From the Bench Fraulini Guitars

New X Braced, 14 Fret Models

2012-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've had a few requests for some X braced, 14 fret guitars over the past few years. I've built a few X braced, 12 fret Larson copies, but for the most part what I do is ladder bracing. I've also made a few 14 fret ladder braced guitars. I've been wanting to build more X braced guitars, figuring that there are enough things that I do differently (hide glue, varnish finishes, domestic woods, relatively light bracing etc), and I've been curious as to how those things would apply to X braced guitars.

I've also been gradually moving away from making copies of things and letting my different influences melt together (the same approach that I take to playing music), figuring that I'm ready to start making instruments that are my own. There are some folks out there making great reproductions of vintage Martins and Gibsons, and it would take me a while to get to where they're at, and I don't want to be stepping on anyone's toes. As a result, I've started taking some of my existing models, comparing them with great vintage guitars, and coming up with something new.

The first guitar like this that I built was a 14 fret Anunziata. I had a request from Hubby Jenkins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops for something that was comparable to an old Kay that he had been playing. The Kay was similar in size to the Annunziata, and it was ladder braced. Hubbie wanted 14 frets to the body so I started drawing up some plans until I came up with something that I was happy with. I gave it an inlaid pickguard and a whale tail bridge to make it look distinctive. I used some nice flamed birch for the back and sides hoping that it would give it a dry sound with lots of bite. It came together wonderfully.

I built a second one at the same time with all the same features, but with a black top instead of natural. The black top made the red and green purfling pop, as well as the pickguard. Taking a trick from Orville Gibson, I left the flamed birch back and sides unpainted and decided to stain them a deep cherry red. In my mind, the look of that guitar takes the cake. They both look great, but the black one really does something for me.

The second 14 fret model that I've built is the Angelina. I've had a couple requests for L-00 type guitars, as well as for a Martin 00-18. I have a 00-17 in my collection, and a friend lent me an early 30's Gibson L-00. I've done a lot of comparing of the two of them, picking things I like about each, as well as things I didn't like. I drew a dozen or more sets of plans until I came up with something that I liked. I recently finished the first one and I'm very happy with the way that it turned out.

For this first one I used red spruce for the top and Madagascar rosewood for the back and sides. It has an inlaid pickguard, whale tail bridge and red and green mosaic purfling. It also has a solid peghead, which is a first for me. I'm looking forward to hearing it open up, but so far it sounds great. I can't wait to make more of them, experimenting with the bracing and different tonewoods.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod

2011-10-29T06:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a great video of Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod tearing it up on the Leecan and Cooksey tune,

Cold Mornin' Shout

Milwaukee Ukulele Festival

2011-09-23T12:10:00.001-07:00

I'll be heading to the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival this weekend with a new uke and some guitars. If you're in the area, come down and say hi. There will be a lot of great players there and it promises to be a good time.

Cleaning the Shop Sale.

2011-09-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

I've been cleaning out my shop and clearing space for new guitars and equipment. I've pulled out some things to sell. If you're interested in anything, would like to see more pictures, or have any questions, please email me, todd at fraulini dot com.

Angelina 12 String- I made this guitar earlier this year to bring to summerfestivals. The top is Sitka Spruce, the back and sides are paduk. The neck is mahogany and the fingerboard and bridge are Madagascar rosewood. The pickguard is inlaid into the top. French polished varnish finish, Golden Age tuning machines. The lower bout measures 14 5/8" with a 26 1/2" scale. It is 2" at the nut and the action is currently set to 1/8" on the bass and 3/32" on the treble. It is lightly built and was intended for lighter gauge strings (.011"-.060"), tuned to C#. With my standard set (.013"-.066"), I'd tune it to A. It has a great sound. SOLD

