Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi folks.
Here's some pics of my latest guitar.
This is guitar number 2

Monterey cypress back and sides.
European spruce soundboard
Spanish cedar neck
I had a go at french polishing and need a bit more practice.
Styled from a half moon conde.
And it roars like a bull
If only i could play..Hahaha!!
WOOOHOOO!!

Claire




Claire39085.2121296296

Claire,
i think its a real beauty!
i love flamneco and nothing tickles my fancy like a nice "flamenca blanca".
reminds me a lot of my latest :(



Udi.vachterm39085.2249652778

Claire,
        That is awesome ! Beautiful work.


Regards, Craig

_________________
CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
_____________________________________________

Nice work there Claire,

Did you work up the tuning pegs yourself?

Cheers

Very nice! What are your bindings?

I'm working on two right now, based on the Reyes plan, and hope to close up the box on the first one this weekend. I'm using tuning machines on slotted peghead. I wish I knew how to tune the bracing in classical/flamenco guitars better - all my knowledge pertains to steel string guitars.

Jim

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

WOW, great looking guitar and excellent craftmanship for a no 2 Claire, you got every reason to be proud!

Lovely instrument Claire, oh and welcome to the forum, I just love the simplicity of tuning pegs. Once you get used to them the 1:1 ratio is easy to master, and they just look right on a flamenco. I make my own from ebony or one of the fruit woods.

The French polishing looks fine to me, you're not after a 'nitro gloss', just a nice sheen to set off the wood, especially on a guitar like that.

If that is only your second guitar, then you're a very fast learner!

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Great looking guitar, Claire. It's beautiful looking work, especially considering it's only your second guitar! I am also working on a blanca with pegs. I will have to post pictures. Would love to rap more with you and others about flamencos - thought I might be the only one on the forum who makes them. Now I see that you and Udi do as well.

Congratulations,
Max

_________________
Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Great work, beautiful guitar.

Very Nice Work!! Congratulations!

Nice work, you must be happy!
I was wondering though - whats the that thing your guitar is sitting on in the last picture that looks like its covered in frost?
Cheers
Charliewood

Sweet Guitar

_________________
Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Great job Claire!

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Fine work, Claire.





Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Nice work Claire! My second sure didn't look that good.

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Thanks for the compliments everyone.
I like Udi's guitar....woohoo.
And I'd love to see some pics of max's and jim's guitars

I've been looking at pics of colin's lutes, and thinking how tremendous!!!

I didn't make the pegs or the rosette myself.
Rosette making is something i really want to learn.
I've already ordered the timbers for my next guitar, and some hide glue to explore with.
Another flamenca blanca, this time with geared tuners for simplicity, and to keep the theme of the guitar I'm copying; one of those old smaller bodied sixties conde's.

Thanks again everybody.
cheers,
Claire

[QUOTE=Claire] Thanks for the compliments everyone.
I like Udi's guitar....woohoo.
And I'd love to see some pics of max's and jim's guitars
Thanks again everybody.
cheers,
Claire
[/QUOTE]

Hi Claire - My first two flamencos are still mainly a figment of my imagination.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

wow. Some of my favorite music in the world. Send me the guitar if you need someone to play it. I'll learn quickly. Guaranteed.

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Beautiful guitar Claire !
Can you give us some details?
Top thickness?
Bracing pattern and demensions?
neck width -nut & 12th fret

I love Monterey Cypress!
Keep up the great work!
Mike Collins
www.collinsguitars.com

_________________
Mike Collins

Claire, it looks great...nice, clean, straightforward Flamenco! You cant go wrong with a Conde plantilla although I build to a Barbero plantilla.

I too love and build flamenco. I build 2 times as many classical to flamenco and 2 times more blanca flamenco than negra. I also build a blanca classical based on a Torres second epoch model. Joshua French also builds a blanca classical but with the option of a tornavoz.

Jim, it looks like you have a good start to your two but you may want to take your bracing lighter.

There is no set dimension for bracing but as an example in a typical classical I make my fan (7) braces 6mm x 6mm for the middle 3, 5mm x 5mm for the next two outer and the outside fan braces 4.5 x 4.5. Each of these are triangular in section tapered down to .5mm in height for the last 18-20mm of length. My bridge plate is 2mm in height tapering down on each end to 1mm.

