Buendia Double Trouble

[Howard F.]

Hi everybody,

I have not one, but two wonderful Leo Buendia builds to share with you guys! The first one is for myself and the second was ordered by an old client of mine, and he agrees to let me share his build along mine. So here we go!
Long post alert, so for those who only want guitar goodness, skip the next part and go direct to guitar spec for guitars and photos!

Background story time
Back in 2016, I made one of the most important decisions in my life and that’s leaving U.K. and move to U.S. to pursuit my path in lutherie (that proven to be my best decision in life up to this point!!). So for those who remember seeing Julian Gaffney and I back in 2017 Woodstock show, that was the year I moved to the State. And during this amazing journey, I was so lucky to have many people who guided me and supported me. Among those people, a couple gentlemen never hesitate to pass on their knowledge to me and helped me in so many ways I can never ask for, these people and their friendship will always hold a special place in my heart. While being a luthier (especially an apprentice…) pretty much means I won’t have extra cash in the near future to buy anything other than wood and bread. But when all the stars align...I just can’t pass on the rare opportunity to have a special project with each of them to commemorate their friendship and mentorship. The first of them was built for me by Julian Gaffney and Leo is next along this series.

I first met Leo’s work in 2015 and if my memory serves me well it was a Mod-d in Euro spruce/Birdseye maple - Man what a powerhouse that was. For those who played Leo’s guitars knew how balance and articulate they sound. Later on as I moved to US, as lovely a man as Leo is, he kindly allows me to tag along him to numerous guitar shows and provided the materials and knowledge to guide my first independent build after I graduated from lutherie school. And typing this build thread just bring back so many amazing memories… Well, if you read to this point, thank you!! Enough talking, now go back to guitars…

Guitar Specs
Since Leo already knows what I want in a guitar, and we have the same aesthetic preference, spec out the guitar was a breeze. I told Leo the ergonomic, scale lengths I need and we spent an afternoon picking out the back and side, then he pretty much handles the rest.

We already know it’s going to be an OM, 12 fret fan fret, ready to sing Celtic in drop tuning at any given time with my (unfortunately) super light-handed playing style. So here’s some important spec of my guitar, and I’ll post my client’s guitar in the next post.
- Swiss moon spruce / Brazilian rosewood
- 25’’ – 25.75’’ scale length
- Rosewood neck
- Carving segmented rosette

With the guitar being already halfway through, I’ll slowly update the threat every day! This will be the first batch of guitars coming out of Leo’s new workshop in Berkeley, so we decided to put up a new rosette design to make things even more special. Now let’s play a little game, I want to see which of the following carving designs you guys like the best, leave a comment and I’ll reveal our pick tomorrow!








Oh, and how dare me to leave you guys hanging without showing the BRW back first…Enjoy!

[Howard F.]

I don’t want to leave you guys waiting for me while I slowly update my build, so here’s my clients guitar spec and all progress photos to date. Hopefully I'll get to play this one before it goes to its new home in the summer!
- 14 fret OM cutaway
- Adirondack spruce / Flamed Honduras mahogany
- Broken Segmented rosette

Leo picked an adi top out of his “Randy Lucas special stash”, now I’m all jealous…I mean look at that even grain!




Leo's signature rosette in greenish blue burl


The Flamed honduras mahogany back


Now just look at that figure with some shellac on....

[Hanter]

Congratulations Howard! Leo's instruments are really top notch and you surely know how to pick a stunning set of BRW. The specs are also very delectable, I will be following along with great interest.

I like the second rosette best...

[Jamiejoon]

Now we're talking! LEO! I wish there were more Buendia build threads on here. Leo is a terrific human being, and he builds incredibly good guitars. I feel profoundly fortunate to own one.

And WOW, that set of BRW. Exceptional.

[iim7V7IM7]

Howard I will be watching (congrats)

[nootis]

Very nice Howard. Looking forward to following along. Leo is one of the best of the best in both lutherie and being human.

[Guitars44me]

Double Trouble indeed!

Can't wait for more...

Congratulations and ENJOY

Paul

[justonwo]

I saw your rosette in person today. It's stunning. Congrats!

[Deft Tungsman]

Two guitars by Leo Buendía, in other words, Buenos Días.

Thanks for sharing!

