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#136
11-17-2018, 07:59 PM
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I find myself well into a second week of unexpectedly dry conditions. At the same time, I am in a highly motivated work phase, simply loving my time in the shop. So I did what I can do, I started a pair of single 0 guitars just 'cause. One will be from the Pernambuco I acquired a few months ago, and the other is still undefined except for having an Adirondack top sourced from Carl Barney in Woodstock a few years ago.
I also started a violin in case the dry spell continues. Since there are no cross grain braces in a fiddle, I can wade into it as deep as I like in these conditions. I nearly bought a Cremonese violin while I was in Italy, but balked at the price. When I got home I discovered that one of the violins I have here has a sound which seems very close to the one I am still pining for in Italy. And it is a violin I made myself in 2003, which inspires me to make another, which will be my 7th, if I complete it. 
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#137
11-18-2018, 10:01 PM
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What a great NCAL meeting at Kenny Hill’s shop in Felton, CA. There were about 30 of us (including 4 women!) and we were somewhat out from under the fire smoke canopy.
Actually, the westerly winds have commenced a couple of days ago and air quality has shifted from very harzardous to merely hazardous, and rain is on the horizon. Humidity has just today risen from 13 days of 31% and I saw 32% today, finally. There were a few new people at the meeting, and most strikingly, Fred Carlson (google him if you aren’t familiar) showed up, and I hadn’t seen him for years. Mostly, The meeting was about Kenny showing off his shop (six person) and waxing philosophically about his thinking and how he got to where he is. His classical guitars are really very nice, and a relatively affordable alternative to the traditional European stuff, and levels above the Chinese/Japanese guitars I see people talking about here in the forums, mostly. Like myself, he has been at it life-long, and really deserves serious attention.
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#138
11-19-2018, 01:21 PM
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Here's the Pernambuco back for the first of the 0's I've started. It will be trimmed in Pernambuco as well, but with a different shade. The scraper shavings are from the backstrip, and are an example of the dye stock I used to color the Schoenberg that is currently curing.
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#139
11-19-2018, 04:30 PM
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Pernambuco
Those shavings are precious! The stain on the Schoenberg is PERFECT in my not so humble opinion!
Love the violin story! So cool that you like the one you made and it sounds like the European one you wanted!!! Haha "Love the one you are with" Paul
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4 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS: Big Maple/WRC Dread(ish) Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC Big Tunnel 14 RW/Bubinga Dread(ish) R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro 96 422ce bought new! 96 LKSM 12 552ce 12x12 J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut More
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#140
11-19-2018, 06:11 PM
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Quote:
I have long held the possibility that it is not just the hours of play that makes an instrument "play in", but also the quality of the play, the style of the player and the quality of the tone generated as well. This would be a good reason for a player to play in their own instrument, and also a reason why some instruments known to have been favored by the greats actually seem better than other similar instruments, especially to people who play well enough to be able to notice it. For instance, I sold a guitar to Joe Satriani who played it regularly for 2 years and then sold it back to me. Something undefinable about that guitar made me seem to be able to play faster and cleaner on it than on any of my other comparable guitars. I actually felt the guitar seemed to coach my playing, and even now that the benefit continues, though the guitar is gone. If the preceding does play in reality, then it ought to be a strike both for and against the development of my #3. For because it was me playing, and against because, like most beginning violinists, I was terrible for quite a while.
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#141
11-20-2018, 07:07 PM
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The Humidity remains largely absent, so I am forging ahead with the fiddle. This top is Engelmann spruce and was a gift (I paid shipping) from one of our forum cohorts a couple of years ago. I haven't noticed his posts for a while, and hope he'll chime in as his handle escapes me at the moment.
This is relatively hard work for me, and I am taking a break to post:   
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#142
11-20-2018, 09:35 PM
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I accidentally posted those last pics as high res, sorry about that (if you looked), and I fixed it.
Here are the ribs on top of what will be the back. The Maple is from a tree I cut myself in a back yard in Mill Valley CA, and the corner blocks are catalpa, which I also harvested in Mill Valley at another time. The liners are Port Orford Cedar from some 2 x 6 decking I have had lying around since about 1980! It is clear and sold at the time for just over a dollar a foot so I bought enough that I still have a 16 footer in the shed despite using it for all sorts of cool projects over the years. 
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#144
11-20-2018, 10:51 PM
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Quote:
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#146
11-27-2018, 05:37 PM
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I couldn't help but notice my Violin and Classical guitar posts were not getting the attendance statistics I am used to. So I started a thread for the classical in the appropriate section, not so far away. And then the humidity tanked.
I have had normal range humidity in the shop for 6 days now, and today I have resumed work on the classical. Not entirely coincidentally, yesterday I closed the fiddle and it can be sidelined for a while. Here is the fiddle in its current condition, and later today or tomorrow I will show you the classical: 3 days ago:  ten minutes ago:  
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#148
11-27-2018, 08:47 PM
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As you may have guessed, I plan to use the Pernambuco juice to color this somewhat more deeply than the Schoenberg, including the top. Then, if it's as good as I hope, we'll have to wonder if it's me or the P? And if it's less than hoped for, I'll have something to point at outside of the mirror.
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#149
11-28-2018, 09:43 PM
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Here's the classical guitar I making as of the end of Wednesday. I have had some luck bringing techniques I have learned in SS over the wall to the nylon brethren, and that is happening here. The neck is Cuban Cedar, a first for me.
 
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#150
11-30-2018, 07:59 PM
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Having just carved a violin, I am amusing myself by carving the classical guitar's headstock not only entirely by hand, but also without any templates, expecting to eventually have a close facsimile of bilateral symmetry. This might be around 93% of the way there:
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