Category Archives: Guitar making

New guitar for Casa Luthier

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I am filling an order for Casa Luthier in Barcelona and since they held the guitars of Rolf Eichinger in very high esteem I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to finish some of the work he left behind.  In this case I am using a neck and a bridge that he prepared so I can’t really say that the guitar is not mine.  I won’t be putting any indication on the label but the heel is firestamped on the inside with his initials as he used to do on all his work.   The top bracing is different from his although the underlying ideas are the same, he had been using five fans almost exclusively for years.  Every time I make a cedar guitar I think of Rolf because he is the one who taught me how you have to treat cedar in order to get a similar response to spruce as it can be very boomy otherwise.

Let me point out some “innovations” on Rolf’s bridges.  Looking at the photo below you can see that the tie block has a slanted back side which allows for a lip while respecting the width of the tie block itself.  The only advantage I can see to this is the sharper corner which helps to keep the strings from slipping.  Of course you have to be more careful to bevel the corner so that strings don’t break.  The other feature is a tipped-back saddle slot which is something he talked about when I first met him but never did until near the end.  The advantage to this is that the higher the saddle the more compensation there is.  The reasoning is that the higher the string is off the fretboard the more string compensation you need.  I know, it is hard to see in the photo.

So this will basically look like one of my guitars except the headstock is different, the body measurements are not mine and the bridge has this funny look to it.

I also wanted to say that it is a real pleasure to once again make 4 concert guitars at the same time.  I used to work that way and it is very efficient but between flamencos, the Torres copy, the new Arias copy and the romantic model it has literally been years since I have had 4 of the same model on the go.

Photographs of my work

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I used to drive every year to Cartagena to attend the guitar maker’s exhibition which was organized as part of the Semana de la Guitarra festival at the conservatory there.  It was an opportunity to show my guitars to students and teachers and to have them played on a stage and compared with other makers’ work.  When my son was born I stopped going although by that time I had a decent waiting list for my instruments and had stopped travelling to show my instruments.  I enjoyed those exhibitions and I heard some great music, learned a lot about my instruments and the players needs and met some wonderful people.  One of those was María Isabel López Gonzálvez, a young student of photography who was finishing her degree and had thought of a subject for her end of degree monograph.  She had been asking the guitar makers one by one if they would mind if she spent some time taking photos of their work.  She was very clear that she wanted to be a fly on the wall and not stage any shots.  Of course this meant that in order get photos of many different processes the project would have to be stretched out over quite a long period.  Perhaps you can imagine that the makers were not interested in something that would only interrupt their concentration and their work and would offer no benefits for themselves.

I think it was in 2002 that she approached me with this idea.  Her interest in guitar making was unusual for someone who neither played the guitar nor worked with wood and I was carried away by her enthusiasm.  María had to travel for three hours for each session and was still studying at the time and I had my limitations as well so it took a long time to get enough images to satisfy her.  The final project consisted of 100 images ranging from 30 X 45 cm up to 70 X 100 cm which she would then have to present to the committee which would evaluate her work.  In the end, although she did develop the images at full size the presentation was made in the form of a book which was put together just for the occasion.  She printed 10 copies, one for herself, one for each member of the jury, one for myself and one for my mother (María was 18 and just the sweetest person).

When I saw the book for the first time I immediately thought that it should be published and in time we got that done.  The current edition is actually the second try, the first one was larger and the binding started falling apart very soon.  This edition was finally presented at the Cartagena festival of 2006 along with some of the full-size photos and a few short pieces played by Daniel Vissi on one of my instruments.  The book is sold by Strings by Mail and also to a few shops in Spain and in Germany at Dick fine tools in their instrument making section.   Don’t let that give anyone the wrong idea, this is not a method for building a guitar.  It shows quite a few of the stages and I believe there are many photos which are interesting to builders but it is primarily a beautifully shot photographic essay and nothing more.  Each photograph is accompanied by a short caption in Spanish and English.

The full exhibition only appeared once and was organized by a bank and the town council where the María lives.  Get the book for a reduced price now at Strings by Mail

 

 

Here are some readers’ thoughts on this book:

review

(in spanish)

from a newsgroup

 

Madagascar, Cocobolo and Ebony

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I was told on Monday that tomorrow the new modifications of CITES come into effect.  Cocobolo, Mad Rose and madagascan ebony are going in to appendix II.  While I think this is a good idea, I am not particularily happy with the implementation.  The CITES people in Granada want to see invoices for every piece that we have in order to be sure that we didn’t import it illegally.  Of course we didn’t import it illegally!  Someone else imported it and then we bought it legally (before we knew the situation in Madagascar).   So now if we don’t have the invoices they won’t register it and we won’t be able to use it on guitars that we plan to export.  I have never bought rosewood from Madagascar but I know that others have and may or may not have the invoice for it.  Spanish law says that you have to keep your tax returns and invoices for 5 years, even the new EUTR wood regulation says the same; now suddenly the CITES folk says we need to keep them forever.

I understand that legalizing elephant tusk or Brazillian Rosewood today would cause more people to go out and get these products illegally and then try to certify them but I do not see the same logic as applicable to new entries to CITES.  If we have the stuff today and it was not illegal when we bought it how can we have it illegally?  If we declare it before the cutoff date then we should be able to get it registered.  Once the ban comes into effect any new legalizations would be heavily scrutinized as they could conceivably encourage illegal imports.

bracing scheme by Laprevotte

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A reader asked me for some details about the bracing of the 1838 Laprevotte that I had in the shop some time ago.  Here is the information I was able to offer.  Remember that Laprevotte was a violin maker before he turned to guitars and another thing I like to keep in mind is that there are makers using this kind of bracing today who claim that they invented it, ha ha.

 

All measurements in mm.

There are four parallel longitudinal bars which I will number starting from the extreme treble side.  Number two is 38.5 from the centre line and number one is 37.5 from number two.  Number 3 is 42 from the centre line and number 4 is 35 from number 3. There are also four short cross bars between the two centre bars whose positions I measured from the 12th fret position.  Number 1 is at 60, number 2 is at 96, number 3 is at 280 and number 4 is at 388.

Back to the longitudinal bars, they are scalloped at the ends and are peaked gradually as opposed to being rectangular and simply rounded on the top.  The heights are Bar 1 ub (upperbout end) 7 and lb (lowerbout end) 8, Bar 2 ub 11.5 and lb 14,3, Bar 3 ub 12 and lb 14.3, Bar 4 ub 7.5 and lb 7.55.

The widths are Bar 1 3.5, Bar 2 increases from 3.5 ub to 4.5 lb, Bar 3 is 5.5, Bar 4 is 4.5.  Both Bars 2 and 3 seem to tuck under the neckblock and the endblock whereas Bars 1 and 4 either end at the linings or are also let in to the linings.  Here are the heights of the bars where they “end” after scalloping.

B1 ub 3.75 lb 3
B2 ub 4.2 lb 5
B3 ub 4.2 lb 5.35
B4 ub 3.8 lb 6

The length of the scallops:  Bars 2 and 3 are scalloped from the position of the nearest cross bar to each end.
B1 ub 42 lb 28.4
B4 ub 41 lb 49

The short cross bars are 7.5 high and 3.5 wide except for the one in between bridge and soundhole which is 4 wide.

Fleta 1953

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This was the first Fleta I had ever seen and I had some pleasant surprises.  I know that many players and makers just love his guitars but my experience was limited to the Courtnall plan and was far from positive.  My first guitar was made using a Hauser plan and guidance from a violin maker and although it is no great shakes it is the guitar I still use today to bang around on.  I then made a few guitars using the Fleta plan with nine fans, thick top and the extra diagonal bar.  I tried cedar and spruce but I never got a result I was happy with. 

For a long time now whenever someone mentions Fleta I always thought of that plan so I was happy to be proven wrong at the Barcelona Museum of Music when I visited earlier this year.  Firstly I was very impressed by the sound of this guitar, and secondly the bracing and the thicknesses were completely different from that plan I mentioned.  Not surprising really, we see all sorts of variation and experiments among the better makers.  One thing I found very interesting is the very thick upper bout compared to the lower bout.  This is something that my teacher Rolf Eichinger did on his guitars but he had never credited anyone with the idea, perhaps he thought of it on his own and came to the same conclusions as Mr. Fleta.  I doubt it though, given the huge number of historical instruments that had passed through his hands.   I am sure that he saw this if it is indeed common to find in Fleta’s guitars. 

 

The right side (labelled agudos) is the treble side not that it matters in this case.