While I have been focusing this blog on my current Baroque guitar project, I had a minute today and thought I would write a post about a couple guitars which are on the backburner right now, planning to be completed in the next few years.
Experimental Steel String Guitar 005
While building my first steel-string guitar after a Taylor model, I had thoughts of building myself a steel string. However, what I wanted was a smaller bodied (close to a classical size), seven string acoustic guitar.
Materials
- Soundboard – Sitka Spruce
- Back and sides – Zebrawood
- Neck – mahogany with a maple centre stripe
As you can see below, I made a wild looking rosette inlay for this guitar. The red circle is dyed veneer from Luthier’s Mercantile. The black shards radiating from the soundhole are thin pieces of ebony.
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soundboard 
neck and headpiece, v-joint partially fitted 
Zebrawood blank for side
Circa 1800 Spanish Guitar 006
Two years ago I did a bit of research on the guitars that were built in the transitional period between five course Baroque guitars and six string classical guitars. One of the instruments that I came across was a Spanish six course guitar very similar in shape to the Stradivarius ca 1700 guitar. The music that might have been written for this instrument includes the Boccherini guitar quintets. So I did a bit of drafting and some more reading, and came up with a plan for a guitar that might approximate the instrument.
I used a similar body shape to the Stradivarius, just slightly larger. The soundboard was to be fan braced (the major development in bracing patterns from the Baroque to the classical period which changed the building style from lute-like to more guitar-like).
Materials
- Soundboard: Engelmann spruce
- Back and sides: cherry (locally sourced)
- Neck: Spanish cedar
At some point, hopefully soon, I will start working on these instruments again.
