How do you get that shape?

Whenever I get a visitor to the workshop, they’re always intrigued by how the sides are shaped. Well here’s the answer! For this instalment of the “Parlour Guitar: design & construction” videos, I thought that I’d show you how the sides are bent. The video’s a bit long, but I didn’t want to leave out any important information for all of you budding luthiers!

Antiques Road Show?

Well not quite! I was delighted to get some photos from Dave of an early Nava! I made this classical guitar in 1979 and remember it well. It was originally sold via the London Guitar Gallery for £200 in 1979 and Dave bought it second hand from the Camden Lock Music Shop in 1983 and has been playing it ever since! The guitar was built during my last year at the London College of Furniture and was the 13^th that I made. The back and sides are made from Brazilian Tulipwood; I remember going to a wood yard to buy some mahogany boards for necks and saw this discarded, tatty, spilt board.

I had a small plane with me so I took a few shavings off the surface and claimed it!! I could only get narrow pieces out of the board; hence this guitar has a three-piece back. Oh how I wish I had some more of this beautiful wood! The rosette is also interesting, it was one of three that I made to this design.

All of the mosaic rosettes that we made at LCF were made from 1mm squares cut from pre-made strips. I felt that this didn’t give a fine enough pattern so I made some smaller mosaics by producing my own 0.6mm squares from veneers. Two of them were used in guitars (this one and its Indian rosewood sister) and here’s the third; in my workshop still unused. To be honest, this one’s a bit scruffy and was the prototype!

The shape of the guitar is similar to the one that I use on my classical today. At this time I was doing all the repair work for a Spanish guitar shop in the Fulham Road and I had to re-finish the back of a stunning Brazilian rosewood Manuel Contreras flamenco. At the time it was one the nicest guitars that I had ever handled and so I based my shape on it.

Richard’s Mandolin

Just in case you’re wondering if I ever glued that neck on! Here you see how the neck fits; it may look like a small joint, but there is over 21 square cm of surface area to glue so it’s strong enough!

Fast forward..............What I do like about making instruments with floating bridges and tailpieces is that you can get them set-up and playing before finishing. So now I have Richard’s mando playing it can be striped back down and be French polished.

Those eagle-eyed followers will note that my bridge design has changed- I’m using a separate saddle this time. Two reason, firstly less wood is used hence it’s lighter but more importantly it offers a relatively easy way to adjust the action. The saddle can be taken out and reduced in height or shims can be put underneath it, to raise the action. I’ve made up two saddles one bone the other ebony and once the mando has been played-in, Richard will be able to give me feedback about the tonal differences (cheers Richard!).

Merry Christmas

Well, El Corazon is now completed and hopefully I’ll be delivering it, in person, to Chris after Christmas, weather permitting!

I’ve been very pleased by the way the guitar sounds already. Spruce tops can take months to play in, but this is sounding very sweet already. Each instrument made is a development of the previous; little tweaks and modifications are always made and on recent instruments (whether a classical guitar or mandolin) I’ve become more and more interested in the bridge’s design, the break angle over the saddle and the height of strings above the soundboard. The bridge is the interface between the strings and soundboard and its efficiency in transmitting energy is paramount. More on that later!

Anyway here is El Corazon for your enjoyment.....




Merry Christmas!

A number of things going on!

El Corazon is currently being French polished or rather the body and head is; the neck is going to have an oil finish.

Those who have followed my blog for awhile, will have noticed that the subject of finishing comes up quite a bit. I decided, when I moved to the new workshop, that I would no longer spray lacquer due to a whole host of health and safety issues. So, French polish or an oil-based finish are now the only types of finish that I offer. They may not be as robust as thicker synthetic lacquers, but I figure if someone is going to go the trouble of having a hand made guitar, they are also going to look after it! Also, I do believe that they superior both aesthetically and acoustically. I’ve been keeping a check on things and I think that I use 75% less material when French polishing compared to using lacquer. It’s got to sound better!

Whilst the polishing is going on there are a number of other projects also on the go. You may remember Andy’s carved top that I started a long time ago? Well for various reasons that has been on the back burner but now work has resumed. One of the last tasks that I did to it was to drill loads of holes in the soundboard!

These holes all stop 8mm from the outer surface and give a rough guide for carving the inner surface. I say carving, but the vast majority of waste has been removed with special curved sole planes.

This Canadian made plane from Axminster was great for roughing out most of the waste: well worth having in your armoury!

Most of the waste has now been removed and I’m now down to some finer work with scrapers and abrasives.

I’ve also started another twin-point mandolin this one is for Richard and will have beautiful English walnut back and sides. Here are a few photos of the work done so far.

