I grew up in a Montana town I thought had no consequence and I wanted out. I could winter okay-it was all I had ever felt, the gray northwestern skies-but I had had enough of family and boxing groceries. I went on my own outside circle, never appreciating the nature of circles and how they bring you back.
Kurt Markus, After Barbed Wire: Cowboys of Our Time, 1985
After the varnish stripper sat its required hour on guitar #3 I needed something to scrape the gunk off, this spoke shave blade was handy in the top of the tool box. It worked well
I brought it into my studio and found out that if I sharpen the bevel on a 1200 grit stone, the slight burr that is left on the back side of the blade turns it into a wonderful scraper.
The whole thing began when I made my first instrument on the kitchen table.
Jose Romanillos, Luthier
Guitarmaking by Cumpiano and Natelson and Making Master Guitars by Courtnall are must haves for a first time guitar maker. The other titles are good reading!
Most how-to-make-your-own-guitar books recommend that you use lacquer to finish your guitar. A good choice, lacquer is a durable and wonderful finish, but even as John Bogdanovich points out in his book, Classical Guitar Making, applying lacquer is not easy, not to mention you should invest in a good quality HVLP spray gun outfitter and purchase the proper Personal Protection Equipment to protect you from the lacquer's toxicity to spray lacquer. (Okay, woodworking geeks, you can jump in at any time to tell me how wonderful spraying lacquer is!) .
You can buy aerosol cans of lacquer from Stew-Mac and other luthier supply houses to finish your guitar. I hear good things about going that route, it just reminds me too much of when I painted my '59 Chevy pickup with cans of spray paint my sophomore year of college (1982).
Cumpiano and Natelson recommend brushing lacquer, which I think is another good option, but don't forget that you'll spend a lot time sanding out the ridges in the finish left there by the brush. If you are good at painting you won't have a problem with a brush, so brush away. That said you could also use Pratt&Lambert's 38 Clear Alkyd Varnish and brush it on the way that Manuel Velazquez and his son Alfredo do on their famous guitars.
Four books to have in your library!
Oh, and don't let anyone tell you that french polish takes too long to apply, is too hard to do and is beyond the scope of any fledgling luthier, that's just BS. Buy Ron Fernandez's video French Polishing for Guitarmakers, follow his instructions and you will be impressed.
What I am getting at is that there is no easy way to apply a finish to a guitar, I know that those books make it look easy, but it isn't until you've done several guitars. Accept that fact and just do it. Don't fall like I did for the articles in Fine Woodworking magazine about the latest and greatest easiest-ever-varnish-to-apply. They don't work well on a guitar. And see my previous post about using Behlen's Rockhard Table Top Varnish, it dries hard but turns as yellow as a dandelion in one year.
The following photos are of my guitar #3, I built it 10 years ago, that I stripped over the weekend. It's not a fun thing to do and I even used a "green" varnish remover. After I built it I finished it with the aforementioned Behlen product and an alkyd varnish concoction from the pages of Fine Woodworking, the results were less than pleasing. I will say it again, I wish that I had learned how to french polish when I first started making guitars.
I am a huge fan of french polish and I urge anyone who wants to make a guitar to use that technique. I say pick one tried and true finishing technique and use it, don't experiment with other finishes until you get the hang of the one that you are using.
P.S. I'm not trying to scare anyone off from making a guitar, anyone with or without woodworking chops can do it. Go ahead, start today!
The is guitar is a chattel with a soul often in part owning its owner and tantalizing him with his lack of perfection.
Carl Sandburg
Snow overnight and into this morning, a wet snow which this part of the country needs, the forest is so parched and dry I expect it to combust on its own. It's warming up right now, snow is falling from the limbs, highs back in the 60's by mid week.
Remember this shot from a post earlier this year? I installed frets that were wider and taller than I wanted and I discovered I did a so-so job on leveling the fret board.
I spent the morning filling in all the chips and divots with Hot Stuff brand cyanoacrylate glue and ebony wood dust. Stew-Mac came to the rescue with tips from their Trade Secrets on fixing chips on a fingerboard and some teflon to create a dam to keep the glue from going into the fret slot. I sure made a mess!
Here is the repair after paring away the glue pile with a chisel and sanding the fret board.
Frets are installed, I just need to do the 19th fret, then I will the frets in place with some more cyanoacrylate glue, again, another tip from Stew-Mac. (I did that on the cedar/maple guitar and I am impressed at how every note on every fret is loud and clear.) Then the frets will get leveled, re-crowned and polished.
I first learned about the great American composer, Charles Ives, from a PBS TV program on him that aired sometime in the late 1970's. I got the chance to research his works more in college and I still can't get enough of his music. I thought you might enjoy a YouTube of Hilary Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa playing the first movement from the Fourth Sonata by Ives.
Segovia('s)... instrument moans not, neither does it wail. It is at all times nothing more nor less than a transcendently well-played guitar-an honest and affecting sound because it is a beautifully handmade thing, in which the left hand always knows what the right hand is doing. And that, in the last analysis, is the point and purpose of the whole art of the Apollonian twang.
Frederic V. Grunfeld, The Art and Times of the Guitar, 1969
Four hours this morning doing the final rub out on the finish, worth every penny of the labor spent. I discovered that Meguiar's Swirl Remover worked the best for a gloss finish. When I took these photos I could see my reflection in the finish, me holding my camera and the guitar looking back at me.
