Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone. Here is my classical number 2, just cleaned up and with it's final set of strings today. Like the one I posted back in January (#1), this is based on the GAL Blackshear/Rodriguez drawing. I'm pretty happy with the sound of this one, which came out well balanced like #1. I must have been more comfortable shaving things down - this one is a lot louder. I also think, though, that I can tell the difference between the immediacy of the notes on the first spruce top over this cedar top, and I think I like the spruce better in that regard. This judgement could be based on a lot of faulty memory, though, since I haven't seen #1 since February.

The owner bought the unserviced LMI kit for this one, so the parts are all from there aside from the WRC top which was too narrow for the immense Rodriguez body. I substituted one I had earlier from Kevin Hall. B&S, bridge, and headstock overlay are EIR. Backstrip and bindings are cocobola with b&w purfling lines. Backstrip extends over heel. Neck is Spanish Cedar.

I have to say that my French Polishing improved a lot on this one over the last. That one was embarrassing, this one is only 1/2 bad and is showing signs of getting there.

Next up is going to be a flamenco (getting FP'ed now), and then work is going to start on some Romanillos style guitars - got to get away from this gigantic body.

Sorry if the pictures are sideways - They were rotated properly in iphoto, but still look sideways in the previewer.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Absolutely beautiful!!
Looks great in the pics !
Nice workmanship also!
Keep up the good work !

Mike www.collinsguitars.com

_________________
Mike Collins

I think it's beautiful....very soon I'm going to make a classical guitar, very soon I tell you!

Greg

_________________
Gwaltney Guitars

Looks really nice, Jim!  I like the combination of the binding with the top and B/S wood.  Very clean and pretty.  Like you, I think spruce tops give a faster response - more in your face, and a little brighter.  The Cedar topped guitars I have are more boomy sounding, while the spruce is tight and much brighter, while not sacrificing the bass.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Beautiful craftsmanship ! The cocobolo is an excellent transition from the EIR to the WRC top. Thanks for sharing this !

I know this is a classical, but for some reason it looks like a nylon string dread ?

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Thanks everyone. I was pretty happy with the woodworking on this one. I do want to try a more pronounced purfling scheme on the next one(s), to push my mitering skills a little.

The FP passes the 6 ft inspection test, but not the 2 ft test

Waddy - Yes I agree. I wish I had #1 back so I could really see side by side. The next batch is going to have a cedar and spruce top growing up side by side, so I will have a more direct feel after that.

Ken - This is definitely one of the dreadnoughts of the classical world. It's a really big guitar. It doesn't fit in a classical case, but is right at home in the Access Stage 3 small body case.

Hesh - I think whichever one I'm working on right now is harder!       I have only finished 2 steel strings, and they went first. I think it took me a while to get a grasp on how much lighter the classical instrument is (or can be). I finally got there with the flamenco, which could drift off the workbench in a light breeze. Now I'm afraid that my next steel string will implode immediately.

I'm using spanish heels on the classicals, so of course the process of setting the neck is just a completely different ballgame. I think the process for the regular steel string guitar (flat upper bout, slight relief sanded in top by raising the tail, etc) is more straightforward, and essentially works correctly like a cookbook recipe should. The forward set of the neck on the classical is just more fiddly - dealing with fitting the fretboard to the not-straight line from soundhole to nut, and possible extra tapering of the entire fretboard length. Plus there is the process of sanding extra relief into the fretboard on the bass side, and, as a result, you don't have a completely level set of fret tops to dress.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Superb, Jim! I love the coco bindings. The whole look is gorgeous.

Yeah Jim, what everyone else has already said.
Pictures like that make me want to build another classical also. The steel string is my first love, but the sheer elegance of a classical is so appealing.
Thanks for sharing!

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Very very nice Jim, great looking 78 Miguel Rodriguez Jr.. Nice wood choices, great looking EIR B/S set, very elegant. Bindings blend perfectly into the heel cap and the backstrip is dead center on the heel, nice work. Neck transition to head looks great, head lams in the ramp slots also look perfectly smooth and circular, no kinks. Looks like you stuck with the plans and have the full 106-108 mm at the tail, I personally love the sound of these Rodriquez guitars, I bet it sounds great. Your client didn't want the Rodriguez head crest?

A beautiful instrument Jim. I particularly love the bindings.

Nice work!!

Thanks everyone again!

Marc - Yes, it's full depth - This design really does seem to produce a well balanced guitar.

I have another one of these at home that is a full Rodriguez replica, including headstock, and rosette from Tom Blackshear, and it has a geometry problem
that will force me to take the back off to fix. That one is for me, these others are for cusomer/friends, so the repair job for me is languishing.

The headstock on this one is actually a deliberate about face from a more ornate Spanish style - I'm trying to start to find my own style choices. The cocobola binding was one step that way - this was another. I need to design my own rosette, which would take it in a more modern style commensurate with a plainer headstock, but I just can't find the time to sit and design a mosaic to my liking.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Very nice Jim!

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Here's a shot of the bracing pattern on this one, for those who are interested and don't know it by heart. Clamped to the Courtnall solera.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

A very lovely instrument, indeed, with a very deep body. I wish I could hear it!

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Very nice. I like the color combinations and especially like the elegant headstock design.
Your pictures are fine but large (I am on dialup)