I have recently gone through a period of serious study, working really hard on a developing and finalising a design for my ‘Concert’ classical guitar model. The design I have come up with is the culmination of years of working to understand what makes a good concert worthy guitar. I have found that the qualities which make a quality concert instrument, such as volume, projection, strong trebles have been particularly difficult for me to pin down consistently, which is why, out of my other models - the Recital, flamenco and steel string - the Concert is only just now appearing.
Initially I started by building instruments quite inspired by a builder called Ignacio Fleta. I used a plan of one of his guitars as a starting point years ago, however - based on the feedback of players and guitar dealers - many changes have been made since then. However, it is still a tradition fan braced classical guitar, rather than lattice braced or double top.
One of my favourite things about my Concert model is the shape/outline, also called the plantilla. I feel it’s a quite difficult thing for a guitar maker to get just right. This is because when making guitars you spend over one hundred hours on each instrument, and by that time, whatever shape your guitar is, that’s what feels normal and looks right; from that standpoint, its difficult to make changes for the better objectively. I think I solved this problem. When sitting down to design the Concert model I decided that the plantilla I had been working with was too large, so it was time to design a new one. Well, you see, I have a storage room beneath my workshop. In it, amongst other things are some discarded guitars I built but wasn’t happy with, but haven’t gotten round to completely getting rid of them. They all have different plantillas, but there’s one, my fourth or so guitar, which I’ve always thought had a lovely shape. So I traced the outline, made a template and use that now! The thing is, the shape of the guitar is quite particular to the maker. Since its difficult to design a nice shape, one solution would be to copy another maker whose outline is definitely good. But I prefer my own solution which was to copy my past self!
I mentioned that it was quite a serious period of work to get this Concert model designed into existence. What prompted it was a visit to a guitar dealer, and trying a guitar I built, and then some other guitars by other guitar makers, and finding that my own wasn’t my favourite! In terms of sound and feel. What a humbling experience! As well as working on the model itself, I have also been fine tuning my French Polishing and developing a method for oil finishing. I finished my first 30 or so guitars with a kind of lacquer. I don’t think lacquer is worse, perhaps french polish for the top is more suitable. Either way, being able to do them all is great; they all have their ups and downsides and this particular topic probably deserves a post of its own.
In recent years I have developed a flamenco guitar model, a ‘Recital’ model which I designed to be a handmade guitar at a reasonable price (which I also used as a vehicle for gathering feedback from players and dealers), and steel string model. I’m proud to have my Concert model in the mix too now, which combines all my experience and is my ‘ideal’ instrument.
