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RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to silddx)
Quick point I’ve been thinking about while French polishing this one. I omitted the bright purfling on the back, that’s not uncommon with flamenco guitars, but this is going into the classical market. It’s custom and style to use a bright light stripe of purfling on the back of a classical, but only do it if the wood is fairly plain or needs a containment line to set it off visually. And that’s just me, most people use back purfling 100% of the time.
On this particular book matched back I like the center stripe of light wood so much that I didn’t want a container line of light purfling to complete with it for attention. This guitar wouldn’t be as distinguished if I had treated it conventionally. It’s on a case by case basis, but it’s my conviction about style and design that you have to let nature have its own voice in these situations. You have to get your ego out of the way of certain pieces of wood and trust that others will agree.
I had to think ahead and work to get the figure on the back to be symmetrical and present that line down the center. Only one side of the book match has that symmetrical pattern, the edges of the sapwood markings were radically different on the verso, not at all as striking. To preserve this outer side pattern I had to glue the back together and carefully hand scrape the back to keep that center ornament intact. Then all the thicknessing was done by planing and drum sanding the other side. After that I wasn’t going to add purfling, because that back is making a distinct visual statement.
Like the saying from the movie Jurassic Park “Nature always finds a way.”
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RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to estebanana)
That’s really nice!
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
Posts: 2805
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to estebanana)
classical? jeez you couldve fooled me. basses really growl. maybe just the recording and my sketchy speakers but sounds realy flamenco to me. good work either way and beautiful. thanks for sharing
RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to Stu)
Stu, Posted this over at a bluesky the other day specifically about growly basses:
“Isn’t it the foundation, if not the vary soul of the #spanishguitar, regardless if you prefer that “noisy flamenco” or Segovia’s lyrical clarity.
Fortunately it’s fairly easy to induce a powerful bass, it’s those troublesome troubles that are a challenge to extract from a collection of sticks.”
HR
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana
BIG FISH IN THE BOAT !
He bought it.
Rip-the-lip!
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to Stu)
That's just it: he's basically building Spanish guitars like back when they were just that, not artifacts of the Atomic Segovia Schism and the resulting mutations and separate evolution.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Stu
classical? jeez you couldve fooled me. basses really growl. maybe just the recording and my sketchy speakers but sounds realy flamenco to me. good work either way and beautiful. thanks for sharing
RE: I changed my model after my tast... (in reply to Fawkes)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Fawkes
That's just it: he's basically building Spanish guitars like back when they were just that, not artifacts of the Atomic Segovia Schism and the resulting mutations and separate evolution.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Stu
classical? jeez you couldve fooled me. basses really growl. maybe just the recording and my sketchy speakers but sounds realy flamenco to me. good work either way and beautiful. thanks for sharing
I’m building guitars that are descendants mainly of Santos with a little Hauser. But just basic top down on a solera with thin top, thin back and sides, nothing fancy. I try by make them lightweight, but still balanced enough to play without a troublesome heavy neck. Then I make the whole thing a little risky with care thinning overall and more careful thinning of the top. My guitars at this point are not exactly eggshells, they are structurally sound and fairly thin. To me that’s important. I don’t like very much of what happened in guitar making after the Ramirez/Fleta/Friederich ways of using a lot of bracing and wood under the top. I like the guitars of those makers, they diverge too far from the Torres /Santos concept and I’m uncomfortable chasing after those designs, it’s not my path. The more I do this, the more I feel like I don’t have time to learn to build say a Friederich model, there is so much wood under the top I fear the first ones wouldn’t be any good.
The ideas of the Australian school, I’m not interested in at all and never have been, and never will be. I also loathe D-sized steel strings too. Get that D-45 outta my face. I believe in pumpkin pie with real whipped cream, no California rolls when eating sushi, I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, that the pyramids were not built by aliens and that 00-18 style Martins are superior to SUV’s.
If I lowered the action on this guitar to 2 mm on the treble and 2.8 on the bass it would be a great flamenco guitar. But it’s set up at 3.8 bass and 3 mm treble ( with saddle room to go up or down) because that’s what the buyer likes. He has a clean neat technique and was trained as a straight ahead classical player. If this guitar sounds growly it’s because that’s my regular guitar tone, I naturally make that sound, I have to work hard to get what’s thought of as classical sound. The new owner doesn’t growl the same way, but he does bring in the metallic timbre as a tone color, there is a lot of metallic tone in the lower midrange on the A and D strings. He was playing some Bach tonight when I handed it off. He was using the upper midrange to get some organ like full soft chords and contrasting it with metallic bass melodies that have really crisp string separation.
The way he plays with tone color is a good match for this guitar and we’re both excited as the instrument can be called on to play rich chords that sound full and there’s beautiful string separation and effortless shifting back and forth between these ideals. It also has healthy projection. It’s fairly clear and loud from 50 feet away. His regular guitar is a 2010 Antonio Marin, he also has a Bouchet copy from a Japanese maker ( I’ll remember his name) and a Humphreys from 2000. My guitar is in good company.