In a flamenco I will usually leave out the bottom angled lateral braces as well as it can help to achieve the dropoff in sound after the initial attack as is characteristic in a flamenco sound.

Shawn - Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a total newb at flamencos. This is the Reyes plan and I'm down around the brace dimensions shown by Tom Blackshear in his drawing. That lower "bracing" is about 1/32" thick. The top has a fairly clear tone, without much sustain. I'm almost scared to shave anything any more. The tops are SO thin - I was worried that they are not as stiff as what was in the guitar depicted in the plan, and hence that I've gone too far in thinning them. So, no more brace shaving in the absence of expert attention. (Unless I decide to risk alterations on top #2 just to get some contrast).

Jim

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

That is so lovely, Claire, and the polish looks great to me. So much so I might that a try!!!

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Hi Mike.
thanks for you your post:)

Guitar is 52mm at the nut, and 61 at the 12th.
I made the back of the neck a bit flatter than the typical conde.

On my guitar the top is thicknessed 2.2 mm at the sound hole tapering to 2.1 at the widest part of the lower bout.
Seven fan braces. They started out at 5x5mm before fitting, and i chiseled them on the soundboard to a triangular profile to about 3 mm in height.
I left them rough and didn't sand them.
Perhaps 15mm end relief each.
My thinking was to keep the soundboard as open as possible.
so no lateral bottom braces.
And keeping the fan struts as close to parallel with the growth rings as possible.
I also used the stiffest bracewood i could find for the struts and i ended up useing sitka spruce totally by accident because i had no idea what i was looking at at the time.
But it worked.
I also glued the tentalones on the soundboard right up against each other to make the soundboard/sides coupling as stiff as possible.
No bridge plate.
My old conde has no bridge plate so basically i copied that.
I made the sides as thin as i dared and then some.
I think they'd be about 2 to 2.2 mm thick.
I just tapped them and listened so i don't know the exact thickness, but they're very thin

It has a good flamenco tone, its percussive, it honks and its loud.
BUT its also a concert sized guitar and i think what you gain in volume with a BIG guitar you loose in dryness.
There are overtones that are amplified that i think are to do with the size of the thing, and i'd prefer it to be a bit flatter sounding.

I think a Barbero is a great size pantilla.
I've played a real Barbero and a copy and i think they were both outstanding.

Cheers,
Claire

Claire, awesome picts you have to be proud of such a fine accomplishment.

Jim, I am also building a Manuel Reyes (just starting, 1st guitar). I had recently emailed Tom with a question on the plan part of his response was the following:

"But the plan is drawn flat from the nut to the bottom of the guitar and the neck has to be lifted about 2 mm up to get the playing angle right."

In reviewing his notes in American Lutherie number 84, where the plans were originally published, he does reference angling the neck forward 2-3 mm at the nut. Did you take this correction into account. I am struggling with the best approach to build this in, as once the neck is set there is really no adjustment. Do I angle the neck forward by this amount, or could I simply increase the height of the nut.

I am looking forward to seeing you final picts.

Darin

[QUOTE=DarinMcC] Claire, awesome picts you have to be proud of such a fine accomplishment.

Jim, I am also building a Manuel Reyes (just starting, 1st guitar). I had recently emailed Tom with a question on the plan part of his response was the following:

"But the plan is drawn flat from the nut to the bottom of the guitar and the neck has to be lifted about 2 mm up to get the playing angle right."

In reviewing his notes in American Lutherie number 84, where the plans were originally published, he does reference angling the neck forward 2-3 mm at the nut. Did you take this correction into account. I am struggling with the best approach to build this in, as once the neck is set there is really no adjustment. Do I angle the neck forward by this amount, or could I simply increase the height of the nut.

I am looking forward to seeing you final picts.

Darin
[/QUOTE]

If I understood correctly...

Couldn't you just taper the fretboard 2mm toward the soundhole when thicknessing it? That's what I've been told to do on my first guitar (flamenco - Santos Hernandez based... curing right now) by some flamenco builders.