News 2004

Parlour Guitar

The left-handed parlour guitar is now built and ready for the spray booth. Here are some build pictures.

Scantling back and sides re-inforced and lined	Soundboard clamped and glueing
Binding fitted and partially scraped down	Scantling side and binding at waist
Neck fitted	Ready for lacquering
6 String Scantling arch-top
Here is the arch-top fresh out of the spray booth. It requires fret dressing, nut, tuners, bridge and tailpiece before I string it up. The picture above shows the Cuban mahogany neck with the dark stripe running along it.

The scantling wood is arranged to have the very figured Brazilian rosewood on the edges of the back and dark Brazilian wood in the centre of the back and on the sides. The green flashes you can see show only in natural sunlight and in photography flash light; I believe the green to be a reaction between Brazilian rosewood and the acid catalyst lacquer. Most people love it, a few are horrified. In any case, it disappears after a few years.

This particular guitar will not have a fitted pickup. On occasions when I fit one, the pickup I have found to suit arch-top instruments best is the LB6 Baggs pickup.

Parlour Guitar

At the moment I'm building another new design, a 14 fret to the body parlour guitar based on my tenor guitar body. Putting a full length scale on this short body locates the bridge closer to the tail than on a standard 14 fret Model 1 or 0, closer to where a 12 fret to the body bridge would normally go. I'm expecting this guitar to have some of the special 12 fret sound with 14 fret access - we'll see.

The soundboard is made from one of two spruce tops dating from 1973 which I came across several years ago. They're too small for Model 1s and 0s, but I couldn’t resist their age and quality and bought them anyway; now I'm so glad I did. This being a left-handed guitar, I have the other top reserved for a right-handed version. The back and sides are best scantling Brazilian rosewood.

This guitar is being built for Alex Greenberg (who also inspired my Model 0E, a very successful new design). Here it is in its very early stages.

Braces on scantling back

Rosette fitted to soundboard

Sides bent to shape sitting in mould

The 6 String Scantling arch-top and birdseye maple mandolin are out of the spray booth waiting to be strung up. They look beautiful, I'll put pictures up next time.

Scantling 6 string Arch-top

At the moment I’m building two instruments, one of which is a Brazilian scanting 6 string arch-top. Here are pictures of the back joined and reinforced, waiting for braces as well as the completed back and sides. There is a lot of extra work involved, but it’s a privilege to be working with such superb wood.

Here’s a picture of the body from the outside, looking uncluttered and simple. I think of these scantling guitars as being rather like swans: all calm and serene above water but working frantically below the surface. Maple mandolin The other instrument I’m building is a five course mandolin with birds-eye maple back and sides. I haven’t built a carved maple instrument for months, it’s a real pleasure to be working on one again.

Martin Simpson Signature model I’ve now finished MS Model #5, here’s the bridge going on. I’ve made some very minor design changes (which I’ll carry over to other guitars). I’ve changed the proportions of the head so as to increase the distance between the two tuners nearest the nut. On guitars with wider nuts, the 5th and 2nd strings were very close to the 6th and 1st string tuners. Now they’re just a little further away. I’ve also increased the width of the neck very slightly at the body end so those of you who bend strings a long way aren’t in danger of slipping off the fret. I now have orders for four of next year’s quota of MS Models, leaving another two available.

Cuban Mahogany 12fret Model 1

The Cuban mahogany guitar is now finished. It has an interesting sound, it's loud but gentle and smooth, not the dry sound you often hear from mahogany guitars. This mahogany is so much denser than most, you'd expect it to sound different. I love it, it's the kind of guitar that's hard to put down. The dark stripes on the back are echoed on the sides; the back, sides and neck are all made from the same piece of wood, giving the guitar an integrated look. I plan to build a 14 fret version some time soon.

Horticulture

I found this sunflower growing in my workshop yard. Needless to say, I didn’t plant it. It must have grown from birdseed my neighbour puts out.

Martin Simpson

Later this month Martin Simpson tours Canada (you can email him at CGCFCD@aol.com for details of dates and venues). He’s taking his new Scantling guitar (below right), as mentioned in a previous news page.

