Thoughts on bracing, soundboard material, and letting the wood speak

When I was thirteen or fourteen and started developing an interest in guitar making, I was actually originally more interested in making electric guitars and basses. Basses fascinated me in particular, firstly because I played the bass really well, and secondly the unplugged tone of the bass was so beautiful to me, but what I really loved was how much the different woods seemed to affect the tone. I was however drawn away from that path, when I first glimpsed the inside of a classical guitar and beheld the mysterious bracing within. 

Regarding the classical guitar, it’s widely held that the soundboard along with its bracing is the most important part of the instrument. A famous guitar maker Torres once made a guitar with paper mache back and sides, perhaps to illustrate this point. Although the back and sides do have some effect on the sound, I would agree that the soundboard is where the magic happens, or in the case of overbuilt and underbuilt guitars, where it doesn’t.

From the beginning of my guitar making journey I experimented with different bracing patterns. I initially followed the guitar making book Making Master Guitars, in which there were a number of plans based on famous guitars, and for my first two guitars I followed a Romanillos plan. Then I built the next four guitars simultaneously, following the plans for a Bouchet guitar, a Fleta, a Santos Hernandez and a Torres. Such experimentation continued and although a case could be made for sticking to one plan in the beginning, I feel the variety has helped me understand the guitar as a whole. At this early stage, I carried out an interesting exercise, pushing the boundaries in terms of how thick or thin the plates of a guitar could be made.

I’ve read somewhere that it’s after 100 guitars, that a guitar maker starts to feel really in control. Based on my experience, I certainly think about things quite differently now than I did in the beginning. The biggest flaw in my thinking in the beginning was my lack of understanding of the wood itself. I sought to understand how the different bracing patterns and dimensions affect the final sound, without understanding that the properties of each brace - each piece of wood, every soundboard, even from the same tree, let alone species - can vary drastically. So now I work with a much greater respect and consideration towards the wood itself than before.

What did help me was a manual written by a guitar maker called Daniel Friedrich. This manual seemed intended for the intermediate guitar maker, and contained a series or tests that could be carried out during the production of a guitar, measuring the qualities, weights, and deflection strengths of each piece of wood. Some makers have been able to develop a sense for the qualities of wood, and carry out these tests by feel, with their hands. I believe I’ve read that Antonio Torres and Robert Bouchet were such makers, and probably many others. I have also been helped by the advice of various guitar makers. I was able to meet luthier Gernot Wagner once while at London Guitar Studio, where he explained his overall rationale regarding soundboards, and how his thoughts regarding reducing the weight of the soundboard led to him inventing the double top guitar. Throughout my building journey, I‘ve had the phrase, ‘Let the Wood Speak’ in my head, which is a saying from luthier Paul Fischer, and I last year had the opportunity to speak to him on the subject of bracing too. Recently, I was given two completed soundboards by luthier Rik Middleton to study, and build the rest of the guitar.

So far I have mostly worked with spruce soundboards, and some in western red cedar. There are so many bracing patterns in the guitar world and so many styles of construction, so many luthiers pushing to achieve the best sound, that it can be hard to choose a clear direction to go regarding sound. However, with my past experience and the advice of various master makers, as well as constant feedback from players and dealers, I feel confident about the future.

Sustainability and ethics in guitar making

I’ve been thinking about sustainability in guitar making recently because as I’m at the point in my career where the designs of my guitars are being honed closer to their final state, I’m therefore looking towards building faster, building these same designs again and again; that means buying more wood and on a more regular basis. Before I embark on this next stage, I need to get my ducks in a row regarding where to responsibly source wood, and figure out what my position on the matter of the environment is. It’s quite easy for a guitar maker to not think about these things, and particularly ordering wood online, it feels like it pops out of thin air and sometimes you don’t consider where it comes from. Often, tonewood suppliers don’t list where they have sourced the wood.

Fortunately, this year I read a fantastic book called ‘The Guitar: Tracing the Wood back to the Tree’ by Chris Gibson and Andrew Warren - a brilliant and easy read, I recommend it strongly. It went into particular detail regarding woods used for steel string guitars and by guitar factories.