[Howard F.]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Double Trouble indeed!

Can't wait for more...

Congratulations and ENJOY

Paul

Thank you Paul! I'll keep on posting every day, stay tuned!

Originally Posted by Hanter

Congratulations Howard! Leo's instruments are really top notch and you surely know how to pick a stunning set of BRW. The specs are also very delectable, I will be following along with great interest.

I like the second rosette best...

Thank you Hanter. Leo's work never fails to impress me and one of these days you should also see his wood locker...if there's a BRW heaven, it'll be Leo's wood room!

It's hard to just pick one rosette LOL! I almost want to have two sound hole, or should I just get a soundport rosette...

Originally Posted by Jamiejoon

Now we're talking! LEO! I wish there were more Buendia build threads on here. Leo is a terrific human being, and he builds incredibly good guitars. I feel profoundly fortunate to own one.

And WOW, that set of BRW. Exceptional.

Thank you Jamie! We are the lucky handful to own such incredible instruments, feel free to post some photos of your Buendia if you want to, I'd love to see it!

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

Howard I will be watching (congrats)

Thank you Robert!

Originally Posted by nootis

Very nice Howard. Looking forward to following along. Leo is one of the best of the best in both lutherie and being human.

Thank you nootis! Agreed, I'm so grateful to be able to call this man a friend!

[Howard F.]

Originally Posted by justonwo

I saw your rosette in person today. It's stunning. Congrats!

Thank you Juston！Did you get to try it as a glorified cajón?

Originally Posted by Deft Tungsman

Two guitars by Leo Buendía, in other words, Buenos Días.

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Deft. It's always a good day when I get to see updates from 2 Buendia guitars regularly...

[Howard F.]

I’ve always been a huge fan of those chip carving style rosettes, so we have a pretty clear vision that this guitar is going to have some sort of carving rosette right at the beginning. But those regular ones are a bit too wide and bulky for my taste, so the first thing Leo and I agreed on is to make the width of the rosette narrower.

Other than chip carving, I’m also deeply attracted to Leo’s classic segmented rosette and those Somogyi-esque blowout/broken rosettes. So every now and then I dream about a segmented or broken chip carving rosette. However, since I’ve never seen Leo made one before so I never pop the question…Until one day, we were casually talking and Leo said “I have an idea I want to show you – I’m not sure if my previous clients will like it so I never made it. Tell me what you think.” Then he showed me a rough drawing of his regular carving rosette but half replaced by segmented inlay. And the rest, as they say, is history…

Since the carving parts are so fragile, those two resin segments had to be put in place first to prevent chipping the carving and ruin the whole top. The reason we chose colored resin instead of the more common dyed burl is because those vibrant colors from dyed burl tends to get darken quite a lot after being finished and we want to keep the vibrant color. In this case colored resin won’t have the same issue. Plus, I feel like I’ve seen too many burl decorations and I just want something refreshing – those colored resins have some interesting grain pattern that I happen to like.











After the resin blocks were put in, Leo starts the one week long, delicate carving process. One slip of the scalpel then we will have to fly back to the moon and source another set of moon spruce…





Lastly but most importantly, Leo melted down some Kryptonite that he brought from eBay (which almost always guaranteed to be master grade stuffs) and infused the rosette with it – he claimed this will increase the tone by 27.591%. Well, who am I to question the man…





And voilà, hope you guys enjoy!

[Nemoman]

WOW--I can't even begin to imagine the level of artistry it takes to pull off a rosette like that! It looks fantastic--glad that another trip to the Moon wasn't required!

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by Howard F.

Now let’s play a little game, I want to see which of the following carving designs you guys like the best, leave a comment and I’ll reveal our pick tomorrow!

I'll pick the last rosette design.

Update: Just saw your new posts. Looks like I picked the right one.

And here's the rosette on my Buendia Jumbo (for some reason Chrome won't display my image but it shows up fine in Safari & Firefox. Go figure.) Here's the URL for the image.

Originally Posted by Jamiejoon

Now we're talking! LEO! I wish there were more Buendia build threads on here.

I agree, and here's mine from a few years ago.

[TomB'sox]

Wow, these builds are beyond words really, I love those carved rosettes! I am so excited to meet Leo and play his guitars this September!!! Very excited.