I’M GARY NAVA, A PROFESSIONAL LUTHIER MAKING MANDOLINS AND GUITARS BY HAND, TO THE HIGHEST STANDARDS, IN MY ANALOGUE WORKSHOP. HERE ARE VARIOUS TALES FROM MY WORK BENCH.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
What's on the bench?
Phil Hare guitar
I thought that I’d give you a bit of an update on the various projects that are currently on the go. I’ve had a few enquires about the progress of the Phil Hare guitar. Well, the body has been French polished and the neck is being Tru-oiled, so essentially I’m just waiting for the finish to harden-off before the bridge can be glued on and the guitar completed.
Geoff’s OO
Then we have Geoff’s OO- this going to be a lovely little guitar! You can see that the body is together and the next stage will be the bindings and purflings. The back and sides are Honduras rosewood- it looks great, but what a swine to bend! It was just physically hard work- the sides were taken down to 2mm thickness but they really put up a fight. I would estimate that they took me 5 times longer to bend compared to a set of Indian.
The rosette is very nice- two rosettes in one- I’ve made a wooden rosette from the off cuts of the back and then inlaid a ring of abalone.
Talking of abalone, a slight worry here, I’ve noticed that StewMac can no-longer ship abalone and pearl products outside of the US, I hope that this isn’t a sign of things to come- supplies are hard enough (and expensive enough) to find.
Paul’s mandolin
And a few steps behind the OO is Paul’s mandolin. This one is going to be an English walnut twin-pointer with a mother-of pearl rosette. Paul wants a pick-up in this one, so we are going to try one from K&K: it doesn't need a battery which is an advantage for a small instrument.
Great design work with the ergonomic guitar. I, too, have had serious back issues and have had to completely change my playing posture, which has resulted in keeping essentially classical guitar posture, instrument on left thigh, but I use a Neck-Up strap which supports the body from below, so no foot stool. You have shaped the contour of the solid body to accomplish this by itself, plus it looks cool! Everything about it looks just right.
Hi, I make mostly mandolins and guitars, entirely by myself and by hand. Although I’m based in the Norfolk Fens, my instruments can be found all over the world. I made my first guitar when I was 14 and during the 1970s studied luthiery at the prestigious London College of Furniture. I’ve been making them ever since!
1 Comments:
Gary,
Great design work with the ergonomic guitar. I, too, have had serious back issues and have had to completely change my playing posture, which has resulted in keeping essentially classical guitar posture, instrument on left thigh, but I use a Neck-Up strap which supports the body from below, so no foot stool. You have shaped the contour of the solid body to accomplish this by itself, plus it looks cool! Everything about it looks just right.
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