Erma buit by my apprentice- My apprentice, Cyrus Brown-LaGrange, built this guitar in 2010. It is a copy of an Oscar Schmidt made Galiano. It has a red spruce top, birch back and sides, poplar neck, Madagascar fingerboard and bridge, Golden Age tuning machines, varnish finish. It is 13 1/2" at the lower bout, 1 3/4" at the nut. The action is 3/32" on the bass and 1/16" on the treble. It's a well made, great sounding little guitar. SOLD

30's Stella Decalomania Concert guitar- All birch with a tailpiece, 13 1/2" at the lower bout with a 24 7/8" scale. It is 1 3/4" at the nut. The action is 1/8" across the board. It is a sturdily made guitar, fairly clean.
$600

1930's Slingerland Guitar- Made by Regal. Spruce top, mahogany back and sides. X braced, repaired top crack, replacement bridge, new frets. 24 7/8" scale. Great sounding guitar. The case was painted up by the original owner "Texas" Eddie Gabe of the Red River Ramblers. $700

1920's Bluebird Guitar- Most likely made by Harmony. All birch with a crystaline finish. Very clean and all original. 2 repaired back cracks. It is 12 5/8" at the lower bout with a 24" scale. The action is 5/32" across the board.
$200

1920's Slingerland Decal Guitar- Most likely made by Regal or Stromberg Voisinette. Spruce top, birch back and sides. Painted fingerboard, replacement ebony bridge. 13" at the lower bout, 24" scale, 1 13/16" at the nut. Action is 3/32" on the bass and 1 /16" on the treble. New Golden Age tuning machines. 3 repaired top and 2 repaired back cracks. Plays well, sounds good.
SOLD

1940's Harmony mandolin- All birch flat top and back with f-holes. Two repaired top cracks. Clean shape, all original. Action is 1/16" across the board. It is sound, plays well and sounds good.
SOLD

Pickguards and Faux Tortoise

2011-07-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

The vast majority of the guitars from the time period that I focus on, from 1900 to the mid 1930's, didn't have pickguards, though some of the fancier ones did. As a result I haven't made that many instruments with pickguards. I have had an occasional request and I've put on quite a few clear guards which give added protection but aren't highly visible. I have been fascinated by pickguards though and the materials which they have been made out of and have been experimenting with them increasingly over the past year, even making some of my own faux tortoise material.

In the very old days pickguards were generally made from the shell of tortoises. I have a couple old bowlback mandolins with genuine tortoise shell guards and while it is beautiful stuff, it has many drawbacks, mainly that tortoises need to be killed in order to get it. It also fluctuates greatly with humidity and is prone to cracking and warping. It fell out of favor in the late 1800's, I'm not sure if that was related to some sort of tortoise conservation sentiment or to increasing costs. I assume it was the latter (These days it is highly illegal to make anything with genuine tortoise shell). As a result substitutes for tortoise were developed in the late 1800's.

Some of the substitutes were made from casein, a protein and bi-product of milk, others with celluloid nitrate. Pickguards on instruments tended to be of the celluloid variety and had their own drawbacks. First, they are highly flammable and I'm told that many of the plants that made it ended up exploding. I believe there is one plant in Italy that still produces the stuff. Second, it tends to decompose and can eat away at finishes. While many people still like to use it because it has "the look", it's a little less than ideal.

A few luthiers have developed their own versions of faux tortoise, principally John Greven and his Tor-Tis materials. John has done a wonderful job of recreating the look of genuine tortoise shell, as well as many of the patterns that the Italian companies made from celluloid, which showed up on some of the great vintage instruments. The modern substitutes are made from material which are not volatile like celluloid, are more stable than either tortoise shell or celluloid, and are also much more environmentally friendly than the other two options.

A few years ago, after making a guard from some of the Tor-Tis material, my mind started to wander as to how one could go about making something similar. I thought about it for quite some time and had some theories going through my head before I started experimenting. When I finally did give it a shot I was pleasantly surprised, but my mind started to wander even more, thinking of patters, shapes, possibilities etc. I did quite a bit of experimenting before I was happy with what I was producing. I won't go into the process or the materials, but I would like to share photos of some of what I have produced and show how I've put it to use.

