This winter, Dwight Lamb, Nate Kemperman, Amber and I decided it was high time, after playing together for nearly 20 years (!), to record a few tunes together. We wanted to get some of Dwight’s rare and common Missouri Valley tunes down, but we also thought we’d try to capture what it sounds like when friends get together in the music room over a weekend. Missouri Valley fiddle is a little different–with more ornaments, more notes, and *way* more free reeds, it sounds almost Canadian sometimes–and we hope it’ll be a fun listen.
The resulting CD will be called “80” in honor of Dwight’s recent birthday, and we’re hoping to get it released by mid-May.
I’ve been doing some sample mixes and thought I’d share a short excerpt or two just for fun. Musicians: Dwight Lamb & Nate Kemperman, fiddles; Amber Gaddy, pump organ; David Cavins, guitar (a red maple grand concert)
Here’s a gallery I’ll continue updating as I work through the construction of a new sugar maple and adirondack spruce TG-0-inspired tenor guitar. Continue reading “Tenor no 19 Build Gallery”→
A cool guitar built by Antonio Torres in 1888 is up for auction at Brompton’s. The top appears to be made up of at least three unmatched pieces of spruce. If you look closely, the joints and grain lines in the spruce are angled about 6° from the centerline of the body. The back is also made up of three pieces; the center is a strip of rosewood with mahogany wings to make the width of the body. The description says that the sides are also rosewood.
I don’t point out the irregularities of this guitar to throw stones–Torres’s guitars always seem to be effortlessly built. The headstock on this guitar is perfect in its simplicity, and the solera or body shape couldn’t be more elegant. He built outstanding guitars using materials that probably wouldn’t be used in a fine instrument now, and I love how he worked around narrow soundboard and back materials, for instance. This guitar was built with human ingenuity, and the irregularities make me love it all the more.
See Brompton’s listing for larger photos and a video of the guitar being played. (It sounds great.)
The front of a guitar built by Antonio Torres. The spruce top is built up from at least three pieces.
The back of a guitar built by Antonio Torres. The center strip is rosewood, the outer wings are mahogany.
The headstock of a guitar built by Antonio Torres.
Because I like a challenge, I decided to apply a transparent sunburst to the top of the walnut orchestra guitar (serial number 16) that’s just a few weeks from being completed. I wanted to show off the beautiful grain of the Adirondack spruce top, so I chose to use reactive dyes to produce the color without the opacity of applying colored finish. Generally speaking, dyes enhance the grain while color coats, like colored lacquer, dry to a colored film that’s more like a lens.
Applying dye directly to wood can be pretty dangerous: the surface preparation needs to be perfect (no oily finger smudges, no glue smears that didn’t get cleaned up thoroughly) and the application needs to be close to perfect. The dyes can be dissolved in water or alcohol; alcohol is quite a bit more forgiving because it dries more quickly. (The longer the dye stays wet and active, the stronger the color. That’s why tie dye t-shirts look the way they do.) Because it dries quickly, you can mix the dye to a much weaker strength and apply more coats, making it easier to control the blend. Also, alcohol doesn’t raise the grain of wood like water.
To get a rich color that responds to a variety of lighting conditions, I ended up using a series of four dyes. I first lightly dyed the entire surface with a golden yellow. Then I began creating the burst with a peachy toner around the edges. Next, I further refined the edges with mahogany-ish tone, with the final edge treatment a reddish walnut color.
I masked off the herringbone body purfling and rosette rings with a liquid frisket from my watercolor kit before I began, and the results are very crisp.
The first color is a light gold applied evenly all over. The second color is a peach to accentuate the grain pattern of the top and add dimension.
A mahogany-ish dye is applied third and starts to define the edges of the burst.
FInally, a deeper brown-red tone is applied to the edges. The grain is still completely visible.
Peeling the liquid mask is fun because the purfling really pops!
A first coat of light blonde shellac is applied, and the dye colors return to their “wet” state. Shellac adds warmth to any finish.
I’ve made nice progress on a 14-fret auditorium and an orchestra guitar, both made of lovely air-dried walnut. What’s the difference between those models? Mostly scale length. The bodies have the same shape, but the top bracing has been shifted accordingly. (Here’s a comparison graphic of my model sizes.) I used a different rosette and purfling design so that I wouldn’t mix them up at a critical moment.
This pair also uses a hybridized bracing scheme that relies on the X-brace for the overall structure but uses a Torres-inspired lower fan in the belly area. I’ve been very happy with the guitars I’ve built with this scheme, and on this pair I’ve even trimmed down the lower legs of the X-brace a bit more because the fan structure does a nice job of resisting the torque of the strings on the bridge.
The bodies are in good shape, and the necks are well under way. I hope to have these guitars finished in early June. The price will be $2600 for either guitar.
I’m using my X-braced back with the Torres-hybrid fan-braced top on this pair of guitars.
The orchestra’s back has been attached to the rims. The large neck block “arm” houses the neck extension I’ve been using.
These bodies are built with beautiful air-dried walnut backs and sides and adirondack (red) spruce tops.
I love the way fresh binding ledges look. This is cut to accept a tall walnut binding and a short maple purfling line.
I’m using walnut binding on this guitar with maple purfling top and side to create an elegant and clean look.
I have been enjoying playing my new classical prototype…a lot. The sound is a very good match to my taste, with a woody, full midrange and sparkly, fat trebles. The basses are solid and loaded with tone. Most importantly, the sound is consistent throughout the range and the instrument sounds great in quiet sections and even better when driven hard.
A short sample of the guitar’s sound.
In considering construction decisions for this Cavins classical, my primary inspiration was the guitar sound on the incredible Scott Tennant album “Guitar Recital.” The album was an instant favorite for me (thanks to my guitar teacher, who introduced it to me), and the sound of his guitar captured me right away. I’m sure that Scott Tennant could make any guitar sing, but I understand that the instrument on the recording was made by Miguel Rodriguez.
Since I knew I wanted a crisp, woody bass, I chose a stiff Engelmann spruce top and braced it using a very lightweight seven-fan bracing layout. To reinforce the midrange and trebles I chose red maple sides and back (in my steel-string experience, it produces lush trebles). The very lightweight black walnut bridge contributes to the percussive, lively attack. The fingerboard is Honduran rosewood, and the binding, end wedge, and other trim are black walnut. The sample audio was recorded while the guitar was strung with Augustine medium tension strings, although “hard tension” La Bella 2001s are an even better match for this guitar. I incorporated a sound port in the upper bout, and I’ve really enjoyed the immediate and transparent feedback that it provides the player.
Classical guitar prototype with a classical rosette and walnut binding.
My classical guitar prototype has a Honduran rosewood bridge and black walnut 12-hole tie bridge.
While working on a repair a couple of weeks ago that required some hand planing, I realized that I couldn’t stand using my overlarge, rickety bench for another day. Maybe not even another hour. I’d been planning to replace my workbench with something better suited to how I work now, and the urge was suddenly implacable. So I tore it down and threw myself into finishing the new bench.
I tried to make most of the chance to re-imagine my workspace. A stout top and new storage topped the list.
It sounds strange to complain your bench is too large, but it dominated my small shop space, and it was large enough that there were areas I never worked on. Those areas accumulated a jumble of offcuts, often-used tools, and bending forms. And then, when I did need a guitar-sized space to work, there wasn’t one. Continue reading “Workbench Improvements”→
