Author Archives: johnray

New Project

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I am a big fan of the old masters but an important part of that is my respect for tradition.  My interest in historic instruments has helped me learn but I must admit I have learned so much more from makers here in Granada.  I have always maintained that there is a line from the spanish makers of the 18th and 19th century right up to Antonio Marin and Manuel Bellido as well as a lot of the other makers here in Granada.  My connection is that my teacher learned from both Manuel and Antonio.  Ever since Rolf’s death I have thought that I really should make a “hommage” model and try to get as close as I can to the guitars that Rolf made with that model.  Well, among the wood, tools, jigs and junk from his workshop there were quite a few guitar “parts”.    So my first “copies” of his guitar will be made with these parts, I will try to dig up some of his labels and put mine and his on the ones that reflect his work and mine.  My biggest challenge will be respecting  his aesthetic philosophy – Rolf studied industrial design and had a great eye for sober, function-driven aesthetics. In general I imagine that these guitars will sound quite similar to my concert model with the possible exception of the first one.  The top is already braced and glued to the neck, sides are bent and the back it braced too.  It will be interesting to compare it to one of his own guitars when I finish it. 

Rolf was neither overly modest nor was he any sort of divo but he did desire to be recognized for the work he was doing.  However, as he barely sold guitars in the U.S. and Japan his presence in publications and the internet was minimal.  I don’t see how I will come up with the time but I think that a plan of one of his guitars or a method based on his teachings would go over very well. 

Rolf Eichinger

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Here is something I wrote about my teacher Rolf Eichinger when he died back in 2009:

http://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=43886  His widow was close to finishing two guitars at that time and then went on to take a guitar making course and hoped to dedicate herself to guitar making.   A week ago she called me and told me she had decided not to pursue that idea and that she was selling the contents of the workshop.  As I was familiar with the quality of the wood he had stocked up over the years and the intelligence behind the jigs, fixtures and tools that he had made I planned a visit as soon as possible.  This first picture shows his Inca table saw (every guitar maker in Granada has one except for me)  I use a decent Kity but the table is a little too big to allow getting close to fine work; I end up bending over too much.    I am looking forward to using this saw.  One thing that came out of sifting through his wood is his generosity to me.  I found every type of wood with the date written on it in my handwriting.  Over the years he had supplied me with seasoned wood by trading his dry wood for my purchases at Maderas Barber or Madinter.  I know that makers who are just starting out as I was then can’t always use well-seasoned wood but thanks to Rolf I was using seasoned wood from the beginning.   I like my tops and necks to be at least 6 years old, rosewood to be 10 and ebony to be 12.   To use wood that is not acclimated to your workshop environment or not seasoned enough to be dimensionably stable is a disaster but I like to go farther than that and let it sit even longer.  This photo was taken while I was sorting tops, mostly they are excellent but the contents of the workshop had been through two moves and Rolf had always bought more tops than necessary and had lower quality tops on hand.   The last shot shows some spectacular curly cedar which Rolf tended to use on his maple guitars.  I find it slightly heavy so I may not use it but I do like the idea of combining it with maple. 

Closing the guitar

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In examining a guitar with a double back; in preparing the pieces and planning out the construction of a copy you obviously end up thinking a lot about what effect it will have on the sound of the guitar once it has strings on it.  Volume, projection, the character of the the different notes, sustain; any one of these might be affected by the physical changes in the instrument.  Well, I will try to get a number of different opinions on this guitar once it is finished but for now the biggest difference is the rigidity of the structure.  It makes sense once you think about it but I never had.  To have the sides connected around the perimeter of three plates instead of two is a big change.  I didn’t flex things too much but with just the internal back glued in with its reinforcements above and below it felt and sounded like a drum.

      I usually make more than one guitar at a time and I am used to seeing them hanging there but this one sure looks out of place.

It took me ages to decide how to glue in the internal back; I never could get a look inside to see how Arias had done it.  The fit has to be very good but I had to have room to get it into the body and imobilize it at the neckblock.  I had cut shallow slots in the neck block beforehand to accept a cutout of the back but now it was very tricky getting the back into the body and at the same time Into the slots.  Next time I think I will make the cutout the same size as the block and then glue supports above and below it.  The other thing I will do differently is the endblock.  I cut the endblock short to fit only between top and internal back  and there is a small deformation where it ends.  This photo shows the back being glued on and the last one is after the string has been taken off. 

Assembly

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So here is the moment of truth.  Bracing patterns are not really so important, the sound of a guitar depends so much more on things like:

-the tension of the top when the guitar is finished
-the humidity at the time of gluing
-the sequence of steps and the procedure followed

However, since I really don’t know how Arias got the results he did (a fantastic instrument with a sound and architecture that are very much alive over 100 years later) I am trying to replicate exactly what I see in the original guitar.  Many of the antiques I have played have been dead and/or the soundboard badly bellied but not this one.  For example, I can’t imagine what good the mini-braces in the foto below will do but I am using them.  Please note that they show every sign of having been glued on during construction of the guitar.  They are not crack repairs, they have the same shape as the fan braces and they are scalloped after being glued on (I can’t imagine anyone scalloping them through the soundhole). 

Madrid and Philadelphia

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I just got back from Madrid, I have a new client there, Guitarras de Luthier.  Miguel Angel Cano opened this shop less then two years ago and I was happy to see another dedicated classical guitar shop in Spain.  The excellent Casa Luthier was until then the only place you could go and see great guitars by different makers and try them out to your heart’s content.   I wanted to personally deliver the first guitar I sold there so that I could meet Miguel Angel and see the installations.  We had a good chat and the shop has a great feel to it.  It is about 50 metres from the Conservatorio Superior so the location could not be better.

I took advantage of the trip to see some old friends there but I also thought that I should stop by Calle Huertas given that I am working on the Vicente Arias copy.  The label of that guitar from 1900 shows his workshop at 29 duplicado on Huertas street. 

Oh, and why Philadelphia?  I just sent a new Torres copy to The Classical Guitar Store in Philadelphia, I am happy to have my guitars available once again in the U.S.  I spent ten years selling guitars to Guitar Salon International in Santa Monica but just last year we found we couldn’t agree on how to continue working together so we went our separate ways.