RobF -> A Sitka topped guitar (Aug. 14 2021 23:52:23)
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I thought this guitar might be of some interest because it has a Sitka spruce top, which is an unusual choice for a Flamenco guitar. The back and sides are of Monterey Cypress. The selection was made more due to there being a great colour match with the Sitka and Monterey Cypress than for any sonic reasons. The shellac used to French polish the guitar is basic blonde shellac, no tint. I made this guitar in the fall of 2016 and had it polished and strung by early 2017. My mother took ill at the time and this was the last guitar of mine she ever heard. We held a little lunchtime concierto for her not long before her death and I’ll never forget the moment and her smiles as she listened. There were some other guitars that were in the works when she took ill and a few months after her death I finally took them off the shelf to complete them and realized, to my surprise, that they were already finished. I do not recall having done the work, but there it was, I must have done it in the few spare moments I had during her illness. I honestly have no recollection of it. My friend Sergei, who is an uber guitar maker, has made many Sitka topped classicals over the years. Around this time, he was experimenting with relatively thick topped Sitka guitars and there were a couple being kept at his shop to see how they developed and I had been tracking this with him. So, entering this project I already expected the guitar would take a bit of time to find its voice. I dimensioned and built it with that in mind. As it was, the guitar sounded very nice, well balanced and loud with a full mid-range emphasis. But I wasn’t overly happy with the alacrity of the response - it was more rich than explosive. I had a couple of players evaluate it and we all agreed that, although it sounded great, they had to work to pull the sound out of it, it didn’t play itself. In light of that, I decided I’d put the guitar aside and see how it developed over time. Fast forward to the past month of this year, when I remembered I had this guitar and thought I’d check out how it was doing. Well, it turns out it’s doing great, the years in hibernation were very kind. It’s lost its initial hesitancy and has gained a fast attack and, while the full midrange is still there, both the bass and treble characteristics have become more lively and brighter. Now, no work is needed to get it to sing. I had one of the initial evaluators come over and give it a whirl last week. He remembered the guitar and was astonished at how much it had developed without any playing. It growls and barks at command, yet can sing softly with a lot of resonance and sympathetic ringing. But when pushed it’s very explosive. The player described it as an aggressive sounding guitar. I think it’s got a great tone, very attractive, to my ears. So, that’s interesting. My feeling, which I already suspected but now have proven to myself with this guitar, is that Sitka can be a great wood to use for a Flamenco guitar, but one must be willing to give it time to come into its own. Here are some pics...the guitar has darkened somewhat in the case, but the Sitka and Monterey Cypress were pretty dark under the shellac as it was, so I was able to use basic blonde for the French Polishing. Continued on next post...
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