One might argue that the impact a single guitar maker has in terms of trees cut down is negligible. However, the guitar is such an important, popular, cultural symbol worldwide, that guitar makers are in a position where they can call more attention to environmental problems, because so many people are interested in guitars. Furthermore, I think a buyer would definitely be disappointed if he/she discovered the materials used for his guitar were not sourced carefully and ethically, or if perhaps the guitar maker didn’t know where the materials came from. Wood is something special and precious, taken from a magnificent tree that perhaps took hundreds of years to grow, then transported thousands of miles; I feel if a maker can convey this to the buyer they will cherish their guitar all the more.

The standard woods used for the classical guitar today are Indian rosewood, maple, cypress spruce, western red cedar, Spanish cedar and ebony, as well as a variety of other tropical hardwoods for the backs and sides. Brazilian rosewood used to be the wood for back and sides, but as the forests in Brazil were decimated and all the old growth Brazilian rosewood is practically gone, its use was banned by an international organisation called CITES. Guitar makers now use Indian rosewood instead, which due to its felling and processing being carefully controlled by the Indian government, is more sustainable. Indian rosewood is grown in plantations and only a certain number of trees are allowed to be cut, processed and sold each year. 

Ebony, the jet black wood used for fingerboards, is an terribly endangered wood mainly grown in Cameroon in Africa. Also the situation around its felling seems so chaotic. It’s difficult wood to replace, but I have found one source which looks reliably sustainable, which is an ebony plantation founded by Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars (Bob Taylor is a figure in the guitar industry who is particularly forward thinking regarding sustainability and tonewoods), and co owned by tonewood supplier Madinter. There is also a UK brand called Rocklite offering eco-friendly man made alternatives to ebony and rosewood, for things like bindings, fretboards and bridges.

Some UK luthiers also advocate the use of native tonewoods; such woods include maple, yew, walnut, poplar, beech, birch, eucalyptus and more. As many of these trees/timbers are not usually cut to guitar dimensions, and not on a large scale, it can be difficult to find these timbers to build with and when you find it, the wood available is often not up to guitar standard. However, I have seen some sets of native woods, particularly walnut, birch, apple, maple, that are truly stunning, and I would love to use them on a regular basis. Unfortunately, often when trees are felled in the UK, they are simply destroyed no matter how great their potential for musical instruments might be. There are some small companies who rescue such trees and turn them into usable wood. One excellent example is a business called Conway Tonewoods; the quality of the native woods there is sometimes stunning, showing that ‘built with local timber’ doesn’t necessarily mean 'built with lesser timber’. I hope such businesses spread and suitable native woods are used more often. Another similar option is to use reclaimed woods, for example wood taken from large old furniture.

English Yew Tree

Extremely usefully, a study has been carried out over the past 15 years, called the Leonardo Guitar Project; a study showing the suitability (or non-suitability) of different non-tropical woods for the different parts of the guitar. This study was carried out scientifically and many luthiers took part as well as two guitar making schools. The results serve as an excellent foundation for any guitar maker looking to move away from tropical woods, because that initial period of uncertainty and experimentation when using new woods, is already completed by this study. 

I have noticed that British guitar makers are quite forward thinking in their use of tonewoods. When Paul Fischer was at the start of his career, he got a Winston Churchill fellowship to travel to Brazil, to try to find alternatives to Brazilian Rosewood. Guitar maker Kevin Aram often uses native wood, and often fells the trees and has the wood processed himself. Gary Southwell often uses relatively recently discovered native timber called Bog Oak. One of my old teachers, Adrian Lucas, often uses reclaimed timber. So young guitar makers in the UK, like me, have excellent examples to follow, and I think this has also resulted in customers also being open to woods other than those considered traditional. It’s something I really like about the guitar, compared to for example the violin. There is room for change, and development and expression in the guitar world.

It’s difficult to form a definite conclusion to this blog post at this point, as the wood industry really seems so chaotic, and what I’d really like to do is visit some countries and their sawmills, and see the different situations in person. For now, when I do use tropical timbers, I will favour tonewood suppliers who are most transparent where it’s sourced, and will keep my eye out for native timbers of high quality too.

