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Posts: 5
Joined: May 26 2006
From: Portland, Oregon, USA
Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commission ...
After a year and a half of torture, my poca loca flamenco negra finally arrived last month from Larry Breslin's Deerhead Guitars workshop. I've had a great time playing her in, and she is so very easy to play with! She is light and loud with a sweet sound overall, crisp and bright, but also capable of a very lyrical and dark line when that need comes.
This is a crazy flamenco by design, 650mm scale with a 51mm nut and a very thin (19mm) neck; the setup is low and fast, very easy to play; the tapa is Engelmann bear claw spruce, french polished with tap plates; the back is Brazilian rosewood; the sides are laminated Brazilian and cypress; the nut and saddle are pre-ban ivory; the bridge is East Indian rosewood with a MOP inlay; the bindings are ebony; the head plate is Brazilian rosewood, featuring very crazy figuration; the bronze machines are Alessi Simplicio with MOP buttons.
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RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
That's a fantastic project with stunning photos. Would be great if you could post a sound file to let me hear her sing. I never heard of Larry Breslin before but everything about his craft looks just perfect makes me wonder where all the saw dust and wood chippings are, as if he has a gallery space and a workshop behind? One irritatingly small detail I noticed and have to ask, why is the bridge saddle too long for the slot? makes me think you were messing with string heights and trying various saddles to find the right one?
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
Wow, thats a mean webpage for those of us only having the option of a modem
I´ve been downloading for more than half an hour now, and I´m still not half way
The soundboard looks absolutely lovely, and I agree that bear clawing is very good looking.
The back I dont like.... And I would not even build with wood like that. Flatsawn wood from Amazonas is very unstable, prone to cracking and not the best sound producer. Be carefull with sudden weather changes. Maybe I´ll se the final guitar another day. Right now I have to disconnect. I cannot block my telephone line all day long
Posts: 5
Joined: May 26 2006
From: Portland, Oregon, USA
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to bahen)
Thanks for your comments. It is a difficult process selecting sets from Breslin's stock, especially when dealing with his stash of Brazilian rosewood. There was no question regarding the use of this Jacaranda:
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Posts: 5
Joined: May 26 2006
From: Portland, Oregon, USA
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to Jim Opfer)
Thanks. I don't have recording capability yet, but I plan on gettng an MP3 recorder soon. I'll post here when sound samples are available. Regarding the saddle, I actually had Breslin shape two saddles for me; one saddle offers slightly lower action than the other, and I switch between them as the seasons/humidity levels change to keep consistent action. That extra "lip" you note:
is designed to make saddle removal very easy-- just put your fingertip/nail underneath the lip and pull up-- and it works great!
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Posts: 5
Joined: May 26 2006
From: Portland, Oregon, USA
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to Guest)
Sorry you're having trouble downloading that page; it does have a bunch of photos, making it tough going for people without broadband capability. If I have enough time, I may try to create a "lighter" page for modem visitors...
Regarding the back set, it is old wood, air dried in storage for 40 years. The sides are laminated with cypress ribs, which helps stabilization as well. Larry created a cedar double top classical for me a few years ago using similar wood and I've had zero issues:
Regarding sound quality, I prefer a good set of Brazilian over Indian rosewood; I think many would agree with me...
;->
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Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
quote:
Regarding the back set, it is old wood, air dried in storage for 40 years.
I am not a luthier but wood can be very "stable" when it's not braced against anything. It is the opposing forces that find the weakness, and the one guitar I did build cracked just around where your flat-sawn grain starts to emigrate to the sides. Mine was not rosewood though, it was cypress.
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to Escribano)
Maybe I'm wrong here...but I thought Jose Ramirez said that you could build the rest of the body of a guitar out of boxwood or cardboard, so long as the tapa sounded right?
By the way I have a 70's Brazilian guitar that I bought in Rio, (obviously with a Brazilian Rosewood back...in those day's nobody actually thought about going to China to get it! ) Not a bad guitar actually, though it definitely needs refretting. Very similar to the one posted... I'll try to get a photo to post.
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
Jeez! th
quote:
designed to make saddle removal very easy-- just put your fingertip/nail underneath the lip and pull up-- and it works great!
Jeez! that's a neat idea. Should have a big thumb shape though to make it easy to do. I don't know about all the technical aspects of cutting wood but the back looks braw!
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
That piece of wood for the back of you double top classical looks nice. quatersawn and with straight grain. It will sound and I.m sure and it will be a lot more stable than the flatsawn wood for the negra.
You use different words for the wood. Jacaranda is not rosewood. It is a locally used brownish wood from the amazonas mostly from Bolivia and Brazil and around there. The biggest problem with all this Brazilean rosewood thing is that it´s so full of myths and cheating. The famous Brazilean rosewood was Rio Rosewood, Dalberghia Nigra. It´s 100% banned and very difficult to get. Its THE wood which made the term Brazilean rosewood famous, which created the myth. The rest is whatever brownish wood from amazonas and is used under the name of Brazilean rosewood in order to make money. It can be Jacaranda, other Brazilean rosewoods, Pau Ferro, Caviuna etc. Some of it with very poor sound quality and very unstable. The only way to get an idea of the quality of a piece of wood as a tonewood is to tap it and hear the quality of the frequences. Some of these woods used under the name of Brazilean rosewood have very poor performances.
At the moment, I have one piece of Brazilean rosewood with a very nice tap tone. I will not buy more while the situation is the way it is. It´s just not worth it and I feel it´s a big cheat. What I´ve been offered lately by different wood suppliers has been absolutely lousy quality. At the moment I´m staying away from wood for backs and sides which comes from South America. Just dont like the whole situation. It smells.
Posts: 169
Joined: Apr. 5 2005
From: Halifax, Nova Scotia
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
I have two saddles for my classical as well and so the same swapping based on the season. It's a cool idea.
One thing I noticed though (I'm pretty sure this was a pic in of the flamenco neck) was a position marker at the 7th fret. I put a dot on my classical but it throws me off when I use a capo on my flamenco. Is this common on flamenco guitars?
Posts: 440
Joined: Feb. 23 2005
From: La Jolla, Ca
RE: Poca Loca Flamenco Negra Commiss... (in reply to SalvadorDalinian)
SeanM,
Just use a tiny dot of White Out for a marker. That way, if you 'slide up' to any fret to accompany, you can quickly remove and make another 'mark' if you need. I keep a bottle in my case, make a TINY mark, fingernail it off, and remark, as a lot of the singers here use 5th fret for vocals, where I usually preactice/play at 2nd position.
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