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RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by ... (in reply to Firefrets)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Firefrets
I can't wait to see that wood pop. Nice job mate. Arias has done some nice rosettes. I thought about your Halibut then one thing led to another and the next thing I'm contemplating how to design a fish scale rosette. I wonder if Arias ever did one?
From 2018
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RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by ... (in reply to Firefrets)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Firefrets
I can see where you were going with that. I like it. Was Arias a big influence on you as a luthier?
No, Santos, de la Chica and Barba and 1960’s Reyes because those were the guitars owned by my teachers and friends in San Francisco in the 1990’s. I got to keep them in my shop to study for a a week at a time. I actually made that rosette before I started looking at Arias!
RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by ... (in reply to estebanana)
Finally got around to making a bridge for this Arias / de la Chica inspired Frankenstein.
The bridge is made of Inumaki wood. It getting stained in an ‘ebonization’ process to paint the light blonde wood black. It weighs 15 grams without the tie block peice and saddle. It’s stiff in the center because I laminated in a piece of real ebony on the front and back face of the tie block to keep the string hole exits from getting grooved.
So if we think of this bridge as a brace, this brace is light and rigid, but with some overall bit of flex, but stiffer in the middle at the tie block. The top is thinned a bit more in the center and more uniform around the perimeter, but it’s all quite thin. It’s a high grade Italian alps top.
Let’s see if it’s guitar worthy when it’s finished.
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RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by ... (in reply to estebanana)
I like building guitars, but sometimes I just wish it wasn’t so ****ing slow. The payoff is when you see something about to happen, like how this guitar will snap together with a vibe of its own. Hand making stuff is a slow motion addiction.
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RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by ... (in reply to estebanana)
Color color - the bridge is made with a wood called Inumaki which is in the juniper family. It’s blond light, less dense than rosewoods, but very stiff. It’s a wood that is easy to control the flex of the final bridge. I happen to think bridge weight and flex is really important. I couldn’t tell you why with any calculated data, but light stiff, slightly flexing bridges work well on most flamenco / classical style nylon string guitars.
I made this one the normal way a bridge is made, but I mortised out a section on the front and back side of the tie block to glue on a 3mm thick piece of Macassar ebony. So where the string holes are drilled from back to front on the tie block there’s a swatch of ebony to make the entry and exit holes of the string holes with a material harder than Inumaki. I did this so the strings holes wouldn’t wear as Inumaki is too soft to hold out for the many decades ahead of this guitar.
Once the bridge was shaped I painted it with high grade gouache paint ( opaque watercolor) and sanded and painted several times to build a deep black finish. Then I French polished over the gouache. I’m told some Spanish makers used a softer wood than rosewood and stained it. It is a thing I’d like to explore in my early 20th century/ late 19th century inspired guitars.
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