Tunbridge Ware Marquetry

An excellent example of Tunbridge Ware, displaying the typical autumn colours/theme

Recently, I discovered an old, forgotten, practically extinct craft called Tunbridge ware. I can’t remember the exact moment of discovery or how it came about, but I was immediately very excited about it and thought about how I could perhaps incorporate similar ideas into my own work. 

Tunbridge ware is a type of marquetry. Marquetry is lots of tiny pieces of wood glue together, arranged to form a pattern or picture. In classical guitar making, we make our own rosettes with mosaic marquetry, often depicting floral or geometric patterns, and we also create patterns such as herringbone. Often there is marquetry on the tie block on the bridge, and occasionally on the headstock and back strip. Marquetry is time consuming and needs to be tastefully done. Although the aesthetic restrictions of the guitar seem free when compared to the violin world, there are actually quite strict limits of what is acceptable in terms of dimensions and decoration on a classical guitar. It also seems that too much effort into the decoration of a guitar can indicate that the maker may have lost sight of the what is actually most important in guitar, ie. sound, playability etc. 

Back to Tunbridge ware; this is a type of marquetry which I gather was developed around the area of Tonbridge, in the 19th Century. Numerous workshops made boxes such as writing boxes, tea caddies, small pieces of furniture etc. made of fine exotic wood and decorated with incredibly elaborate marquetry. These were usually floral patterns, often in autumn colours as they didn’t dye their veneers so only had various shades of brown, black and white to work with. The patterns are often quite striking looking, quite Victorian, and from what I gather were inspired/copied from another craft called Berlin Wool Work. As a craftsman, I have found it interesting reading about how both these arts flourished and eventually died, and about the careers of the Tunbridge ware makers.

What is interesting about Tunbridge Ware is the size of the marquetry patterns. Marquetry in guitar making is already time consuming, but a normal mosaic for a guitar rosette might be 12 little pieces of wood by 12, very small, and this then repeats over and over. A Tunbridge Ware pattern that I am studying now, in comparison, might be around 40 x 200. When I look at a Tunbridge ware piece, I can see the sheer amount of work gone into it; I would actually be interested to know what it's like to look at Tunbridge ware without that knowledge.

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Curious about this lost craft, I visited Tunbridge Wells to see some of this marquetry in real life.Travelling with a friend, I had some trepidation that the marquetry in person would be quite anti climatic. But luckily, upon leaving the train station and walking in the complete wrong direction, we stumbled across a food festival, which meant the trip was worth it either way. We then travelled to a beautiful antiques shop called The Pantilles, where I could behold Tunbridge ware for the first time. They had many brilliant examples and I wasn’t disappointed. In person, I could finally see the size of each individual piece of marquetry, which was 1mm, compared to the 0.5/0.6mm used in guitar making. I was also able to talk briefly with Eric Knowles ‘The Hoard’ who is a top British antiquarian

I next stopped off at the main museum in Tunbridge Wells. Downstairs they had an example of Tunbridge ware that had at some point in recent times been refinished in high gloss French polish. It was lovely to see an example of how these pieces would have looked when new. Upstairs was a display which actually included some old style of guitar, and if I recall correctly, the fretboard was elaborately decorated with Tunbridge ware marquetry. However, the real treasure and culmination of my trip was a video, an interview with a real living, Tunbridge ware maker. I had thought the art was dead, but the video shows the maker's workshop, his thoughts and his methods. There was a brilliant shot of some graph paper completely covered in mad symbols and numbers, where in each square he had detailed which colour of veneer would be used for the huge pattern he was creating. The maker’s name was Peter Benjamin, and upon doing some research when I returned from the trip, it appears he is no longer active, perhaps retired. Perhaps there are other makers practising the art too. Certainly, that was a good trip and has inspired me to do some further research into Tunbridge ware and perhaps incorporate some of this old craft into my work.

I must say Tunbridge ware has completely expanded my mind as to what I though was achievable with marquetry.

Visiting a tonewood supplier

When I first started building guitars I would order my materials online. At the time, it was an extremely exciting process to wait and see what would arrive. As I progressed as a guitar builder I began to see how different every piece of wood can be, even within the same species or furthermore cut from the exact same tree. With that realisation came the desire to have more control over the woods I was buying, and I decided quite early in my career that it is preferable to choose the woods in person. Therefore when I was about 25 I set out to visit my first tonewood supplier. 

