One thing that takes more time on my SE153 Torres model is the inlay on the bridge. Firstly I have to lay out the lines so that it is centred perfectly and parallel to the long axis. Not like in the photo 🙂 I then mark around the piece with a knife while making sure that the piece doesn’t move. I have to mark the orientation just in case the pieces are not perfectly shaped. Since the lines aren’t very visible I rub chalk into them because I want them to be there for me right up until the final fitting. You know when you press a chisel into wood the bevel pushes the back of the chisel away from the line and you end up pushing the cut outside of your line. The answer is to cut out the centre and then when you have just a thin wall left until the line to then cut right on the line. Once or twice I have shaped the wings of the bridge before inlaying the mother-of-pearl but realized that it makes more sense to do it before rounding the wings. Of course it is easier to round the wings evenly before inlaying but if you are careful and remember that MOP is much harder it works fine this way too. The circles are easy to place after inlaying the larger piece using a brad point bit.

During the first Guitar Festival in 2017 I missed Rafael Aguirre’s concert but I really don’t remember why, some family issue I am sure. So this year when I heard he was coming again I made sure that I could go. I enjoy a good guitar concert but I also like to know who the good players are and be able to make reccommendations to those who are showing some interest in the world of the classical guitar. Last night’s concert was excellent, very musical and soulful and technically perfect as well. The music was well-chosen and although mostly Spanish it went beyond the so often repeated repertory of Granada concerts. I will also mention the ease that Rafael has with the audience and his efforts to bring the music closer to us through a personal anecdote or a brief explanation of the history of the piece in question. This makes all the difference in the world to those who are not asiduous concert-goers and helps in the struggle to take the guitar to a wider audience. Thank you Rafa.

I am looking forward to tuning up with these new machine heads.

The opening concert of the Granada Guitar Festival yesterday was a pleasure. The Carlos V palace on the Alhambra grounds is the perfect place for a late evening concert and the music was excellent. The OCG quartet are excellent musicians and joined Pepe Romero for the second half of his concert. I love the guitar and I love chamber music so Boccherini is a perfect union of the two. The Festival continues until the closing concert on August 8. See the full programme here.

It is very clear to me that there are more advantages to setting the back bars into the linings as opposed to removing the lining in that area and glueing a support under the bar. Firstly there is an extra step involved in using a separate support. Secondly those supports are difficult to shape after the fact (the top ones are easy to shape with a bellied chisel if you are putting the top on first and then the back). The last disadvantage has to do with glue squeeze out. A pocket makes a very self contained joint whereas the open lining with the support is open and allows glue flow if you are not very careful, especially if the brace end is high. And that is the problem, I use supports for the back bars on my Torres copies because that is what he did but also because with those unscallopped bars the bar end is too high to allow a pocket with enough support.