Joel's Allegro Classical Finds Its Way Home

Yesterday Joel came to my house (he lives just a few miles away) to pick up his new Engelmann Spruce and Honduran Rosewood Allegro Classical. It's so gratifying to be there when my customer gets to try out his new guitar for the first time. Joel played some Bach and "Cavatina", gave the guitar a careful looking over, looked up and smiled and said "Deal!" What fun! As you can see he obliged to appear with his new instrument in this Shop Report installment. Thanks again, Joel! :)

Tim's German Spruce and Ziricote Baritone is Ready for Finish

I've completed construction of the neck and bridge on Tim's German Spruce and Ziricote Baritone and completed all the careful finish sanding, detailing and surface preparation to get it ready for finish. One of the more interesting carpentry challenges to guitarmaking is achieving a good neck joint. Nothing is square, and nothing is straight, but the joint should be tight, perfectly aligned, and rock solid. Of course once you learn your methods it becomes very familiar and relatively easy and fun. Shaping the neck is great fun too. Tim asked for a slim and round profile to the neck. Under finish that bloodwood trim is really going to pop and look beautiful next to the spruce top and the dark gray ziricote. :)

Tim's Baritone Soundbox is Complete

Over the last few days I've completed construction of the soundbox of Tim's German Spruce and Ziricote Baritone. Dramatically figured ziricote like this is just so beautiful! It's especially fun to look at when you get a set that bookmatches very symmetrically like this. Tonally it's fantastic as well. Something about it reminds me a little bit of walnut. Of course it's harder and denser, but it has a similar courseness to the grain structure. As you can see I've routed the channels for the bloodwood binding and glued that in. I've also compeleted a first round of finish-sanding on the body. At this point I'm leaving the top a little thicker than it will finally be. The last thing I do when I'm preparing an instrument for finish is to very carefully thin the top, especially around the perimeter of the lower bout, until I really like what I'm hearing when I tap on the box. So that's a ways off, but essentially construction of the soundbox is complete now, and I'll be moving on to the neck next. More soon! :)

Tim's Baritone Soundbox is Assembled

Over the last week I've made good progress on Tim's German Spruce and Ziricote Baritone. I've braced the top and back plates and glued them to the rim. I like to use a slightly large bridge plate because I feel that enhances the crispness and sustain of the trebles. In the last shot here you can clearly see the Manzer wedge ergonomic feature built into this guitar, where the guitar is slimmer and more comfortable on the side where Tim's arm will rest over the lower bout. Next I'll be routing the binding channels and gluing in some beautiful red bloodwood binding. More soon! :)

Tim's Baritone In Progress

Last week I finished the rim for Tim's German Spruce and Ziricote Baritone. One particular aspect of this part of the process that takes special care involves precisely preparing (by sanding) the edges of the rim so that they are shaped properly to join with the back and the top of the instrument. This instrument incorporates the Manzer wedge ergonomic design feature, where the depth of the instrument graduates so that it is thinner on the side where the players elbow rests over it, and thicker where it rests on the players lap. As you can see I've also cut out the top and back plate to shape, slighlty oversized for trimming after assembly. More soon! :)