It seems like a while since I actually wrote an update post on what I have been doing in my workshop. The last time I updated you on the current guitar’s progress was at the beginning of May when I talked about the rosette inlays for the two in-progress guitars. Since then, I have focussed on finishing the guitar for the Hamilton festival as I had a hard deadline for completing that guitar. I will be getting back to the lunar phase cedar and rosewood guitar very soon, so you will see more on that guitar in July. The Hamilton guitar is now complete, so it is time for a summary blog post!
Bracing
Although I did not take many pictures during the building of this guitar (I broke my camera lens halfway through and had to purchase a replacement), I did manage to get a couple shots of the bracing, which is a bit different than in my past guitars. I based this pattern on a Bouchet guitar plan that is available from Luthier’s Mercantile. This is a fan braced guitar with a harmonic bar directly under the saddle. Although I did not copy the plan exactly, I did take inspiration from the graded brace sizing on the plans, which had heavier bracing on the treble side and thinner, lighter braces on the bass. I also used Bouchet’s open harmonic bar right below the soundhole which allows two of the fan braces to pass under the brace and end close to the soundhole.
In the next photo, you can see the asymmetrically tapered brace located underneath the saddle of the guitar. The tapering is supposed to help to balance the tone of the basses and trebles, and while I can’t say whether this is the reason, it is a good sounding guitar with pretty nice basses and trebles with a decent sustain.
Stages of Completion
I have had the strings on and off of this guitar several times in the last few weeks. The first time this guitar was played was at the end of May when a few friends came over to try the guitar out. The guitar was playable but unfinished – I had rushed to get the frets in and the strings on for the occasion, and had only had enough time to wipe a bit of shellac on the soundboard. I was immediately impressed with the unique sound of this guitar – it seemed to have a certain clarity of tone and a beautiful sustain almost from the first sound it made.
After that first test, I took the guitar back to my workshop to fiddle with things and apply some finish before stringing again for a couple of recording sessions for my upcoming CD. As soon as I had completed those recordings, the strings came off again for a bit more varnish and a couple sessions of polishing.
Design features
Overall, I am quite happy with how this guitar turned out. The woods are beautiful and work quite well together – the warmth of the rosewood complements the pink tones in the spalted maple. I used a bit of red veneer here and there to accent the pink as well, but kept the overall design simple with clean lines and mostly uncomplicated inlays. The talking point is of course the rosewood rosette, which turned out even better than I had hoped when I first dreamt it up.
Of course, people don’t immediately recognize it as Hamilton’s skyline (I am not sure that anyone would really recognize Hamilton’s skyline at a glance), but it is clearly a city scape when viewed from up close. From afar people have wondered if it was eye-lashes or a paint splatter on different occasions, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, but regardless of what people think it looks like, the rosette’s reception has been largely very positive.
I continued the use of rosewood for the bridge and the fingerboard on this guitar, preferring the softer brown of rosewood to the striking black of ebony for this design. Rosewood is also lighter, and from what I have heard, lighter bridges are generally a good thing in guitar construction.
The bridge is a bit unique in that I used a piece of flamed maple to cap the central section, and edged the tie block with red veneer lines and ebony for a bit of protection against string wear.
Along with the rosewood, I used a decent amount of quilted maple in the design of this guitar. The back of the headstock features a stunning veneer of quilted maple, as does the heel cap.
I also used quilted maple for the binding of this guitar, separating it from the light coloured body body woods with dark brown veneer lines to match the rosette.
And that’s it really. It is a comfortable guitar to play, with a standard scale length of 650mm and a slightly small (to modern standards) body. Although I was originally planning to French polish this guitar, I ended up deciding to use EnduroVar water-based varnish just because I am more comfortable with this product and I was pressed for time. The results are pretty good (if I do say so myself).
As I mentioned earlier in this post, I did manage to get a couple of recordings done with this guitar. However, I won’t be releasing those until my CD is complete in about a year, so I thought that I would do a quick home recording of a different piece to hold your interest in the meantime. Here is a little tune by Madame Sidney Pratten (don’t mind my serious expression – I’m still working on my stage face)
As always, thanks for reading and following along with this blog – your comments and interest really mean a lot to me!