I've really enjoyed experimenting on this new front, and I look forward to making more guards in the future. In addition to protecting the finish and the top, they look great and really add to the personality of the guitar.

Shellac

2011-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Shellac is the primary ingredient in the varnishes that I make and use. I dilute the shellac in grain alcohol and mix it with resins. I like working with shellac for several reasons, mainly because it is a natural product and is not harmful to my health like many of the other finishing options on the market. While it's not the toughest finish in the world, it's easy to repair and bring back to life, it looks great, and it ages wonderfully.
A friend recently passed along this video on the harvesting and processing of shellac. It's fascinating and informative. Mr. Velji, who made the video, really knows his stuff. If you're interested in a good source for shellac, or on learning how to French polish, I would highly recommend his site shellacfinishes.com, where he sells a variety of grades of shellac, as well as a DVD on the process of French polishing.

Francesca at Retrofret

2011-06-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished a Francesca 12 string which is currently for sale at Brooklyn's Retrofret, one of the finest vintage guitar shops in the country. The guitar has a red spruce top, mahogany back and sides, ebony fingerboard, Brazilian rosewood bridge, Stella repro purfling and a repro tailpiece, which I made. It was built with fresh hot hide glue and has a French polished varnish finish. The scale length is 26 1/2", with strings from .0013" to .0066", it is intended to be tuned down to B or C. It's a great guitar, the closest thing that you will find to an old Stella 12, for 1/4 of the price.

Celebrating Seven Years

2011-05-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, I celebrated seven years of self employment. I'm extremely thankful that I have a very patient wife and supportive family. I'm also grateful to the many customers I've had over that time. I really couldn't have done it without you all. I sincerely appreciate your support.

When I started this venture, many friends thought it was a little crazy to quit a fairly good job as a carpenter and project manager for a general contractor to build guitars in my garage and sell them online. People who knew about guitars thought I was crazy to focus on ladder braced instruments, and many luthiers thought I was crazy to French polish them and to use domestic woods and hide glue. Well, maybe they were all right, but I've had a great time along the way and not a single regret.

I've learned a tremendous amount in the past seven years, met many great people and built some fantastic instruments. I hope that the blessings continue for a long time into the future as there is much more I'd like to accomplish.

Salud!

New Angelina 12

2011-04-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

I recently finished an Angelina 12 string that I'd been wanting to make for a while. It was inspired by the work of Raphael Ciani and Antonio Cerrito, two of my favorite luthiers of days gone by. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to build it.

The top of the guitar is red spruce. The back and sides are mahogany. The bridge and fingerboard are ebony. The bridge pins are bone with a "French eye", very sharp looking. I had the tuning machines custom made by a machinist in Germany. He did a really wonderful job. They are beautifully handmade. I made the mosaic purfling about a year ago. It's made up of three pieces, a black and white checker, a red/white/green/ black diagonal checker, followed by another black and white checker. The guitar is assembled 100% with hide glue and the finish is a French polished varnish of my own recipe.

It's a joy to look at and to play. With the 26 1/2" scale, tuned down to B, it really puts out a lot of sound.

New Ermida

2011-02-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

After having made a batch of purfling based on the stuff the Larson brothers had used, my mind had turned back to the Larsons and more specifically to my Ermida model, which is a copy of their Stahl Style 6. My Larson obsession renewed, I had to get an Ermida out of my system.

I had not built an Ermida in six years, during which time I've learned a few things and I wanted to put some of them into practice. When I made the first one, I made the best guitar I could at the time. I tried to make a faithful copy of the Stahl, and I think I did a great job. That said, there were a few things that I always wish I could have changed. So; Why put off until tomorrow what you could do today?