Early next year I’ll be making a baritone ukulele for Martin and I’ve been doing some preparation. This is the head overlay: it’s book-matched Thuya Burl which is from the root of tree which grows in Morocco. Pretty eh?

El Corazon’s neck

I thought that I would go through the process of fitting the neck with you. With the body completed, the next step is to route a dovetail slot for the neck to go into. At this stage of construction things start getting a wee bit tense because of all of the time and effort already invested- you just can’t go wrong!

I firmly clamp the guitar body to my jig which gives the tapered shape of the slot. Then using a template follower and straight 6mm cutter the bulk of the wood is cut away.

With the majority of the wood removed, I re-cut the slot with a dovetail shaped cutter. Because of the tapered sides of the dovetail cutter, you have cut to the full depth in one hit which could overload things; hence using a 6mm one first.

Once the slot is cut, I take careful measurements and cut, chisel and file the male part of the joint in the neck. The whole process of fitting the neck joint into the body can take many hours. The neck has to be perfectly aligned in two planes and the heel fit neatly against the sides. I know that some makers cut the neck too small and rely on shims to pack it out but I prefer the best fit I can get. By the way the Jiffy bag is to protect the head from getting damaged!

I have often debated whether or not to use the Spanish method of an integral neck; sound-wise I don’t think that there is any difference and both ways are far superior to using mechanical fixings. However, I am tempted, just for the hell of it, to have a go and I’m thinking of trying it out on the parlour guitar.......we’ll see!

I’ve never been a great fan of classical music apart from guitar and lute music. I guess classical music is a bit like custard; you’re put off by your experiences at school! Anyway, as Radio 4 tends to a little depressing, I started listening to Radio 3 and heard this viola da gamba music composed by Carl Friedrich Abel, “The Drexel Manuscript” and played by Paolo Pandolfo. I had to buy the CD and have been playing it constantly in the workshop this week. Absolutely amazing!! Put in viola da gamba into YouTube an you’ll see this amazing instrument in action.

Ergo electric completed

Stefano’s ergonomic 7 string electric has been completed and I’m extremely pleased with the outcome. Here are some photos: a picture’s worth a thousand words!

Having completed the guitar and spent sometime playing it, I feel incredibly enthusiastic about this design. In the YouTube video you can see how the guitar balances perfectly when you play seated. At some point I shall make a 6 string version (the neck is already glued up!).



One thing I love about this guitar, is the use of mahogany and the Tru-oil finish. Over the years I’ve never been a great mahogany fan, seeing it just as a good wood for necks. However since I’ve been using Tru-oil or French polish, I’ve really warmed to it. The water-based lacquers that I used to use gave the wood a colder hue, whereas these more natural finishes bring out the real beauty of the wood.


El Corazon
El Corazon is being bound and purfled. You can see how the joint between the sound board and sides is completely cut away and how important the linings are in holding the whole thing together. I’ve used a red line around the soundboard, keeping the heart/blood theme going. The bindings are rosewood with a single line of boxwood laminated to it. The single line looks very elegant. Here you can see how the binding is held in place with clothe tape (50 metres!) whilst the glue dries.

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-

The Heart of El Corazon

Whilst working on the ergo electric, I’ve also been bracing the soundboard of El Corazon. I know that Chris is interested to see how it’s all put together, so here’s the story......

The soundboard is taken down to a thickness of about 2.7 mm, a bit thicker than its final dimension; I like to leave a bit of meat, as it will have to be scraped and sanded a few more times during the construction process.

The bridge plate and sound hole reinforcements go on first. The bridge plate helps to stop the soundboard distorting around the bridge; any distortion could lead to the bridge pulling away in places. The area around the sound hole needs to be reinforced too, particularly as the rosette is inlaid into the board making it very thin in this area.

Next the fans go on. Some luthiers cut the plate, some notch the fans; as you can see I’m a notch man. All the gluing is done on a curved board making the soundboard a subtle dome shape. The fans are then shaped: the ones on bass side more than the treble side; this is a way of getting tonal balance in the guitar.

Whilst all this gluing and shaping is going on, I tap the soundboard to listen to the sound it produces. Also I measure how much the soundboard deflects when a 500g mass is placed on it. I record this deflection for each guitar and this data helps me with the consistency of my instruments.

With the fans in place, the two large cross braces are glued on. I my opinion these are mostly structural, although the one below the sound hole can be glued on at an angle to make the treble side shorter and hence tighter and similarly the bass side longer and looser.

Of course that’s the way I do it and there are as many methods of working as there are luthiers and we’re all right!!

Next stage is to glue together the magic box!

New Links
I’ve just added a couple of new links to the side bar:
WD Music: great for all guitar hardware, very helpful guys
Stringbusters: strings at low prices and again very helpful
And last but not least one to the Muse website.