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I am now taking orders for 40th Anniversary guitars, as announced in my previous post.  I will be building twelve in total, four are spoken for so I can take orders for another eight.

Details at
https://www.sobellguitars.com/40th-anniversary-model-guitars/

Anniversary guitars can be any of my current flat-top models, with options for soundboard wood, neck wood and binding/trim. All will be built with my CITES compliant Brazilian rosewood, and certification will accompany every guitar.

Please contact me for details and to discuss specifications.

Telephone +44 (0) 1434 673567
Email:  stefan@sobellguitars.com

In the early 2000s I built up a stock of Brazilian rosewood, famous for building special sounding guitars. As CITES legislation changed and I didn’t keep up with it, I left it on my workshop shelves for many years.  But now I have brought it up to current CITES certification.  Having sorted it into guitar sets, it’s clear I have more than I can ever use, so am putting some up for sale.

It can be seen at     https://www.sobellguitars.com/brazilian-rosewood-for-sale/

Back view, showing three piece African Blackwood back. I love the look, and there is no difference in sound as compared with a standard two piece back.

Indeed, I have built guitars with five and six piece backs, Martin Simpson’s Brazilian rosewood MS 2 model was one of these.  I was able to use lovely colourful old Brazilian scantlings, 3″ x 2″, and the guitar sounded wonderful.

There is of course a history of multi piece backs. In past centuries, when transport and shipping was not as easy as today, makers used varied woods and sizes as a matter of course.

More recently,  the Martin Guitar company introduced the three piece back D35 in 1965, so as to be able to use the narrower pieces of Brazilian rosewood they had available. It became a popular model and has stayed in their catalogue to this day.

I’ve heard it said that the three piece back gives a different sound to that of the two piece back D28, but I hardly believe this. If there is a different sound, there will be some other change to account for it.

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Today I went on line to find filter refills for my trusty 3M face mask. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but not got around to it.  Today all suppliers were out of stock.

Is this panic buying?  Or have woodworkers and others everywhere suddenly realised their filters need changing?

I find this a really good mask. I get a good fit to the face, and as well as filtering out dust, I can use superglue and acrylic lacquer and not get a hint of fumes through it.

On the subject of panic buying, a large 4X4 was recently seen completely filled with toilet rolls.  Madness.  And selfishly anti-social.

And not just difficult, dangerous for many. Many will be in despair as to how they will manage financially, old and medically vulnerable people are aware that catching this virus could be serious and possibly fatal, and the problems society faces will drastically affect everyone.  It’s a time for pulling together, and doing everything we can to help those around us, in particular those less fortunate than ourselves.

Liz and I are self-isolating, our kind younger neighbour will collect shopping for us.

Because I work alone, I am privileged in that I can continue working. Building guitars has been described, not without some justification, as my occupational therapy.  But I’m not accepting visitors until further notice, for obvious reasons.  However, shipping and courier companies tell me they are continuing to make deliveries, so I will be able to ship instruments out as usual.

In my workshop

Today I fitted back braces to the Verona model I’m building. Left is the back with reinforcement struts cut away to receive braces, right the braces are glued and clamped in the go-bar jig.  The back is placed in a mould which has the same radius as the curve I’ve shaped the braces to.

Incidentally, behind and to the right of the go-bar jig I store some of the different purflings and bindings I use.

Today I fitted cross-grain spruce reinforcements over the two back joins of a three piece back.  These are light weight and sanded to a smooth curve before fitting.

Here they are glued and clamped in the go-bar jig.  The spruce comes from soundboard off-cuts and is never long enough to cover the whole join. So each join is reinforce by two strips, one from the heel to the 4th brace, and the other a much shorter strip from the 4th brace to the tail. The join will be cut away to receive the brace, so even were that area visible through the sound hole, there would be no join to see.

The soundboards, backs and sides are now sanded to their respective thicknesses.

They will be stored on the high shelf in my permanently heated workshop until needed.