It had been some years since I made my last big purchase from Barber in Valencia until I went on Friday and stocked up on products I needed. Things have changed since I was last there but the experience was just as satisfactory. Everything seems very organised and streamlined and the selection is much greater than it ever was. I tend to use maple, cypress or rosewood for backs and sides but the choices are much wider than that if you are ready for a change.

The first time I went I drove to Valencia, made my purchases and drove back but since then I always spend the night.  This time we spent two nights and visited the surrounding areas as well: the little towns around the Albufera. Very beautiful and nice paella.

There is a new cultural centre in Granada, a private initiative which proposes a venue for concerts, presentations, round tables and whatever else might be suggested. I attended a concert there recently and the setting was perfect! I will be proposing some classical guitar concerts there in the near future. For more information click here.

This is the guitar that I have been making and improving since I began. It has undergone a lot of changes in general shape and internal structure. I think these changes are for the better and that I am making the best guitar I can today. I started out with a shape borrowed from Hauser and although I used his bracing it was a very different concept. I arch the top and make it thinner than he did. The plan I used was of a very shallow instrument and it was relatively successful. Over the years I experimented with a deeper body, new shapes and a different internal structure and although I continue to search for improvements I have found a great combination of all these elements. My concert guitar has a bit smaller outline but is deeper and has 5 fan braces instead of 7. So, unless someone specifically asks me to go back to what I was doing before I will stick to this.

I sometimes like a bit of colour on my guitars instead of the almost white. I have never had much luck trying to colour the wood before the french polishing but I think that would be a good way to go. I heard of the different German traditions doing that with earth colours mixed with hide glue (I think). Another option is using dark-coloured shellac but somehow it tends towards blotchiness and I never seem to get what I want. The effect I am looking for, especially with my historic copies is that beautiful golden colour that comes to a guitar after 20 years left out of its case. What I have tried recently is a set of UV lights facing the guitar. These are tubes which are designed for tanning salons so I have an enclosure for them. With just 24 hours of exposure before polishing you get a noticeable tan on spruce or maple which of course darkens as you wet it with the shellac. This is by far my favourite way to colour the tops if I want to do that. I especially like this method for the following reasons:

• The colour is very uniform
• It is just the tone I am looking for
• You can opt for a darker shellac if you wish and any blotches don’t show because of the darker base
• The colour is in the wood so when sanding back you don’t have to worry about losing colour
• Easy-peasy

The photo is from when I was testing the setup. I sacrificed a narrow top and put only one part inside the box. I left it there for longer than 24 hours but I don’t remember exactly how long – double or triple that. Above you see the wood as it comes out of the box. Even using the lightest shellac you get a darker tone than what you see here.