Things have been quite busy lately!

I’m sorry that I’ve not been keeping the blog up-to-date; things have been quite busy lately. When we lived in London, hardly any clients called by- most of my business was conducted via emails. However, since moving to the wilds of Norfolk we have had many more visitors, resulting in quite a few new and interesting commissions, all involving much design work. I must admit it’s been great to meet so many new clients in person and hear them play their guitars and discuss their needs.

Andy’s hybrid archtop

I’ve finally completed the purfling and bindings on Andy’s hybrid archtop- I still can’t believe that it took me so long. However, I was grateful that my old tutor, Herbert Schwarz, made me cut all of rebates, on my early guitars, by hand and that I had that skill to fall back on. You can see the outcome below and despite the time I’m very happy with the outcome.

The parlour guitar

The parlour guitar is coming along nicely and the new video shows how I tackle the carving of the neck. The shape of the neck is one of the most important elements of the guitar regarding whether or not a player finds a particular guitar comfortable or not.

The next step is to start French Polishing the parlour guitar and there will be another video about that. Here are few picture of the guitar ready for polishing; there are a few details which I really like. I cut a tiny “N” logo out of a recycled Victorian ivory piano key and inlaid it in to the heel cap and I love these new side position markers.

The next instrument

The next instrument on the bench will be an English walnut steel-string guitar for Jonathan. Interesting spec- my model 1 shape but with a 12 fret neck and cutaway- more on this later, but here’s its beautiful back to be getting along with. Walnut can look a bit cold in this state, but when it’s polished you can’t beat it! Also I often leave the sap wood on to give a skunk stripe down the back, but Jonathan would prefer his back without and I’m happy to oblige!