I chose a supplier in Spain I had previously bought from called EAG International. I partly chose Spain to satisfy a sense of adventure I had at the time, and afterall Spain is the original home of the guitar. It seemed to me that with the expensive train tickets in the UK, and the more expensive prices of wood in the UK, it was actually cheaper overall to travel to Spain to select the wood. So I set off to Spain one Friday with the idea of getting things done and being back in the workshop on Monday. I had recently read a book called “Let the Wood Speak” by Paul Fischer, where he describes similar weekend trips to Brazil to select wood, so I felt very professional. 

With my terribly limited Spanish and the assistance of google maps, I went by bus to an industrial park on the outskirts of Valencia. Industrial parks are apparently the same everywhere, I could have been in England, aside from the heat. I almost couldn’t find the warehouse, as every warehouse there looked the same and there was no name on this one. It was so sunny and hot outside, that the small entranceway into the warehouse appeared pitch black. However there were milled tree trunks outside and the strong smell of cedar; it seemed like the place so I went inside.

It was a large warehouse completely full of wood. I had specified roughly what quantity of which woods, and of which grades I wanted to buy, and the manager, Eveherardo, had prepared various stacks for me to choose through. I eagerly sorted through them under his watchful eye, with him pointing out some of the best examples, shaking his head with some of the worse ones, and telling me what he felt guitar makers usually want. It seemed like I must have been choosing for one or two hours, after which his assistant quickly packed up the wood, which would be sent by post to me in England. I paid, feeling slightly queasy because it was more than I’d ever paid for anything in one go, and then Eveherardo took me to a nearby cafe for lunch.

Eveherardo explained that this is a popular cafe for the nearby workers, who work around the industrial estate. It was really small, and extremely Spanish. No one spoke English, which was exciting for me as a relatively new traveller. We had a three course lunch and Eveherardo asked about the tonewood and guitar making situation in England and told me about his travels (anyone who specialises in exotic wood must be a traveller to an extent) and he spoke about his family. He also gave me some business tips which I try and hold to. I felt lucky to have briefly made contact with Eveherardo and Spanish life. 

I believe this was a trip which kicked off my passion for flamenco music. I saw a flamenco show, even though Eveherardo told me the flamenco shows in the south were the real deal rather than in Valencia.

Guitar Making in 2023

My workshop for the past 3 years. So long!

A guitar making train-of-thought to start the year. I’m entering the year 2023 with some very clear goals that I’m extremely keen about working on, mostly revolving around my concert guitar model.

I had a very busy end of 2022. I was able to keep hold of one of my concert guitars for a while, and show it and other guitars to many players, dealers, and excitingly, two of my guitar making heroes. It involved lots of exciting travelling up and down the country. While I was doing that I was also finishing of other commissions and moving workshop too. (I’m now in a place where it is much easier to control the temperature and humidity, which is crucial for guitar making. My past workshop was very spacious and beautiful, but particularly during the winter I got very cold working there).

So 2023 has come along and I’m very fixated upon the sound of my concert model. As the design is my own and not a copy, it feels far more personal. I feel that when I’ve built ‘Torres’ style guitars or ‘Fleta’ style guitars etc, I’ve felt slightly disassociated from the sound - it’s someone else’s sound after all. But every guitar maker has their own ideal. I feel that a guitar has two or probably more dimensions to it, the one is the physical guitar, how it looks and plays; the second aspect is that it is a sound sculpture. This is very appealing and magical, and my focus this year is very much continuing to craft my unique sound.

As I come into contact with more guitar makers, dealers, and players and gather feedback, I get a sense of progeny, of knowledge of the craft being past along, lessons taught by previous generations being past to me. And I like to think that in this way, the sound of my concert model goes back to the roots of not only English guitar making, but beyond in this very connected modern world. It is also a sound being developed in direct response to the current classical guitar taste, which is ever evolving.

Thoughts on the different types of guitar finishes and how to care for them

I used a lacquer varnish, for my first 30 or so guitars, minus a couple here and there. I knew that French polish was considered the ‘gold standard’ in classical guitar making, but had become obsessed with mastering one finish before moving on to the next. However, I have recently started offering French polish and an oil finish on my guitars. All finishes has different advantages and disadvantages going for them, none are perfect but some can be more suitable for a particular person’s priorities.

