JOHN BUSCARINO Nylon String "Hybrid" (Carpathian/Honduran Rosewood)

[iim7V7IM7]

I have commissioned a "Cabaret" nylon string hybrid model made by North Carolina luthier John Buscarino (http://www.buscarino.com/). I was fortunate to be able to audition one locally, albeit in differing woods and was very impressed with its tone and feel.

People usually think of John Buscarino as one of the premier US archtop guitar luthiers (which indeed he is). John started his career in archtop luthiery by apprecticing under Bob Benedetto for 2-years from 1979-1981 and has been a custom archtop luthier for the last 30+ years. But what many people may not know is before apprenticing with Bob, he also apprenticed for a year under classical guitar luthier Augustine (Augie) LoPrinzi in 1978 where he learned about traditional classical guitar construction. Before that, in his youth, John was also trained as a classical guitarist. So designing a nylon string guitar focused at the needs of jazz players was a natural melding of both his luthier and musical training. One of my favorite nylon string jazz guitarists Gene Bertoncini also happens to play one of John's nylon hybrids. Here is a clip of Gene playing his Caberet:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7iB-3kHtU

I believe that John has been making this model for well over 20-years now and as you can imagine, the design has "evolved" based upon the growth of the luthier and the natural process of optimization over many builds. John designs these guitars with a carved backs like his archtops, but thinner to enhance the lower mid-range and projection of the instrument. The Cabaret model started out much more akin to a traditional Herman Hauser classical guitar design in its size and bracing and over the years has become a slightly larger and deeper instrument. Its top bracing system has also evolved from Torres style fan bracing to lattice bracing (example shown below)



John has also gone on to making a lot of double tops (e.g. spruce/nomex/cedar) with this model, but I really wanted a conventional spruce top on my guitar (call me a luddite).

Here are the guitar specs:

Model: Cabaret
Body Width: 365 mm (14-3/8")
Body Depth: 95 mm (3-3/4")
Top: Bear-Clawed Carpathian Spruce
Bracing: Lattice
Sound Hole: Elliptical
Rosette: Celtic Knot, Snakewood/Ebony/Abalone
Back/Sides: Honduran Rosewood
Binding: Birdseye Maple/Ebony Purfling
Cutaway: Venetian
Sound Port: Fleur de Lis
Neck: One-Piece, Quartersawn, Honduras Mahogany, Flush at Cutaway
Truss-Rod: Two-Way, Head-Plate Accessed
Fingerboard: Ebony with Ebony Binding, 762 mm (30") Radius
Scale Length: 648 mm (25-1/2"), 12-Frets to Body
Frets: 20, Stainless Steel
Tuners: Rodgers L315, Snakewood Elliptical Buttons, Black String Rollers
Head-Plate Veneer: Brazilian Rosewood with MOP "B"
Neck Width: 49 mm (1-13/16")
Nut: Bone
Bridge: Brazilian Rosewood, with Abalone Inlaid border in Tie-Block
Saddle: Glass Epoxy (with integrated transducer)
Pickup: Barbera Soloist
Case: Hiscox Pro II

We decided upon a spruce top over a cedar top for a crisper, clearer tone (my preference for this one to contrast the cedar topped classical I have commissioned) with chordal work. Yes, it will take longer to open up, but once "there", it it should what I was looking for. Here is the top set of bear-clawed Carpathian Spruce set that we chose to use in is build. It was originally sourced from John Preston at Old World Tonewoods (OWT), so it comes from the Carpathian mountains in Romania. I coincidently have had two other guitars built by other luthiers with Carpathian Spruce Tops from OWT (highly recommended). John only uses wood sets that have aged in his shop equilibrating for a minimum of 5-years, but most sets shown to me were actually decades old.



John carves an arched back on these instruments with the goal to enhance the guitars's midrange and projection. After discussing my goals, he recommended three different dense, glassy, low damping/high Q woods (African Blackwood (ABW), Cocobolo and Honduran Rosewood). After reviewing the sets, we chose this set of HRW because I did not like the extra weight or look of the ABW and I already had a Cocobolo instrument in my gypsy.

This is a 20-year + old, quartersawn Honduran Rosewood (D. Stevensonii) back set. This set is much thicker than the sets frequently shared on this site order to create a carved arched back. The two plates are about 18 mm (0.700") thick so John can carve an arched back. It is dense (>EIR, <Cocobolo) and has a glassy ring tone to it when tapped.



Once carved, it will be about 3.5mm (0.140") in the center of the arch where the plates meet and down to 1.8 mm (0.070") at the recurve near the edges of the plates where they meet the sides. Unlike a flat top, there will be no ladder bracing. Like an archtop, the structure comes from the arch itself (example shown below).



John typically uses Gotoh 35G510 (16:1 ratio) tuners which mechanically are “top-notch” tuners. On a classical slotted headstock where tuners play a larger aesthetic role, I decided that it was worth doing something "special" so we are ordering these tuners from Rodgers to match John's wood Celtic knot rosette design. The snakewood buttons will tie into the snakewood knot in the rosette.



More when I get it....

[StringMeUp]

I love this stuff!