This guitar started out as a bigleaf maple board that my friend, Leo Weber, gave me for the sole purpose of making something out of it. I re-sawed the board by hand with a Disston D-8 rip saw into the back and sides, the top I scavenged from a old pile of hand split cedar shakes that I found some where near the slopes of Lassen Peak and Brokeoff Mountain in northeastern California. The rosette is from manzanita burl that I harvested on my grand parents property, the rest is wood that was purchased from LMII: Spanish cedar neck, West African ebony fingerboard, bindings and bridge, it's outfitter with Sloane tuners and right now it has light tension LaBella 2001 strings on it.
Thanks, Leo.
Here's a YouTube of Sharon Isbin being amazing as always!
I enjoy listening to opera at home, occasionally, but I would much rather see it than just listen to it.
Sam Waterston
I've been in love with Cecilia Bartoli ever since I heard an interview with her on National Public Radio back in 1990 when I was working and living at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. To me she is the most amazing mezzo soprano in the world today. I love her voice and what she can do with it.
I wanted to share this YouTube not only for her voice but for the pine trees that are in this video. Wow, I have no idea where this was shot but these trees rival some the old growth ponderosa and western white pine in Lassen Volcanic and Yosemite National Parks in California! The trees in the video are massive and so very beautiful. If you truly are a woodworker or a lover of all things good in the world, watch the first 45 seconds of this video for some wonderful trees and a most magnificent voice. Enjoy! I'll post soon a video of Viktor van Niekirk playing the ten string classic guitar!
I caution against communication because once language exists only to convey information, it is dying.
Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town, 1979
Harney/Lastoka Barn, Milking Parlor
I am always amazed at how my mind will subconsciously adjust my hand, my wrist, my elbow, my shoulder and the angle of attack and velocity of the hammer that I am swinging so I can redirect a nail that bends and drive it home. My eye sees the problem, my mind corrects my body so success can be achieved. It is such a little thing, and yet, so wonderfully elegant that our minds can direct the here and now.
Harney/Lastoka Mule Barn, Milking Parlor and Milk House
The part of the building to the left is what is left of a mule barn that was associated with the Rex #1 coal mine that operated at this site from 1898 to 1917. We built new rafters for the barn and installed engineered trusses for the milking parlor and this week will put up the trusses on the milk house.
The mule barn would be behind the building to the right in this photo. Today there is a chicken coop that houses over 100 chickens right next to where the shaft house was!
I haven't found out when the Harneys bought the place, the Lastokas were the last to own the site and probably built the milking parlor and the milk house. Will and I are restoring the building to its previous run down character, the roof is to protect the building until Boulder County makes a decision on a future use for the site.
The casualty of working at carpentry-a broken thumbnail and a nasty cut. The music must go on!
...since guitars were invented, those who devote themselves to a study of the vihuela are small in number. It has been a great loss, as all kinds of plucked music could be played on it: but now the guitar is no more than a cowbell, so easy to play especially rasgueado, there is not a stable lad who is not a musician on the guitar.
Don Sebastian de Covarrubias Orozco, Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana, o Espanola, 1611
Tools used by a master Spanish Luthier. From Guitar Review no. 28, 1965
I've thought about it some and after looking at the previous posting on tools I see that I forgot to include some items.
A Word of Warning!
Before you go buy any of the tools listed here or in the other posting please read through, cover to cover, the following books:
Required:
Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, Aldren A. Watson
Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology, Cumpiano and Natelson
Making Master Guitars, Roy Courtnall
The Guitar Maker's Workshop, Rik Middleton
Optional:
The Big Red Book of American Luthierie, Volumes I, II, III, IV and V (just kidding, sort of)
Make Your Own Classical Guitar, Stanley Doubtfire
Classic Guitar Construction, Irving Sloane (please don't try to make a guitar from this book! He does so you how to make some great tools)
Things about the Guitar, Jose Ramirez III
A Concise History of the Guitar, Graham Wade
The Segovia Technique, Vladimir Bobri (This book is to remind you of the reason why so many of us started playing the classic guitar!)
Once you have read all these books you will have a better understanding of the work that goes into to make a classic guitar, what skills you will need to work on and what tools to purchase.
Again, the following list is by no means complete, but it is enough to get started. So shown in the photo above are the following and buy as many as you can afford,
"C" clamps of various sizes
Deep reach "C" clamps
Pony brand Spring Clamps (buy a bucket load of these clamps in 1", 2", 3" and 4" sizes, 60 of each size would suffice!)
Irwin brand "Quik Grip" clamps (I used these alot when I was a finish carpenter)
Jorgensen or Pony brand steel bar clamps, 12", 18", 24", 36" lengths, at least four of each length.
Cam clamps: buy these from LMI, Stew-Mac, Japan Woodworker, Grizzly (if you buy them from Grizzly be prepared to modify the jaws!) Better yet, make your own! Fine Woodworking has many articles on making these; Classic Guitar Construction by Irving Sloane shows how to make them; so does Stanley Doubtfire's book, Make Your Own Classical Guitar; Lutherie Tools, by the Guild of American Luthiers has several articles on how to make them. Again, this is not a complete list of books or articles.
I'll talk about what sharpening stones to consider along with tenon saws, crosscut and rip saws in Part 3!
My "Mae West" Lacote, after a Legnani Model by Rene Lacote, circa 1830. I spent about an hour french polishing it this afternoon.
You Tube of the Post: Who says the 4 string guitar is dead!