Lacquer:

Lacquer can be buffed to a beautiful mirror gloss. (Writing this post has reminded me that for a while I have intended to read a book called Lacquer: An International History. I know that the earliest lacquerwork dates back to thousands of years ago in China and Japan.) For me, the advantage of lacquer is that once it’s finished and looking good, if a guitar is looked after, the lacquer should stay looking just as good many years down the line as it did on day one, with minimal fuss for the owner.

It is easy to care for; a wipe down with a slightly damp paper towel or cloth should be enough. The lacquer I use is really hard wearing, and a player won’t have to worry about using a cloth between their body and the guitar or anything like that.

I think it’s commonly known that French polish takes a long time and is hard to learn; that’s true but off the back of that comes the implication/assumption that a lacquer finish is easy. It’s not! Both are a tricky skills to learn and take time to execute, also both are easy in a way once the skill is truly learnt.

The disadvantages of lacquer: for the builder, getting the finish thin enough takes some time to learn, and it will never be quite as thin as French polish or oil; players often feel that a thick finish on the soundboard will inhibit the vibrating of the soundboard. Lacquer is also difficult to repair invisibly without a complete refinish of that particular surface.

I apply lacquer with a brush. After it’s dry I level with fine sandpaper. Then I buff by hand. Overall the process is quicker than French polish, but those last two steps take a good couple of long days and the buffing in particular is SO EXHAUSTING. In this way, there is definitely room for my lacquer process to be refined.

French Polish:

French polish is a method of applying a material called shellac. Shellac is dissolved in alcohol and then applied with a “rubber”, then the alcohol evaporates and you’re left with a very thin layer of shellac. It’s a very organic process. I have recently completed two French polished guitars and am feeling the French polishing vibe. I like the particular gloss I have gotten, it has a slightly softer more natural look to it than lacquer. It does look slightly more beautiful than lacquer, however as I mentioned there are downsides to be considered with any finish. For some people it might not be entirely practical, as a lacquer or oil finish would be.

The particular French polishing process I use is spread out over a month (there are many different methods), working an hour here and there sometimes in the morning or evening. So guitars can be built while another is being polished. It’s quite chill, especially when I think of the hectic couple of days at the end of my lacquer process.

I can speak less about the potential issues which might occur as I have more experience with lacquer and oil right now, however following general guitar care guidelines, as well as keeping and cloth between your right arm and the guitar, and occasionally wiping the guitar with a slightly damp paper towel/cloth; do all that and I don’t see there being any big issues.

For players who live in countries with really high humidity or who travel/tour around, a French polished instrument might just be too delicate.

Many luthiers offer a finish touchup after 6 months to a year on a new guitar. This is because the shellac will shrink considerably in the first year, however after it has done so this provides a good base for a touch up. French polish continues to develop and harden over the years.

Oil Finish

I’ve often thought that when I finally get round to building myself an instrument, I will finish it with a couple of coats of oil. Minimum fuss for the maker and the player, nothing to get in the way of the tone. There is never any danger of an oil finish cracking or blistering, as is possible with lacquer or French polish in certain conditions

I still prepare the wood the same way as I would for French polishing or lacquer. This means the grain of the wood is filled on open grained woods, and the end result is a smooth satin finish. I also seal the wood slightly to prevent the oil penetrating into the wood too deeply, minimizing any problems with oily rosewoods, and stopping an excess of oil of dampening the tone of the soundboard.

Again simply follow general guitar care guidelines should keep the guitar in ship shape. With an oil finish a guitarist may wish to keep a cloth between his right arm and the guitar to prevent it getting grubby.

Sometimes despite taking the greatest care a guitar will get dinged or scratched; one thing I like about oil finishes is that a scratches/dings don’t stand out so much on a surface which isn’t so glossy. I think that anything which harms an oil finished surface, would have done more noticeable damage to French polish; as far as durability goes lacquer is the winner. As well as lacquer, I think oil finishes would also be suitable for guitarists in high humidity countries where French polish can be problematic.

I will update this with some guidelines on general maintenance of an oil finish. I feel like an oiling once a year would help, and occasional wiping down with a slightly damp cloth. For cleaning serious grime, I will have to learn/come up with a method and update shortly.

The Development of my Concert Model Guitar

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.

Classical Guitar Academy - A exciting haven for all things classical guitar

I first visited Classical Guitar Academy in Derby in the summer of 2021. It was an interesting time because we were in the midst of the pandemic. I was just beginning to explore the possibility of selling my guitars to dealers and took two guitars - a spruce and cypress classical and also a flamenco guitar - to get some feedback and explore some business ideas.

Derby seemed like a cool, vibrant, small city! CGA is located in a building called Banks Mills Studios, that kind of building you get in cities, once an industrial workhouse or something, refurbished into art studios for creatives. Inside the building there was an exciting youthful ambitious creative vibe, and I felt jealous actually, as my town Bedford is conspicuously lacking any art space.

The owner of CGA is Ed Peczek is a pro classical guitarist and a teacher. I believe the academy was born out of Ed’s teaching, however he soon started selling high end guitars too, and now CGA seems to me like a hub for all things classical guitar. Ed described how the guitars just seemed to gradually build up, and indeed one side of the room is lined with guitars and cases. Brilliantly for a guitar dealership, there is a huge art studio style window, and the daylight makes the instruments look all the more enticing. I was delighted when I met Ed; extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the guitar with that fantastic energy which seemed to permeate the whole building. I was not only able to receive some great feedback on my guitars but also compare them to guitars by other British luthiers, such as Oren Myers and I tried Ed’s own guitar by Michael Gee. (I really liked the clarity of that Michael Gee guitar.)

I was also able to broach the topic of an idea I’d been having. The idea, which has somewhat begun to come to fruition now, was a model of guitar called the Recital which I would build to be an affordable option compared to other handmade guitars. It would be a simply built Torres style guitar with Rosewood or maple back/sides, with an elevated fingerboard and unique rosette as features. Ed has some factory guitars has well, and it was quite informative to try those, as the most expensive factory guitars are at a similar price point to my Recital model.

The first Recital guitar is available here: https://www.classicalguitaracademy.co.uk/guitar-shop/guitars/

I forgot to take my own pictures of that guitar, but the second Recital, which is the same except for the rosette, is shown on my website.

Visiting the Guitar Maker Stephen Eden

When I was younger, about 14, and had decided I wanted to be a guitar maker, I wrote to (bothered and harassed) as many luthiers as I could and sometimes visited them in their workshop. My favourite visit was actually not to a guitar maker but to Dave Rodgers, a tuning machine maker. His workshop was quite a small room through his kitchen, which had two large lathes on one side, and workbenches lining the other side under windows. From where he produced these masterful tuning machines, which ‘back in there day’ were sent off to master engravers, he said, in Italy to be engraved by hand, which is now usually done by CNC machines.

After I began making, I held off visiting more makers, focusing on just improving my own building. Recently, however, feeling like I was reaching a turning point in my business - feeling pleased with the standard of my guitars but feeling slightly lost regarding what direction to take things as a business - I decided it would be useful to seek out someone who had been in my shoes not so long ago: I wanted to visit a guitar maker I’d heard of and admired called Stephen Eden, if he would have me for an hour or so.

Stephen lives in Bexhill, a coastal own near Brighton. I was delighted to meet Stephen and his partner Sabrina, who I felt were both incredible forces of guitar nature, and kindred spirits. They were both kind enough to take a look at a couple of my guitars and talk about their experience in the business of making guitars. Stephen has the same fastidious and efficient approach to building that I associate with makers like Paul Fischer, Robert Ruck, Daniel Freidrich - makers who produced a large output of really high quality guitars. It’s an approach I would like to emulate. I left feeling extremely inspired by Stephen’s guitars and his process and attitude towards his craft; and with lots of new ideas regarding the business side of things.

Unfortunately I only had two steel strings available to show the esteemed classical/flamenco guitar maker. I’ll just have to go back at some point with a classical.

Shipping Guitars Around the World

Here are some pictures of the packing process for a guitar I sent to America. It’s brilliant to have guitars in other countries. And since there are pockets of huge interest in classical and flamenco guitar in various different parts of the world, mastering and fine tuning the packing process including insuring the guitars is crucial.

