7 April 2008

MS prototype

I’m putting the finishing touches to my latest prototype instrument, a Martin Simpson model with several experimental features.

It has an Adirondack soundboard, modified soundboard bracing, African Blackwood back and sides, and a Madagascan rosewood neck.

My usual policy is to introduce only one change at a time, giving me a good idea as to the effect it has on the sound. Introducing so many means it will be harder to say which of the changes makes a particular difference. But on this occasion, enthusiasm overcame logic.

I have admittedly built all these features into previous guitars, but mostly only once. And conclusions drawn from a sample of one are unreliable.

I should have an idea of how this guitar will sound in a couple of weeks.

5 April 2008

David Wilson has been lacquering my instruments for around 25 years. If lacquering is a black art, David is the magician.

With increasing environmental and health awareness, lacquer has changed over the years and application techniques have had to keep up. Instrument finishing being such a specialist branch, lacquer manufacturers aren’t much help; finishers have to work out the new techniques for themselves. David excels here, mostly because he cares so much about his results.

The latest change to the lacquer was the most dramatic, when mid way through 2006 all lacquer became 2007 compliant. The new lacquer is acid catalyst melamine as before, but is much more environmentally friendly. Simply sprayed onto furniture it can probably be used in the same way as earlier lacquer; sprayed onto guitars, flatted and burnished, it behaves very differently.

Because his existing system gave rise to all sorts of problems, David spent long and frustrating hours sorting new techniques and methods. I can vouch for this, we had frequent long phone discussions about air bubbles, lacquer pitting, lacquer not drying, not hardening, generally just not behaving itself. Not that I had much to contribute, I was mostly the sounding board for David’s ideas.

Finishing instruments is still tricky, still requires absolute concentration and care, but the heartening end to the 2007 compliant lacquer saga is that David is now getting better results than ever before.

It’s a credit to his expertise, patience and determination.

David finishes and re-finishes other instruments too. His reputation is such that those wanting the best work sometimes travel hundreds of miles to reach him.

A bass player himself, he also builds electric basses. As with all his work, these are works of art, absolute perfection.

David can be reached on +44 (0) 7951 710626

1 April 2008

One difference between the old and new lacquers is that the new 2007 compliant lacquer is less tolerant of the lemon oil I used on fingerboards for many years (see my news item 11 July 2006). If overspill isn’t quickly wiped off the new lacquer, it can mark it permanently.

I’ve been looking for a suitable replacement ever since, trying various nut and vegetable oils. Fingerboard oil should ideally waterproof the fretboard without completely permeating it, should leave a pleasant matt gloss, and should not damage lacquer at all.

I’ve recently come across ‘Squirroil’, an exotic (and unfortunately expensive) oil which fits the bill perfectly. Made from the scent glands of grey squirrels, it is both inert and completely non toxic. It is also environmentally friendly in that it is a completely recycled product; grey squirrel carcases (culled because of their threat to native UK red squirrels) would otherwise be incinerated.

Squirroil is available from www.verminproducts.com/squirroil4uin 5oz and 20 oz bottles. It can also be obtained from Martin Simpson’s product range at www.martinsimpson.com.

21 January 2008

W.I. Talk

I recently talked to the local Whitley Chapel Women’s Institute about guitar building. They were thoroughly involved, asking questions throughout the talk and many more at the end.
I’d taken some side bending photos to use as part of my presentation, and while they’re not strictly news, here they are.

I start by quickly bending a side to approximately the correct shape on the electrically heated bending pipe. Then it goes into the Fox bender (old version, heated perfectly satisfactorily by three light bulbs) for around 30 mins, before the power is switched off and the side left in place overnight. The next day the side should be close to the correct shape but I take it back to the bending pipe to get it exactly right, so the slightest pressure holds it snug against the mould.

The wood is damped for the first two stages (though not soaked) and if necessary, also damped for the final stage.



Here are the sides joined at the heel and tail, and then in the mould ready for fitting the back.

Audition

Whilst Rens and Martin Simpson seem not to be following on up their musical collaboration (news item 30 September 2007), Martin fell in love with and bought the New World guitar. He plans to use it at home and for writing songs rather than playing on stage.

Martin playing New World guitar

Rens walking above Devilswater

Neck shaping

Again, not really news, but here are pictures showing how I shape a guitar neck.

Neck marked out, shaped first with spokeshave, then with rasps

Shoulders taken off with rasp

Neck taken to final shape with fine file

Neck sanded smooth, working down through the grades

Looking at these pictures brings home to me how time consuming a method this is, when all factory and many luthier made guitars are shaped by (sometimes CNC controlled) routers. Along with most other aspects of my guitar building, this system can appear unnecessarily slow and painstaking.

