Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category
Few words in this one, mostly just photos of the finished lute.
Before applying any finish, the lute was strung up and checked out (as far as possible without any frets). Everything seemed to be in order, and tonally it was sounding very promising on the open strings. Once the strings are off again, and after a lot of fine scraping and sanding, the first coat…
No pictures were taken of the neck being glued to the body. This is because it is a very manual operation. Hide glue is liberally applied to both surfaces (after the end grain is thoroughly sized with thinned glue). The two parts of the joint are then rubbed together, squeezing any excess glue out, until…
Archlutes can have bass string lengths of 1.4m, but this lute has a relatively modest 960mm, and the short (fingerboard) scale length is 640mm. In these images the gluing surfaces have been planed perfectly flat, and the screw holes can be seen in both the neck and the neck block in the body. The initial…
Less than a month to the inaugural Felixstowe Classical Guitar Festival. This new festival has an impressive line-up of performers, and is unique (in the UK at least) in have competitions for both composers and luthiers. I’ll be one of the judges for the luthiery competition, and Steve Goss is hosting the composition…
The bracing of this lute was a little different to traditional instruments, with a combination of ladder braces and fan braces in the bridge area. First braces to go on are the small rose support bars. The purpose of these is just to support the very delicately carved rose, where the soundboard thickness is only…
As is the case with guitars, the soundboard is the most critical part of the instrument in terms of sound production. The wood should be quarter-sawn and free of defects, and ideally have no run-out. This is even more critical for the lute, as the glued contact area of the bridge is relatively small, and…
Having built 150+ guitars over the years, I’ve been wanting to try something a little different, and thought lute making would be enough of a challenge, without being too far out of my comfort zone. Last month I completed my first lute, an archlute, and delivered it to a happy customer. In this short series…
At the end of June this year I had my last day at Newark College. I had been teaching guitar making and repairs at Newark for over 20 years, but recent events have resulted in a high risk that the guitar making course (along with violin, woodwind and piano courses) will close down. The teaching…
Someone recently reminded me of a video I created some years ago, so I thought I’d share it here. I can’t claim that I always get a scraper working this well, but it’s very satisfying when it happens!
Finally, after quite a long wait, my repair book has been published! The book took nearly two years to write, and covers a wide range of maintenance and repair work for acoustic (steel-string and classical) guitars. 270 pages with over 600 images covering everything from string changing through setup to replacing a soundboard. It…
Making a Traditional Classical Guitar Rosette The traditional classical rosette consists of a number of components inlaid into the soundboard around the soundhole. The rosette in the image below has a central “end grain” pattern, a number of veneer lines, and two lines of half-herringbone (or rope). Some luthiers construct the whole rosette on…
I spent last weekend in Birmingham at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Guitar Festival hosted by Mark Ashford. The event combined concerts, masterclasses and workshops, and I took two guitars to exhibit, and a handful of students from Newark College, who had their own stand to exhibit their guitars and promote the guitar making course at…
Now that the new year has arrived, my thoughts turn to what exhibitions I will be attending this year. Actually, I’ve been thinking about this for several months now, and in particular, what my exhibition guitar will be this year. In recent years there has been an increasing amount of interest in shorter scale length…
Some stuff about tonewoods… What is a tonewood? A tonewood is any timber that has appropriate acoustic properties for musical instrument making. In terms of tonewoods, by far the most critical part of a guitar is the top (soundboard). There are a number of properties that a good tonewood should have. It should be stable…
What are struts (braces)? The struts are lengths of wood glued to the inside of the top (soundboard), which act to support the top against the tension of the strings, and to control the overall sound that the guitar produces. They are usually made of the same material as the top, although often cedar…
Just returned from the West Dean Guitar Festival. Had an enjoyable time as always, much of it spent chatting to other luthiers! Highlights were mostly provided by the great Pavel Steidl, who gave a wonderful performance on the Saturday evening, and then tried one of my guitars at the exhibition (a spruce/rosewood guitar), and was…
Travelling to Belgium for the Cordefactum Guitar Festival this weekend. I will have 2 guitars with me – one spruce/Indian rosewood, and the other is an all non-tropical woods guitar (walnut/spruce), photo below. I’m also happy to say that Marcin Dylla will be playing the spruce/maple guitar he has on loan in the Saturday evening…
An increasingly popular feature on my guitars (and others) is the armrest. Armrests serve two functions – firstly they improve playing comfort for the player, by providing a smoothly curved surface for the right arm to rest on, rather than the edge of the guitar, which is usually only very slightly rounded or beveled. The…
Way back in February I did an interview for Classical Guitar Magazine, and had almost forgotten about it, but it has finally been published in the latest (Fall) issue, featuring Laura Snowden on the cover. So far I’ve been fairly impressed with the new incarnation of CG magazine. It’s nice to have more colour, and…