A few things about the Ermida model. First, it is named after my great aunt Ermida Fraulini-Gardella. Ermida was probably the fanciest of the seven Fraulini sisters. She was the first to leave the Missouri coal mining town where she grew up, heading for Chicago. She loved opera and spoke "proper" Italian. My family lived with her for a little while when I was a kid. I have very faint memories of her. My Ermida model is the only X braced guitar that I currently make. I named it after her because she was a classy trailblazer, characteristics she shared with the Larson's instruments.

Onto the Larsons, Carl and August Larson worked in Chicago from around 1900 to about 1940. They are thought to have made around 3000 instruments in that time. That's about 75 instruments a year, which is a very large number for a two man shop using traditional methods of construction. It is even more impressive when you consider the variety of instruments they made and that a number of these instruments were very ornate and some of the finest, most unique creations of that era.

While the instruments that I typically build are exercises in minimalism, structurally speaking, Larson's are on the other end of the spectrum. They are sturdily built and made to last. Some of their models have metal rods running from the end block, through the body and wrapping around the heel of the neck. They were some of the first builders to X brace their guitars, use laminated braces and to build tops and backs "under tension" (radiused in layman's terms). While the builders I am primarily influenced by built instruments to breathe and flex, Larson's built theirs to stay put. They are an exercise in rigidity. But, they still sound great. Just going to show you that no matter how much you think you know, you'll never figure it out.

For wood, I decided to use some old German spruce that I had. Its tight grain was very close to the stuff on the old Stahls I had seen. For the back and sides, I had some Madagascar rosewood that I had been wanting to use on something special, and I figured this was the perfect project for it. Another thing that I wanted to do was an inlaid pickguard. I have been experimenting with making pick guard material and this was a chance to put some of it into practice. The guitar was assmebled 100% with hide glue. For the finish, I French polished a spirit varnish as that seems like the closest finish to what the Larson's would have used.

The guitar turned out wonderfully. With the purfling and the pickguard it looks great and the sound is fantastic. It's loud, full and extremely present. It's not quite as bright as an old one, but I have to confess that I did build it a little lighter. I couldn't help myself. I'm looking forward to hearing it as it opens up.

Purfling

2011-01-19T03:50:00.001-08:00

My friend Tony Klassen is a guitar collector turned builder. Tony has been collecting rare and fine instruments for about 30 years and he has a very intimate knowledge of some of the greatest instruments that have been made in this country. A number of years ago Tony started building guitars. Due to his insight into the old classics, he had a pretty good leg up on the competition. His company is A rk New Era Guitars. Check him out if you haven't already.

One of the things that Tony has set about doing is to make replicas of all the guitars John Fahey played throughout his career. He has made a copy of the Ray Whitley Recording King and most recently the Bacon and Day Senorita. His Senorita model is absolutely spectacular. In both looks, playability and sound. A great feat for a one man shop.

Among other things, Tony has a healthy obsession with the instruments of Carl and August Larson of Chicago. The Larson Brothers worked together from about 1900 to 1940, building somewhere around 3000 beautiful and very unique instruments. It was a Larson guitar that set Tony down the path which eventually led to instrument building. He has become the go to repair guy for Carl Larson's grandson Robert Hartmann, and has built many great Larson replicas for Robert.

Though not as devout, I share in Tony's Larson obsession. A number of years ago, my friend and teacher Wil Bremmer at Spruce Tree Music showed me a couple Larson guitars and lent me Robert Hartman's book "The Larson's Creation". I was really amazed at the amount of instruments the two brothers had made, the variety and the quality. As a result, Wil lent me a 1926 Stahl Style 6, as well as a 1929 Stahl Style 6, which I used to make my Ermida model.

On a recent trip to visit Tony, the conversation inevitably led to the Larson Brothers. From there, it eventually led to one of the purflings that the Larsons used. Being a fan of guitars of the early 20th century, I know a thing or two about purfling. I use lots of the stuff and have ordered it from most of the major suppliers. I've also made my own, a process which took quite a bit of figuring and is a lot of fun, though quite tedious. Anyway, I opened my big mouth and said that I could make a batch of the purfling for Tony. This was all true, I could in fact make the purfling, but it was also probably against my better judgement as it would require a bit of time and tie up a portion of valuable bench space in the shop. Nevertheless, it would be a good exercise and would keep my purfling chops up.

