A busy week in the Nava workshop

Acoustic magazine

The article in Acoustic magazine was published this week and I was very pleased with the outcome. Many thanks to the journalist, Petra Jones, for putting the article together. Hope that you all enjoy reading it!

El Corazon

This week El Corazon started to look a bit more like a guitar. The back, soundboard and sides were all glued together to make up the “box”. The next stage is purfling and binding. All the these stages now involve a couple of hours of work followed by a 12 or so hour wait to allow the glue to dry; so you must always have a number of instruments on the go to remain productive.

Ergo electric
The ergo electric is being finished with in “Tru-oil” again a slowish process: one coat applied, 24 hours to dry before the next coat.

30 year old Nava
Whilst I’ve been working on these two I’ve also been refurbishing this guitar---

I completed this guitar 30 years ago this November! It was made whilst I was working at the London Guitar Gallery and it was a prototype for our own style of acoustic; I’m amazed how modern looking it still is. It was used a demonstration model and I made a further three rosewood versions as commissions. The action needed some adjustment and I fitted a Headway transducer under the saddle. Since our move, my son hasn’t had access to an acoustic guitar so I thought that I’d get this one sorted out for him.

It’s interesting to look closely at something made so long ago. The 12 fret neck was simply reinforced with a 10mm square steel tube and is still as straight and true as the day I made it.
Also it’s clear that my heel obsession isn’t something new! This is what a cutaway heel should look like!

Parlour guitar
I’ve also been doing some more work on the parlour guitar and here’s the latest instalment.


Something different
Since moving to Norfolk we’ve been amazed by the number of beautiful churches that abound. I took this photo of another beautiful instrument in the Tydd St.Giles parish church-