A few of the concerts from the Granada Guitar Festival were lived streamed and I just realized that they are still up on youtube. I enjoyed the ones I saw so check them out on the EGF channel.

I got back last weekend from a visit to my family in Canada. Let’s just say it was something which couldn’t be postponed. After a few days to get over jet lag and general fatigue I am back at work finishing up a few instruments. They should be ready for varnishing by the end of the month but then I will need to get right to the next ones. In the picture you can see some pieces for a rosette left from the things left behind when my teacher died. I have yet to decide how to frame this central motive but it will be with natural colours for sure.

One of the greatest guitarists of all time has left us. I never had a chance to see him play but I certainly enjoyed his recordings over the years. I also appreciate the willingness and interest he had in collaborating with guitar-makers, most notably Romanillos and Rubio. Rest in Peace.

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.