But there are distinct advantages to building this way. I can easily adapt each process to give the specification asked for by the customer. Also, I’m watching the wood and how it works so I can make allowances for, and adapt to, different wood characteristics.

There’s another less direct benefit. The time spent working with and looking at the wood, and concentrating on the instrument I’m building is often the time when I have ideas and insights into construction and design.

Martin Simpson can be seen this coming Friday on ‘Later with Jools Holland’. He will be singing ‘Duncan and Brady’ and playing his Mk 1 Sobell Martin Simpson Signature model.

And after the program has gone out, he can be seen on the ‘Later’ website singing ‘Never any good’.

Brian Miller from Edinburgh had a hotel chair collapse under him while playing in an Edinburgh hotel. The Model 1 he bought new in 1987 suffered soundboard and purfling damage. The repair was complicated by the dark colour of the soundboard; any mismatch in levels when joining the cracks would show up as a sudden colour change.
The repair went well, so not only is there no colour change, but also the cracks themselves (on either side of the lower bout, a couple of inches in) are not visible from more than a foot or so. Here is Brian with the repaired guitar.

New World guitar and Hayseed Dixie

The Madagascan rosewood necked New World model (news item 1 Oct 07) worked out really well and John Wheeler (of Hayseed Dixie) has taken delivery. It’s fitted with a Highlander under saddle pickup; John plans to use it on live gigs as well as for recording. ‘It really rings’ he said as soon as he picked it up.

All these months after injuring my hand (news item 5 June), it is now almost back to normal. While I’ve been able to work at a reduced pace, the one procedure I’ve not been able to manage is carving arch-top soundboards. This means I’ve been concentrating on flat-top guitars and have built no mandolin family instruments or arch-top guitars. My apologies to those kept waiting as a result.

Different woods

As well as the Brazilian rosewood neck fitted to a recent MS Signature model, I’ve built two New World guitars with European spruce sound boards. They made an interesting comparison with the Adirondack topped NWs I’ve built before, having a more subtle sound but not quite the same punch. Both good, but clearly different.

The Brazilian rosewood necked MS has a remarkable sound, with a bright treble and a smooth bass. I like it a lot.

As a follow up, I’m building a New World model with a Madagascan rosewood neck and a Carpathian spruce soundboard.

Madagascan rosewood is stiffer than mahogany and has much of the ring of Brazilian rosewood. Carpathian spruce is an Eastern European red spruce, related to Adirondack (North American red spruce). The Carpathian has an unfashionably wide grain but is stiff and light and has a deep, musical tap-tone.
I aim to combine the bright smooth sound of the rosewood neck with the punch and warmth of red spruce. I’m hoping for great results, but the proof of the pudding is of course in the eating. And the eating will have to wait a few weeks until the guitar comes out of the spray booth.

I’ve been talking to John Wheeler of Hayseed Dixie about this guitar, and I’m building it with him in mind.

After many years I have finally built my jig for preparing soundboards and backs for joining. It consists of a metal straight-edge, a shelf for a router to run along, and a simple system for locating the wood to be straight-edged.

The photos show how holding the router guide against the straight-edge and moving it along its shelf straightens the side of the wood clamped in position. The two halves of the soundboard are clamped down together and machined in one pass; smaller pieces (as used for scantling or four piece backs) must be straightened individually and are held by a low clamps fastened into the board. They are low enough that the router base can pass over them.

The router cutter used is a large diameter straight sided cutter.

This replaces my previous system of passing the timber over a jointer – not always easy to control with such thin wood.

Brazilian rosewood neck

At the moment I’m stringing up two octave mandolins and a Martin Simpson model guitar. This guitar is unusual in that it has a dark old Brazilian rosewood neck, built from the same stock as the Brazilian used on scantling guitars. Below is the neck both before and after carving.

Minor Injury

While playing tennis a few weeks ago I fell and hurt my hand. While not a serious injury, it kept me off work for a week or two and is still hampering me. I can only apologise to those of you waiting for instruments.

Tailpieces

The tailpiece hold-up is over at last. Here are the first to arrive, two each of mandolin (still to have pins fitted), cittern (also octave mandolin and bouzouki) and guitar.

The guitar tailpieces are made up of the anchor plate (attached to the tail of the guitar) and the string plate hooking onto the anchor plate.

Spring weather

This was the view from my office window at around 7am

The same view a few minutes later