Congratulations on your new commission. Thank you for sharing. The Rodgers Tuning machines are a great choice!!

[Steve Kinnaird]

Nice looking Honduran! That should work beautifully with the Carpathian.

Steve

[iim7V7IM7]

Thanks Steve...

I am hoping that the stiff Carpathian and glassy HRW guitar from John will be a nice contrast to the cedar and cherry classical that Peter is building for me.

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

Nice looking Honduran! That should work beautifully with the Carpathian.

Steve

[iim7V7IM7]

Thanks...

Yeah, Rob makes beautiful tuners and this was a bit of an indulgence but what the hay...

I am hoping that John's celtic knot rosette in snakewood reversed into ebony with thin abalone edges will tie into the engraving pattern in Rob's plates.

Originally Posted by StringMeUp

I love this stuff!

Congratulations on your new commission. Thank you for sharing. The Rodgers Tuning machines are a great choice!!

[iim7V7IM7]

John sent me a note that he has began to build my nylon hybrid.

Here is the Honduran Rosewood (Dalbergia stevensonii) back set being glued up. You can see how thick it is (~3/4") and that it is beautifully quartersawn to allow John the thickness to carve an arched back.


Here is the Honduran Rosewood side sets being heated up, preparing them for bending followed by the sides being bent around a body form.




The Venetian cutaway being clamped in a body mold.


John has been working on a new rosette design for me for the elliptical sound hole. Here is a prototype of a celtic knot rosette design.

[TimL]

That will be a Dream Guitar. Please keep the pictures and updates coming.

[jaymarsch]

Very nice! I look forward to following this one to completion! Such nice details.

Best,
Jayne

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

Very nice! I look forward to following this one to completion! Such nice details.

Best,
Jayne

Thanks, we're still a long way out (March/April 2015) but John is working on some aspects of the build in advance. I do see the occasional nylon and hybrid build here, but they are few and far between. I think it is a style of guitar that many fingerstyle steel string flattop players would enjoy.

I am really looking forward to seeing the honduran rosewood get carved into a arched back. Taking the ~0.700" quartersawn set down to ~0.140 " in the center to ~0.070" at the rececurve. We are so used to seeing ladder braced backs here. Seeing a ribless back will be interesting. As I receive updates, I will pass them along.

[iim7V7IM7]

John received the tuners from Rob Rodgers today. The celtic knot engraving on the plates and the snakewood buttons should tie into the celtic knot theme that we have planned for the rosette.



You can see the black rollers with integrated roller bearings.



More when I get it....

[iim7V7IM7]

John had clamped together the Honduran Rosewood billets in preparation for rough carving on his ShopSabre CNC Router.



Here you can see just how thick the two back plates are on the CNC bed Were the body profile has been established.



This the inside arch being hogged out on John's mill.



After the inner arch is hogged out the back is turned in the vacuum fixturing and the outside arch is now carved by the CNC.


Here is the rough carved back closer up out of the CNC router.

[iim7V7IM7]

This is the heating blanket John uses to bend the sides. It consists of two rubber strips with heating elements inside and two metal strips to conduct the heat. The side wood is then placed on aluminum foil and sprayed liberally with water so that the wood will be more pliable for bending purposes. The wood is then wrapped up in the aluminum foil and placed on the bottom half of the heating blanket (one metal strip on the bottom and then one rubber strip on top of that).



The top of the heating blanket (the rubber strip on top of the wood and the metal on top of that) is then placed on top and clamped to keep it together for when John puts on on the bending press. The whole piece is then placed in the bending press and is slowly bend and clamped until it reaches its desired shape. You have to go slow or the wood could crack, you have to gently guild the wood until it yields and then let it sit in the press for a bit so it holds it shape when you remove it.

[iim7V7IM7]

The kerfed lining is cut up into the proper sides pieces and then glued and clamped into place. John has the sides ready, and the kerfed linings cut to length, the clamps and glue (tightbond) and are now ready to glue the kerfing onto the sides. John does the bottom linings first and work his way around the sides. Each piece is glued in place and then clamped. Once one entire side is done it sits for a couple of hours to dry before the next step can be done. Once the glue has dried its time to put in the side braces. These are cut to length and placed in the spaces we left in between the individual kerfed lining pieces. The braces add stiffness and stability to the sides.



The braces are in and the clamps have been removed. John is now ready to put kerfed linings on the top side. The top kerfed linings are installed onto the top half of the sides, fitting the individual kerfing pieces in between the braces until its complete. The kerfed linings and braces are now complete and it is ready for the top and the back to be glued on.

[iim7V7IM7]

John forwarded me some photos of the guitar's rosette today. The elliptical rosette shown below has a maple celtic knot set into a snakewood background with abalone purfling. You can see how this has been designed to compliment Rob Rodgers' tuners with their celtic knot engravings and snakewood buttons.

[Bluewyatt]

After 6 months of searching I finally found/purchased a Buscarino Cabaret with a 1 7/8" nut width, EIR/Engelmann. What a fabulous guitar - and the Barbera pickup is magic! John is an inspired builder and a wonderful person to boot. I'm excited about your build! It was nice to find a forum mate who was also homing in on one of these gems. Keep us posted!