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:

#29-30 completed photos

#29

Red cedar soundboard, Indian rosewood body
Honduras mahogany neck and heel, Spanish cedar headstock
Brazilian rosewood headplate and bridge
Satinwood and maple purfling with Indian rosewood binding
African ebony fingerboard

#30

Austrian spruce soundboard, Indian rosewood body
Spanish cedar neck with Honduras mahogany heel
Brazilian rosewood bridge and Bois de rose headplate
Satinwood and maple purfling with Indian rosewood binding
black Macassar ebony fingerboard

Both fan braced, soundclips without french polish below.

Played by Tudor Niculescu, Savarez Alliance strings.

#28 completed

Austrian spruce soundboard, fan bracing (made from 90 years old spruce), figured Ceylon satinwood body
Brazilian cedar neck, 650 mm scale, with Macassar ebony fingerboard and hard bronze frets
Brazilian rosewood (60 years old) bridge, Madagascar rosewood headplate, Indian rosewood binding
Klaus Scheller engraved tuners.

D’addario strings, first day test, bare wood (and lots of drilling background noise):

#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:

#26 completed

Swiss spruce soundboard, fan braced, Amazon rosewood body
Brazilian rosewood (60 years old) bridge, Madrone burl rosette and boxwood binding
Honduras mahogany neck, 650mm scale, ebony spine and Amazon rw fingerboard
Rubner tuners with Indian rosewood buttons, Indian headplates.

Bare wood raw recordings:

#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.

#24 completed

My third flamenco guitar, made for El Grelo.

-Swiss spruce soundboard
-Spanish cypress back and sides
-Madagascar rosewood bridge, binding and headplate
-Spanish cedar neck with carbon fiber reinforcement
-African Blackwood fingerboard, 655mm scale.

Rottenstone polishing

#22 completed

-Austrian alpine spruce soundboard with Madagascar rosewood body, bridge and headplate
-Honduras mahogany neck with ebony spine and “Bois de rose” Madagascar rosewood fingerboard
-Brazilian boxwood binding

This guitar has a construction loosely based on the famous 1937 Hauser used by Segovia. Strings are Savarez New cristal / Cantiga normal tension, which sound tighter and brighter than regular nylon but not as edgy and metallic as carbon.

Clips:

Bare wood raw clips, worn d’addario:

#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: