This is a guitar that I acquired recently on a trade and I am wondering what to do with it. I could try to sell it now to someone interested in Catalonian guitar history or I could restore it and then try to sell it. I really don’t have any interest in collecting guitars although I am grateful that some people do it. Collectors have kept alive guitar history for those of us who are interested in it today. The guitar does need restoration but it has been played in this state.

José Serratosa Blanch was active in Barcelona in the late 19th early 20th centuries and you can read a bit about him on these two pages. Zavaleta’s and Miguel Mateo.  According to the address on the label this guitar was made before 1906.

Once again CSU Summer Arts is holding “La guitarra española” in Granada coinciding with the Granada Guitar Festival. There is really nothing like having the city full of players, teachers and guitar-makers for three weeks. The Antonio Marín guitar-making competition will also be held this year although I have not heard details yet from the organizers. Details for applying to the summer arts program can be found here. The festival and the competition will be posted here as soon as I hear what the dates are.

The foto shows Alberto Cuéllar playing one of the many concerts at last year’s festival.

I recently had to replace the top on a guitar that I had just finished. It is rare that an instrument does not meet my standards but if it should happen it is important that something is done so that potential clients don’t get a bad first impression of my work. For some reason a bad guitar gets a lot more attention than a great guitar. In this case, in addition to the tops, I needed a slightly different bridge and so was willing to sacrifice both bridge and top. I have been told on a number of occasions that one way to get a bridge off if it was glued on using animal glue is to give it a sharp knock with a chisel and a hammer to break the glue bond. I never really believed it but I thought I would try it since both bridge and top were to be sacrificed. No, not true.

Here is what I found: A well-glued bridge will not “pop” off no matter what you do. I think this belief comes from the violin world where they use a slightly different technique and materials to create a more brittle bond. This allows the top or the back of the violin to be taken off with little or no damage to the wood. This is essential for repairs and modifications throughout the life of the violin. A thick glue line is brittle and relatively weak because although animal glue has incredible adhesive strength, its cohesive strength is not great (think concentrated jello). Compare the brittle glue line holding violin top and sides together with the perfect guitar joint. To glue the bridge we mate the two surfaces perfectly and make sure that they are freshly worked. Well-spaced scratches on the glueing surface of the bridge give the glue somewhere to go ensuring that we will not get pockets of glue  (thick glue line). The glue is watered down more than other glueing operations in the guitar and the joint is rubbed to get as much glue squeeze-out as possible. The result is the thinnest glue line possible and a very, very strong joint which can only be dissembled through wood failure. True that enough moisture and heat would cause the glue to re-hydrate and release but this technique is reserved for restorations in which the bridge must be preserved. The photo shows a bridge which was separated from a top by destroying the spruce and shows that adherence was perfect throughout.

Wood can be beautiful, striking or combined very nicely for a particular project but what a woodworker really loves is a wood which responds well to the tools. This particular piece planes like a dream, takes a beautiful shine upon scraping and has a nice compact structure. It even smells wonderful. I would love to leave this guitar unvarnished but then the beauty of the wood would quickly be marred by staining and ageing.

The guitar concerts at the Palacio de Gomérez have taken on a new aspect with the duets we heard on Friday evening thanks to Marcus Toscano and Bernardo Rambeaud. You can see them both playing at the end of this video. The concert wrapped up with a few pieces for mandolin and guitar which made for a refreshing change.