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my first flamenca build
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benros
Posts: 144
Joined: Aug. 27 2016
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 my first flamenca build
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ive nearly finished my first flamenca build and (hopefully) will glue the bridge on and make the setup next monday. i planned the whole guitar by myself (so no barbero or reyes copy this time) and built it 100% by hand, no electric tools ... okay, lets say 99%, since ive used a drill press for the head slots and the bridge holes, a router for the bridgeslot and a electric bending iron for bending the sides. but thats it, everything else i did with hand tools. its a sitka spruce top with an asymmetrical reversed five-fan strutting design (which i came up with, when i was drunken 🥴) and a prominent dome (something about 4-5mm) and 1.7-1.9 thickness. back and sides are lebanon cedar and also very thin (thats why the sides look a little bit ugly and unclean in some spots). the whole guitar is smaller than the average (lower bout is about 358mm) and the plantilla i drawn after my own aesthetic ideals (torres and gerundino did inspire me). it has a 652mm scale. the back was very floppy, so it has 4 bars. bridge is brazilian rosewood, which i couldnt bring under 17,4 gram. the weight will come out at about 1200 gram with the tuners. so all in all, a idiosyncratic approach. in didnt make any major errors in the building process and look forward to hear, if the result of this long working process will be satisfying.
i will let you know...
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jan. 31 2019 13:13:02
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benros
Posts: 144
Joined: Aug. 27 2016
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RE: my first flamenca build (in reply to Echi)
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hey echi, from a product oriented point of view your absolutely right: its obviously a good advise to start with a copy of a great guitar (begin with what works) and than make it your own by small changings and observe, what it does. its a scientific approach (although i find, its kind of contraintuitive, for instance, to thickness the wood you work with, after the plan of an existing guitar).
... my train of thought is, that the building process begins with the planning of the guitar (I've learned from my first guitar, that i have kind of an aversion against following the plans of someone else, especially if i don't know the person). there is plenty to learn, when you have to make your own decisions from the scratch and it felt much more organic and right to me, to start there. my approach was not to ecclectically put together some fancy ideas and reinvent the spanish guitar, just to build a sound instrument after my own (traditionally informed) intuition. although i know, that the risk to fail is much bigger, i had to go for it. next week i can tell, if it was a great mistake to do so.
i would like to know, what your building biography looks like. how much guitars have you built and what design to you came up with?
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 2 2019 11:26:09
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benros
Posts: 144
Joined: Aug. 27 2016
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RE: my first flamenca build (in reply to despiado)
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thanks despiado!
So, yesterday the final moment was there, i strung it up, tuned it and everything was very promising: punchy, loud, fast response, even across the board, action at the 12th fret 3,2mm and 8 mm at the bridge, 9mm at the sound hole (and still room to adjust and go lower) ... everything seemed like i wanted it to be. But after 30 minutes under tension, i realized that the soundboard had collapsed, better said: it sunk in some 1,5-2mm, so that it had 9,5-10mm in the middle between soundhole and bridge, 9 at the soundhole and 8mm at the bridge.
What a devastating experience!!! After releasing the tension the soundboard came back and is now nearly flat between bridge and soundhole (where it was domed all the way to the middle of the soundhole before). So, obviously i have gone to far and over the red line in terms of structural integrity of the soundboard.
Besides that, i drilled the holes in the bridge too narrow (i took the dimensions from a technical drawing that was not correctly dimensioned), so that stringspacing is something around 55mm, which i know, is much to narrow, but curiously felt not too bad for me, since picado and arpeggios are much easier to play. anyway, that's just on top. before i deal with this issue, i have to solve the more serious one.
So i have to correct myself: i made some serious failures.
When i handle to get over the paralyzed mood i'm in right now, i have to take action to stabilize the pointed region of the soundboard, which will be kind of a open heart surgery and way over my abilities. so take this as an S.O.S-call: I need to decide, what to do and how to do it and could need some professional help to consider both of these questions (you can see my soundboard on top of this thread). so, any recommendations?
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 17 2019 11:32:08
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