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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to Andy Culpepper)
Great work Andy,
The rosette is a beauty.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Andy Culpepper
Thanks crooks, Padauk is lighter than most Rosewoods, usually in the neighborhood of Palo Escrito. African Padauk is a bit heavier than the Andaman I was lucky to receive a small stash of. Sound-wise I have to say it is my favorite back and side wood. I describe it as somewhere between a negra and a blanca, with the guitars usually ending up with strong, percussive midrange but also very supported and balanced bass and treble. They can be sweet but also dry. Descriptions of course can't do it much justice but I've had great results on flamenco guitars and also a classical I made with it.
I have to agree with what Andy says. I think Andaman might be a bit darker sounding than African, which is probably a bit brighter in tone.
Even though it is a heavier wood than Cypress, I think it can be worked down thinner to create a very light instrument.
I love my Cedar/Coral 'Roja' (being somewhere between a blanca and a negra). I'd say in terms of sound it be would be closer a blanca than a negra. I'd describe it as a blanca that has ate too much ice cream/Churros/Jamon...
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
A precious build, Ethan! I think to see the shaping of an artistic hand.
As you might remember I firmly believe that surface shaping and degrees of edge rounding make a big deal for the tactile and overall appearance of a workpiece, and this one certainly looks noble. Also the specs make me assume a beautiful, very responsive axe.
Greg,
That guitar looks amazingly tidy for a first make!
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Ethan I have been following your work for a year or so in the forum and in my opinion this is the best I have seen/heard from you this far. Nice elegant rosewood, not too figured so I am sure it is solid. The toner of the top, the rosette, the binding, and the dark rosewood go together quite elegantly in my humble opinion. Other than the upgraded back wood did you do anything different(that you are willing to divulge haha) than you normally do? The sound is great I think the slight percussive glass like quality that Brazilian produces compliments the concept of a negra flamenco but has more sustain which is cool and gives this guitar a unique sound. Just my opinion
Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to crooksj5)
Thanks for your comments, Joshua. No, I didn't do anything different for this guitar other than use the Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides--and the wide maple purfling. The soundboard is from the same stash of Engelmann spruce that I have been using for years and the neck is one of six that I started together a few guitars ago. The bridge, head plate, and binding, are Bolivian rosewood, as usual. I was a little surprised that it didn't come out heavier. I also noticed the sustain. I liked it so much that I bought another Brazilian rosewood set, just in case.
Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to Ruphus)
Thanks for your comments, Ruphus.
I too consider the rounding of edges very important for what I try to express with my building. I have held guitars by more famous makers which gave me a cold feeling because their edges were rounded over so slightly and uniformly. I want my guitars to feel comfortable and seem organic.
I did find that this guitar is very responsive all across its range. I like it a lot. But for my personal playing I've decided that I prefer a blanca. For now anyway.
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Sweet guitar, Ethan. In addition to the other praise, I really like your plantilla outline!
Here's my latest, another Spruce/Padauk negra. Very light and IMO the best guitar I've made yet. Sound is out of this world for a newborn. I'm going to make a video soon.
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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Looks beautiful and tempting to say the least.
Is the white purfling maple?
You guy´s artwork deserves really smooth gear. (The more I grow into precision tuning, the more I realize that it is the master pieces that allow for easily hearing the subtleties. Or to say it the other way around, when I am brought mediocre instruments for evaluation I figure how hard it is to perceive the fineness of pitch with them. - Which might partially explain why many users seem content with raw mechanics.)
With the relativley down to earth pricing that you two ask for the guitars, it may appear disproportional (which it indeed is, comparing the manufacturing efforts) when overpriced tuners end up making 1/3 or 1/4 of the guitars price, but practically I think it really pays to have their light and before all constant torque for nudging the pitch to where the guitar clearly leads you to.
Then again, as flamencos often struggle at the lower end of the food chain, having to be so hard on the budget for obtaining such gems, it is foreseeable how a considerable additional chunk of money could be shifting the deal further into distance for many of us.
Still, I am convinced that it would be making absolute sense if makers like you would be checking out gears like Scheller to first see the difference for yourself and then offer the option on your websites. It would only be matching shoes to fine suits. -
Again, beautiful axe! (If possible, please upload an mp3; thanks!)
Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to Andy Culpepper)
Custom blanca just completed. My client asked me to base the rosette design on a photo of one on a Graciliano Pérez guitar, http://www.guitarsalon.com/store/p4496-graciliano-perez-negra.html I used the smallest rosette sticks available from LMI. The pixels are larger than the original, which I am sure was made using sheets of veneer, but we are happy with the result.
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Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to Tom Blackshear)
Glad you like the rosette, Tom. I didn't make a video or sound recording--it sounds so much like the last 12 or so blancas I made that I just handed it over to the client right away.
Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to estebanana)
Thanks for letting me know, Stephen. It was fun to do. I wouldn't have considered doing it if I hadn't been asked to. It's nice to try different things.
Posts: 1696
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Thanks for asking, tijeretamiel.
