very nice stuff to work
with; not as hard as most ebonies, and without the silica deposits
that can dull tools. It is a bit less dense than the Macassar
I’ve used, but has a nice “ring” when tapped, as
the Indonesian ebony does. Some breakage tests on samples indicate
that persimmon is a very tough wood indeed. It bent well, with
no warping or cracking, and seems to be stable. The completed
guitar really reflects the properties of the wood. The balance
and clarity are good, and it’s very hard to over drive it.
I think that persimmon is structurally easier to use and stronger
than most of the rosewoods I’ve tried, and acoustically right
in the same league as Indian rosewood.
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Martin designed the 12-fret
000 for gut strings, and I've often wondered how it would work
as a classical guitar. I finally got to build one, just like Martin
would have...sorta. The back and sides are Brazilian rosewood, and
the top is red spruce, set off by morado binding and five-line purfling
in curly koa. The top and bracing are light, like a classical guitar,
but configured in the Martin X-brace pattern. It ended up with a
real “classical” sound, with lots of color, but not “Spanish.”
I can really see it as an American instrument of a hundred years
ago, before amplifiers. With that big body it's got plenty of volume
and bass to balance out the clear and full treble, so it should
do well in the role Martin anticipated for it: a “Grand Concert”
instrument. |
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This new 12-fret
000 was supposed to be my show piece. Well, I showed it to
El McMeen and he bought it. Perhaps it was the Brazilian rosewood
back and sides or the extensive inlay and binding. Nah! Knowing
El, it was the sound.
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This guitar was
built in the same mold I use for my 12-fret 000, but in this case
the customer wanted that shape with a 14-fret neck and pointed
cutaway. He also provided the wood
for the back and sides, a plank of flat cut Madagascar rosewood.
This was teamed with a sitka spruce top and Honduras rosewood
binding. The braid rosette and two small interlace inlays on the
fingerboard lead to the large Celtic
cross on the headstock.
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Repairs are a big part of my work. This is
a Domingo Esteso flamenco guitar from
the 1920's that has lead an active life. This is also a somewhat
unusual instrument in that the solid lining is on the top and
the kerfed lining on the back, the reverse of “normal”
practice. It needed a top crack spliced and some touch-up to the
French polish to blend and fill in tapping damage and an unfortunate
cellophane tape mark on the top. The tuners were also quite worn
and it was necessary to bush the holes in the plates with brass
inserts to get them to work properly since modern machines would
not fit. As always with older instruments, questions of authenticity
and reversibility have to be considered at all times. It's a privilege
to help keep such a fine old guitar in working order.
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The English guitar
got done in due course. It's based on an instrument made by Preston,
and I copied the inlays from the drawing. The rose is a sort of
“inverted wedding cake” made of heavy paper. The original
used twisted strings rather than the modern overspun ones. Instead
of wrapping a layer of thin wire over a wire core the bass strings
were twisted out of two thinner wires, much like rope. I used
bronze wire for the two lowest courses, and the only difference
is in how much they are twisted. The owner picked it up on his
way home from a gig, playing early music, so he was “properly”
dressed.
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