Scantling guitar

I’m building another Scantling guitar at the moment, above left is are backs and sides for two guitars joined ready for thicknessing. As well as looking good, wood like this is a complete pleasure to work with.

The Cuban mahogany Model 1 is now lacquered and ready to have its bridge fitted. Here it is just back from the spray-booth.

Truss-rods

I’ve been using a new kind of truss-rod in my last few instruments. It’s double acting (i.e. it can pull the neck either up or back) and is very compact. I need to rout out less wood than ever in order to install it. It’s also very direct, meaning you turn it less for a given effect.

D Guitar
As mentioned previously, the D guitar is strung and playing. Here are pictures. Those of the back show flashes of the green you can get when Brazilian rosewood is lacquered with Melamine lacquer.

The D guitar is built on a standard Model 1, 12 frets to the body, with two extra frets, giving a scale of 723mm (28.5”) and tuned a tone below concert. Fitting a capo to the second fret gives standard scale, standard pitch, and standard string tension.

This prototype has a European spruce soundboard, Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a Cuban mahogany neck.
Playing the D guitar without a capo enables you to accompany in a key a tone lower than the chord shape used. It also gives a very solid deep sound, good for both accompaniment and instrumentals.

As with so many good ideas, I wasn’t the first to think of the D guitar. Others have already built guitars along similar lines, notably Ralph Bown of York, England.
I’m also working on another idea. I plan to build a circle of wood connected by thin sticks to a much smaller circle in the centre. Perhaps the rolling potential could come in useful.

Martin Simpson Signature Model
The MS Signature model has the same body width and length as my standard Model 1, but is a different shape with a wider top bout and the lower bout extending further towards the tail.

Here are Martin Simpson signature Model (left) and standard Model 1 bodies side by side showing the difference. The Model 1 is 12 frets to the body, hence the lower sound-hole.

The D guitar (see previous news pages) is strung up and settling in, and sounds wonderful. The low notes have terrific power and sustain, and the mid range and treble have great clarity and presence. Here it is lacquered and waiting for its bridge, and you can see the dark lines on the neck and head. In the background is the body of the arch-top 12 string I'm working on.

At the moment I'm building two guitars, a Simpson Signature Model and a Model 1 12 fret to the body with Cuban mahogany back and sides. Cuban mahogany makes great necks, but this is the first guitar I've built using it for back and sides. It's lovely wood to work with.

Incidentally, this is one of a few sets with dark lines running down the grain of both back and sides. On my Wood and Materials page I'm looking at the large board this set was cut from. You can see the dark lines on either side of the board.

The Simpson Signature Model is also in the early stages, having just had back and sides joined.

I often want to sing just a little lower than the best key for accompaniment; in particular, F often suits me for a song I want to accompany in G. So I'm building a long scale guitar to make this possible.

It's based on a standard 12 fret to the body Model 1, with a scale extended by two frets so that it becomes a 14 fret to the body tuned one tone below standard. Capoing at the second fret brings it to standard scale and standard pitch with 12 frets to the body.

Guitars often work well tuned down; this new guitar should work particularly well, being tuned low with no loss of string tension.

Having the bridge in the 12 fret to the body position on the lower bout will give it that special 12 fret sound.

This guitar should be finished in a few weeks, I'll report on how it turns out.

Update: Making progress.

New Scantling Model 1 guitar

A few years ago I was offered some very old Brazilian rosewood in the form of scantlings, which are supplied in various lengths, each around 2 or 3 inches wide. Although in small sizes, it's some of the finest Brazilian rosewood I've come across, just too good not to turn into guitars.

This is an otherwise standard Model 1 built from these scantlings. The back is made from 6 pieces, each of the sides from 2 pieces.

It's not just tonally outstanding, it also looks wonderful, with its tulipwood binding and birdsfoot and colours trim.

I've built one Scantling guitar before, a Martin Simpson signature model prototype, which Larry Campbell fell in love with and bought late last year.

Update: Martin Simpson has bought this guitar to play alongside his Signature model.