I hope you guys will join me on the guitar journey of a lifetime. I will be building my dream guitar this year. Due to chronic nerve and wrist damage, I can no longer play steel string guitar. However, due to the much lower tension, I am able to play nylon string guitars.
So, ever since December of last year, I've been planning and designing a custom nylon string crossover guitar. I am very happy that I can finally reveal the plans. What is to follow, hopefully, will be an exciting build thread that will see this guitar come to life from these two-dimensional drawings in the next few months, as I build this guitar together with master luthier Febo Waanders (
www.waanders-gitaren.com)
I will ask patience from your end though, because these things take time and I don't think I will be able to post updates more than once a week most of the time. I hope you guys will join me.
In this design, I combined all the factors that I think are beautiful in guitar design. I borrowed the bevel from Kevin Ryan, with his permission, and was inspired by some Taylor designs. All in all, it will be my ultimate guitar, both in design, woods and specifications.
I read a lot of books, saw a lot of plans of the best classical guitars and got measurements on some classic guitars of the master builders in this field. In the end, the inside, and the bracing as well as most of the construction is based on Romanillos, Torres and Hauser.
There are many reasons why this build will be special. First off, I got my hands on unbelievable woods. The back and sides will be made from a set of mastergrade Brazilian Rosewood that has been drying with a luthier friend of mine for 40 years. It’s perfect, dark, quarter-sawn and a taptone to die for. The Swiss Spruce I got has a waiting list of two years! The tuners…. well, I’ll tell more about all that later.
So without further ado, here are the plans and specifications.
Model: 12-fret Nylon Crossover with bevel and soundports
Construction: Solid Spanish heel construction
Body Size: Grand Concert 12-Fret Cutaway
Top: Master grade Swiss Alpine Moon Spruce
Rosette: Black Pearl/Mother of Pearl
Top Bracing Pattern: Custom fan bracing design
Top Braces: Solid Swiss Alpine Spruce
Back Material: 40 year old Brazilian Rosewood, Mastergrade
Back Purfling: thin 1 mm abalone
Side Material: Double Sides construction: Solid Brazilian and Solid Swiss Spruce
Binding: Flamed Koa
Top Inlay Style: Multiple Black/White Boltaron
Side and Back purfling: thin 1 mm abalone
Neck Material: 5 piece neck Brazilian Rosewood/Flamed Maple
Nut Material: Fossilized Mammoth Ivory
Headstock: Slotted Custom Design
Headplate: Solid Macassar Ebony
Backplate: Solid Macassar Ebony
Fingerboard Material: Ebony
Scale Length: 25.50 inches
Fret material: Stainless Steel
Number Of Frets Clear: 12
Number Of Frets Total: 19
Fretboard radius: 16 inches
Fingerboard Width At Nut: 1-7/8''
Fingerboard Inlays: Custom design in Black Pearl/MOP
Fingerboard Binding: Koa
Finish: Nitro
Bridge Material: Ebony
Bridge Style: Custom Design
Bridge String Spacing: 2-5/16''
Saddle: Fossil Mammoth Ivory
Tuning Machines: Custom Graf Tuners