It’s an exciting if slightly nerve racking thing! It seems luthiers and dealers can send hundreds of guitars out without anything going wrong, however it only needs to go wrong once, and that’s one disappointing experience for a client, especially if it involves a commissioned guitar. So I’m trying to take as much care as possible, and in this case surrounded the case with lots of bubble wrap and sheets of plywood. The strings are detuned, and the guitar, and the whole package is completely immobile within the box.

Flamenco Music

I began to fall for flamenco music after going on a couple of trips to Spain two years ago. For those who don’t know, flamenco is a traditional Spanish music/dance which is accompanied by guitars. To me flamenco music always sounds extremely emotive, melancholic, mysterious and makes me wish I could understand Spanish.

I built my first flamenco guitar years ago almost by accident, before I really knew what flamenco was, by following a plan for a Santos Hernandez instrument (a renowned builder of both flamenco and classical guitars). It had a spruce soundboard with cypress back and sides, and was built alongside three other guitars. When I presented them to a classical guitarist, to my surprise after playing them he handed the cypress one back saying “this is a flamenco guitar”. The biggest difference is that flamenco and classical guitarists have different sound requirements. The different sounds are brought about by adjusting the thicknesses of the wood and bracing. Cypress is usually used for the back and sides, and a tap plate glued onto the soundboard.

My first proper exposure to flamenco music was at a guitar building competition, where there were flamenco guitars being judged, and I heard the same pieces being performed on each guitar. The guitarist was Alberto Lopez and the song that stuck with me was ‘Balcón de los Sueños’, on his album ‘Detras de la Verdad’, which I really enjoyed and still revisit often.

The next experience came visiting a particular wood dealership in Valencia called EAG International. It was a brilliant visit, and I’ll have to devote an entire blog post to it at some point. I was able to speak extensively to the truly lovely owner, Eve Armenteros. He comes from the south of Spain where flamenco music originated and is most alive. He gave me a list of flamenco guitarists and singers to check out which I’ve written out below. And he told me that the reason people truly love flamenco is because the words really speak to the soul, with the guitar usually taking a relatively backseat role, and that solo guitar flamenco music is actually quite niche. From the list he gave me, I found Vicente Amigo immediately accessible and it turns out he is indeed extremely well loved by everyone. The flamenco list: CAMARON, VICENTE AMIGO, MIGUEL POVEDA, DIEGO EL CIGALA, NIÑO JOSELE, TOMATITO, ENRIQUE MORENTE.

I’ve added a couple of examples of flamenco music. Hopefully this has given some context to my building of flamenco guitars. At some point I’ll write more about my trips to Spain and other flamenco related ventures.

A close up of the latest flamenco guitar.

A marvellous and historic instrument

A name often mentioned alongside Antonio De Torres - himself regarded as the founder of the modern classical guitar - and equally esteemed by those in the know, is Vicente Arias, who was Torres’ contemporary. People have consistently been drawn towards Arias’ work. I saw his work for the first time when I visited Granary Guitars ten years ago. I also had the pleasure to measure a particularly special Vicente Arias guitar - the subject of this blog post - with a view to making a copy.

The guitar was a marvelous instrument which had eight strings, was magnificently large and had a brilliant, rather intimidating and loud sound. Sitting down to play it was like sitting in front of a grand piano. The spruce top, after over a hundred years of eight-string tension, I remember thinking was waved like the surface of water. As can be seen from the few photos I took, it’s also a guitar of innovation, with an extremely elegant extra soundhole and a tailpiece of sorts, along with a new bridge design. Indeed, apart from the flairs of workmanship which seem to give many older guitars more soul than guitars in this era, one of the main points I took away from this guitar was Arias’ confidence and flair for innovation.

This innovative spirit is something so key to guitar making, and everyone’s favorite makers have had it. The motivating factor behind it is finding one’s unique sound. All the old masters did this and many modern masters have succeeded too; I hope to follow their example, although building copies is an interesting exercise which can ultimately help. My upcoming guitar is a rather experimental instrument, where not only is it my first nomex double-top guitar, but it has an elevated fingerboard and other innovations too.

