Red cedar / Madagascar rosewood

-red cedar soundboard with modified Bouchet bracing
-Madagascar rosewood bridge, back and sides
-Very old African mahogany neck with African blackwood headplate and fingerboard, Gotoh Premium tuners.

 

 

Raw recordings made before french polishing:

 

 

 

Spruce / Cypress Bouchet

-Austrian spruce top, Bouchet bracing, 640mm scale
-Cypress body
-Spanish cedar neck with African ebony spine and fingerboard
-Indian rosewood bridge, headplate and binding.

Raw soundclips recorded without varnish:

Spruce/Indian rosewood/Satinwood Bouchet

I have been very very busy in the past few months and didn’t get a chance to update the blog. In the next period I will show several guitars. Will start with this one:

-Austrian spruce top, 90 years old Carpathian spruce bracing, Bouchet bracing
-Indian rosewood and Satinwood body
-Spanish cedar neck with African ebony spine, Macassar ebony fingerboard, Amazon rosewood headplate
-Brazilian rosewood bridge, maple binding.

Raw soundclips recorded without varnish:

#27 completed

German spruce soundboard, Bouchet bracing (mix of 90 and 20 years old spruce), flamed European maple body with 110 years old Cuban mahogany bracing
Brazilian cedar neck, 660 mm scale, with Bois de rose spine and African blackwood radiused fingerboard
Brazilian rosewood (60 years old) bridge, Madagascar rosewood headplate, Indian rosewood binding, maple, rosewood and boxwood purfling.
Rubner tuners with snakewood buttons.

Bare wood recordings, normal tension nylon:

#25 completed

This is my first maple guitar – a small plantilla Bouchet braced spruce top. At the first touch, maple is not that attractive for a guitar maker. It is difficult to plane, bend, and keep clean. Workmanship mistakes are impossible to hide, but at least there are no pores to fill. Other than looks, it does not excel structurally. It is not very dense (helping power and projection) but not very light either (giving a spontaneous, airy and lively sound like cypress). If you want to leave some meat and weight into it, it is too stiff (here the flames actually help) The taptone is dull, suggesting a dry sound lacking overtones. And yet this is the wood of choice for bowed instruments, but those have a lot more energy at disposal and something that filters the power is a good idea. A violin with a cedar top, or rosewood body, would likely sound way too scratchy and metallic.

To my great surprise, the guitar turned out very well and this has become one of my favorite tonewoods. The color is not dry and simple, but just clean and pure. In comparison, rosewood almost sounds too cluttered and dark. There are plenty of overtones but discrete, not in-your-face. Trebles are clear and pure, and also can sound sweet (like cypress), something I can hardly hear in rosewoods. The sound is overall open and loud, more open and direct than on a similarly new rosewood. The clean and direct tone makes bad playing more evident than on rosewood.

Raw sample without varnish, nylon strings

Specs:

-Austrian spruce soundboard, Bouchet bracing, 650mm scale
-Bosnian flamed maple back, sides and secondary headplate
-Madagascar rosewood headplate, neck spine and bridge
-Spanish cedar neck with ebony fingerboard
-Indian rosewood binding with bloodwood and maple back and sides purfling.

#21 completed photos

-Bouchet bracing, 632mm scale, 49mm neck, Rubner tuners.
-Swiss spruce soundboard
-Madagascar rosewood back, sides and fingerboard
-Bois de Rose rosewood bridge
-South American cedar neck with African Blackwood headplate
-curly maple binding and secondary headplate

Bare wood, carbon clips:

#17 completed photos

#17:

-Western red cedar soundboard, Bouchet-style bracing
-Indian rosewood back, sides, headplate and bridge
-African Blackwood fingerboard
-South American cedar neck
-ebony binding.

New sound clip

#14-15 completed

This is a matched pair for a duo. Unfortunately the photos came out really poor as I made them in a big hurry. Better closeup can be found in the construction post. Maybe I will manage to update them later, same for the sound samples. The clip is Danza de la Pastora by Ernesto Halffter, the player’s own transcription. It is very recent and a work in progress at a slower tempo. The guitars only had strings on for a day. The recording is made with a Zoom H4 placed not so ideally on the floor.

Most of the wood used came in sister sets: tops, backs, necks, bracing, headplates and so on. The bridges are not sister cuts (which I had) but instead I picked the lowest damping Madagascar I had and the blanks were matched in pitch and density. The bracing is Bouchet style. I am very pleased that the guitars sound similar and blend in very well.

-tops: master grade Austrian spruce
-backs and sides: purple Indian rosewood
-necks: high density Spanish cedar with 12 years old ebony fingerboards
-bridges and headplates: Madagascar rosewood.

#11 completed photos

A few quick photos of #11 completed, European spruce and quartersawn figured Madagascar rosewood.