The vast majority of purfling in the old days came from Germany, where families honed there skills and developed tools to make really exquisite stuff. These days much of the purfling still comes from Germany, but there is at least one American manufacturer, Michael Gurian who is an incredibly knowledgeable figure and force of nature in the guitar building world.I started making my own because the dollar was down on the euro and it was a hassle to order from overseas and I didn't want to use any of the stock patterns that were available from luthier supply companies. My friend Federico Sheppard gave me the basic instructions on how to make it and I was off and running before long. I've made a handful of batches of purfling, some historic designs, some of my own design. They help to keep my instruments unique and give me a little more connection to them. They do require time to make though.

Back to the Larson purfling which I had offered to make for Tony. The first matter of business was to determine the pattern for the purfling. Tony provided me with some very detailed photos of purfling from an early Stahl guitar and we went back and forth emailing our takes on the pattern. It turned out that the mosaic portion in the center of the purfling was made up of a repeating pattern of 27 veneers. The veneer that I work with are generally 6" wide and 36" long, so if you can imagine half a deck of cards of those dimensions, you can get an idea of where I was starting.

After laying out the pattern of the veneers, I glued them up into a long block. After the block was glued, I slice it into a bunch of small angled pieces. I then glue those angled pieces into a long block, off of which I can slice thin cross sections which will become the mosaic portion of my purfling. After each slice, I glue a piece of veneer back onto the mosaic block, which will serve the dual purpose of acting as a border to the mosaic and will also hold the mosaics together while I scrape them to the proper uniform thickness. It is an incredible amount of gluing, slicing, scraping and waiting. The reward is that you end up with a pretty good pile of purfling which you can't get anywhere else.

After I had made up the first bunch of purfling, I ran a piece down to Spruce Tree Music to compare it to the stuff on Wil's old Stahl. The result was right on the money and I wish I had taken a picture. I was more than happy.

I'm keeping enough of the stuff to make a couple more Ermidas and I'm sending the rest down to Tony, figuring that he's doing such a great job on the Larson end of things, I can fulfill my curiosities by asking him. I'd just like to get a couple more out of my system first.

New Model- The Silvio

2011-01-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, a friend in Italy turned me onto the guitars of Luigi Mozzani. Mozanni was a virtuoso guitar player who eventually began making guitars, harp guitars and mandolins. There is alot of great information on Mozzani and his instruments on Gregg Miner's fabulous site, harguitars.net. Here is a link to the article on Mozzani.

One of the shapes that seemed to be very inspirational to Mozzani kept popping out to my eye. A double cutaway, which I eventually learned was referred to as a "wappen", or shield guitar. The shape seems to have been developed in the early 1800's and used primarily by luthiers in Vienna and Munich. Oftentimes the soundholes were places on opposing sides of the fingerboard. I think that the reason for this was to create a larger sound board, something like what Francisco Simplicio did with his D hole guitar.

After returning to the Mozzani article several times, I found myself making drawings of a six string wappen guitar. I think harp guitars are cool and all, but I hadn't heard any music played on them which really inspired me (That has all changed now of course, but I'm not going to get into that here). I figured that a six string would be much more practical for my purposes. While I liked the idea of the soundholes on the side of the fingerboard, I initially opted to for a more standard soundhole placement. Eventually it evolved into an oval soundhole, partly to get a little more soudboard.

Originally the wappen guitars were on the small side, around 12" at the lower bout. I wanted to go a little bigger, so I kicked it up to a 000 size, right around 14 3/4" at the lower bout. I also pulled the waist in a little tighter and put a bit more of a curve in the cutaway. I wanted it to be easy and fun to play, so I opted for a 24.9" scale length.