I used the same kind of Bolivian rosewood that I use on blancas, for the binding, bridge, and head plate. I could have used Brazilian, but I thought the contrast was nice, and I liked the consistency of bridges among my guitars.
Also, Brazilian bleeds color like crazy and Bolivian has negligible pores, so it simplified the finishing process a lot.
I made the soundboard purfling by gluing up four sheets of the extra thin veneers sold by LMII.com, black, white, black, white. I cut strips of the resulting stack with a knife and pre-bend them slightly, dry on a hot iron.
My side purfling is incorporated into the binding: I take a piece of Bolivian rosewood about a quarter inch thick and glue two regular-thickness veneers onto it, white, black, then saw it into binding strips about 0.08" thick. This I pre-bend as accurately as possible while wet.
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
A new rosette, for a 2014- year old guitar, that I'm changing the top on. Made it for myself with a cedar top and did not like it, so I made a new top.
The rosette reminds me of a Mondrian painting. Broadway Boogie Woogie. So I'm gonna call this rose Akune Boogie Woogie.
And the inside of the new top, about to go on the body. The neck is removed at the moment and it has a spine joint.
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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Thanks Ethan, you're not so bad yourself.
Someday I'll get serious about making rosettes and copy something historical and scare everyone.
Here is another for a cutaway negra. I finished it yesterday. The customer asked for the wood ring and asymmetrical design. The wood is taken from cut offs from the back.
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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to estebanana)
Stephen,
I get the Mondrian theme, having studied his boogie woogie paintings back in a college Fine Arts class. Thanks for posting your work. Some may not comment, but it's always fascinating to me.
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Sephard, yeah I look at paintings a lot. And I like to think of rosettes as little round paintings. I think about color differently than most rosette makers. I like to play opposing color next to each other to make them sizzle, or use combinations that turn grey as they mix. Or I try to make two main colors mix into a third color.
I like the way the color changes as you move closer or farther away. Concentric circles of color can make very good rosettes and your perception of what color it is changes as you go near or far. I like to play with that more than tiles. But I like tiles too.
I think there is historical precedent for simple rosettes in early Ramirez shop work and Torres and several other pre 1950's makers. That way if you hold with one of those basic themes for those makers the work remains 'Spanish' in its references to past makers. That kind of anchors them in the tradition, but there's still room to explore. I want to make new designs and ideas, but I don't want them to look out of character with traditional Spanish work, so I try to also keep that in the picture.
I use veneers that are colored with modern non fugitive dyes, so the color will probably last a long time.
I kind of joke to myself sometimes that I make tiny Kenneth Noland paintings:
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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
I think about color differently than most rosette makers. I like to play opposing color next to each other to make them sizzle, or use combinations that turn grey as they mix. Or I try to make two main colors mix into a third color.
I love the color and the angular feather theme. From a long time player's point of view, it can be refreshing to glance at something completely different while you're playing.
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
Thanks. I still have tiles and braid trim ( feather) for one more of those...shall I save them in reserve for you someday? haha...
I'm going to do a plain concentric circle like the Tatay with green a white lines and brown border.
And here is Steve Kahn's 1924 Santos rosette ( he gave me permission to photograph his guitar) You can see the composition typically in Spanish work from Torres on up to today. A border, some lines, a braid, or feather(absent here) then a field then tile element in the center.
I think if you refer to that composition of other wise keep it in mind while you work you maintain a connection to Spanish work that fits the character of flamenco guitars.
Kahn also has a Lester de Voe in which he asked de Voe to do a rosette like this Tatay, plain concentric circles. The same circle rosette can be seen on a lot of Ramirez guitars pre WWII that were intended to be low cost at the time they were made. I think despite the fact they were made for a bargain market they carry an elegance and clarity that is welcome in a modern scene of over produced "lazer beam" slick rosettes.
But then you look at Ethan's complex large 'star' tiles above on this page and you can be assured that complexity is being handled with care and clarity also.
________________________________________________
Steve Kahn, by the way, went to great ( super human) effort to photograph, collect, edit and publish a great photo book about Spain in the 1960's. If you don't know about, it is it this:
Posts: 1240
Joined: Nov. 6 2008
From: Sydney, Australia
RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
A new rosette, for a 2014- year old guitar, that I'm changing the top on. Made it for myself with a cedar top and did not like it, so I made a new top.
The rosette reminds me of a Mondrian painting. Broadway Boogie Woogie. So I'm gonna call this rose Akune Boogie Woogie.
And the inside of the new top, about to go on the body. The neck is removed at the moment and it has a spine joint.
Love this rosette mate. Love your work. If anyone is thinking about getting an axe from him, Stephen makes awesome guitars, I'm loving my maple blan-gra.
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RE: "Luthiers share your creati... (in reply to tijeretamiel)
I love those styles ^^ To me eye, nice sizeable fields of black are very satisfying.
Here's a concentric circle one I finished recently, a bit finer like record grooves. The whole theme of the guitar was the combination of Mahogany and Maple. I usually go with higher contrast but I think the wood is spectacular enough to shine on this one. It's a classical guitar.
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