Below are pictures of the Arias guitar and I have also included a recording by the brilliant guitarist Raphaella Smits; she recorded a whole album on the guitar, playing the works of Antonio Jiménez Manjón, a composer of the same period as the guitar. If you haven’t heard of Raphaella Smits, I would recommend her whole catalogue of work, and I particularly enjoy her ‘Ave Maria’ album. On that album, she has a suite by Henry Purcell, a very famous English composer, which I guess she must have laboriously transcribed from the original music which was meant for harpsichord - the harsh and grating harpsichord - and I can’t say how much I thought the music was truly improved for being played on the 8 string guitar instead and with Raphaella’s particular moody gravitas. Just the prelude of which I have included below.

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Bedford Music Club

I absolutely love Bedford Music Club. It organises ‘chamber music’ concerts; music for small groups of instruments, such as string quartets. I found them because as a teenager I was briefly interested in composing music, and discovered I liked Beethoven’s late string quartets in particular. They were not only amazing, but felt secret because I found them, and they were written while he was deaf. So around 2015 I was drawn towards a performance of one of them at the Bedford Music Club.

They usually hold six or seven concerts per year I believe, with a variety of musical ensembles. Such is the nature of the classical music scene, that it is possible to attract world class musicians to even Bedford. 

The regular audience is an impressive size. The venue I’ve been to is Bunyan Meeting and usually the seats on the floor are full, though there is also an upper floor so there’s room for more.

I usually try to catch the string quartet concerts. My highlights include: Beethoven’s late quartets, mentioned above; Dvorak’s American quartet, written while the composer was in America longing for his Czech home; Britten’s 2nd string quartet, inspired by the second world war; finally, a concert which was this year though it seems an eternity ago (before covid), which was a lutenist called Matthew Wadsworth along with a soprano singer. As a guitar maker, it was brilliant to see not only the lute in action, but the impressive theorbo, which is in the lute family but has an enormous swan neck and more strings. His smaller lute had amazing projection with a penetrating tone which hung in the air. The tone of the lute sounds like something raw and ancient. There is an example of Matthew Wadsworth’s work below.

While I was researching for this blog post, I found The Bedford Music Club has a new website and are live-streaming some concerts in the new year which I recommend:

https://www.bedfordmusicclub.com/

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesToccata VI · Alessandro Piccinini · Matthew WadsworthLate Night LuteReleased on: 2017-06-23Auto-generated by Yo...

Colibri Duo Concert Recollections

This guitar duo concert was in a village in Bedfordshire a few years ago. It was winter so it was dark and I took the train. Walking from the village station I had the sensation of exciting disorientation since I didn’t know the place, even though - looking at Marston on a map afterwards - I was still pretty close to Bedford. 

There was a respectable amount of people there. Despite the guitar being a very old and popular instrument in general, a classical guitar concert is still fairly niche. I think its popularity as a concert instrument ebbs and flows at different times in different parts of the world. Its prevalence is because as a solo instrument which anyone can learn at home it is rather perfect. 

The stand out pieces, which I still remember quite well a few years later, include parts of a suite by Olga Amelkina-Vera, a piece by John Dowland and it was also the first time I’d heard the popular Asturias by Isaac Albeniz. I should mention that although now years later I’ve probably over-listened to that Asturias piece, this first time felt momentous. It’s a solo piece, so Valerie played it alone, with her duo partner Rod sitting amongst the audience to listen which gave it an extra sense of gravitas. Valerie also has a wonderful lattice braced Greg Byers guitar, which seemed to project really well and seems a grand powerful instrument.

I loved the banter between the two guitarists - is it me or are even classical guitarists cooler than the other musicians? 

I am always curious about classical guitarists in general. I do consider professional guitarists and luthiers to be two sides of the same coin. I’ve thought that ever since I met luthier Yuris Zeltins in Spain, who mentioned that both luthiers and guitarists have to be quite mad to go professional in this field. I could already attest to that regarding guitar makers, but it increased my curiosity and admiration for players. Although come to think of it, the same is probably true for all musicians, and most crafts.

I believe I was just about to move into a new workshop in Bromham, and this concert inspired the first guitar I built there - a spruce/birdseye maple classical, which was Torres/Romanillos inspired - and probably pushed me over the edge into complete dedication towards guitar building. 

https://www.valeriehartzell.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/rod.faulkner.5494