I finally had a period where things calmed down a bit and I was able to put a little time into building a prototype. There were a few little challenges along the way, but it went together fairly quickly and smoothly. I was very anxious as to what it would sound like. Initially the sound was a bit off. In the first day or two, it sounded like someone was sitting next to me, playing exactly the same notes that I was. As the days went on and it got more playing time under its belt, it really began to open up. It started to get louder and the sound looser. I was very pleased with how it was turning out.

Reactions to the new guitar have been mixed. As a friend in Texas put it, "Man, that new guitar is f*%@!ed up", Others have remarked that it looks like a Selmer Macaferri. As it turns out, Macaferri was the star pupil of Luigi Mozzani and he incorporated some of the same elements into his designs. I've had a couple friends who are great players come to the house to check out the guitar. They are initially a bit reluctant toward the unorthodox shape, but they are quickly won over by the sound and the feel. While the cutaways don't allow for optimal access up the neck, they do allow you a little more room to work.
Overall I'm very pleased with the way that the guitar turned out. Pleased enough to make it a regular model, and to name it after my great grandfather. I'm looking forward to getting it out into the world and hearing what other folks think about it. I'm sure it will continue to evolve as I make more of them, but for now I'm glad to have resuscitated a great design from a bygone era

Tis the Season to Humidify

2010-12-11T05:52:00.001-08:00

This post may be a little late, but it's better late than never. This is the time of year that you really need to pay attention to your instruments. As winter settles in and the air dries out, it is very important to humidify your guitar(s).

Most guitar makers keep their shops at around 40%-50% relative humidity. Guitars built under these conditions will handle extremes on both ends of the humidity spectrum the best. That's not to say that they can survive unscathed. As humidity goes up, wood expands, which can cause glue joints to pop loose and wood to pucker. As humidity goes down, wood shrinks and things crack. Neither one is good, but drops in humidity are usually a bigger concern, especially during this time of year, when many of us live in cold climates and keep a heater going in our home. With a forced air furnace set at 70 F, humidity can drop below 15%, which is almost guaranteeing that your guitar will crack.

Your guitar will usually send you some signs that it is getting dry before it cracks. The first sign is that the fret ends start sticking out. This happens because the fingerboard is drying out and shrinking, but the metal frets aren't, so the ends will feel rough on the edge of the fingerboard. If you get a second sign that things are getting dry, it may be some buzzing that wasn't there before as your action will start to drop. I wouldn't wait for any second signs, I'd start to humidify the guitar as soon as I felt the fret ends poking out.

For maintaining humidity there are several methods. You need to figure out which one will work best for you. It's good to start with a humidity gauge so that you can tell what sort of results you're having. Because I have several instruments in the home and shop, I keep a room humidifier going in the shop and one in the house, in the room where I keep instruments. I set it so that it maintains 40% humidity. These humidifiers work great and in addition to keeping the instruments happy, they make the room more comfortable for me as well. They usually cost between $30 and $70, which is a bargain compared to getting a crack repaired or the unsettled feeling you get when your favorite instrument cracks.

Some folks like to use instrument humidifiers, like Dampits. These work well if you only have a few instruments and keep them in their case. You need to keep on top of them and make sure that they are charged with water. I used to use them regularly and occasionally do still, if I'm going out of the house with a guitar, but I currently have too many instruments to make them practical.

One friend with a wood stove keeps a big pot of water on top of the stove. He has a small place and it seems to do the trick for him. Not all of us have the good fortune of having wood stoves.

One word of caution, don't depend on humidity systems that are connected to a furnace, like an Aprilaire. These units use a large amount of water and don't necessarily do an effective job of humidifying the air of your home. In my mind, they are a false sense of security. I think that a small room humidifier will do a much better job, and use a lot less water in the process.

So, do yourself and your instruments a favor and start working on humidity control. If possible, get a humidity gauge and a room humidifier. If you're always on the go with your guitar, get an instrument humidifier like a Dampit (or even something as simple as a damp sponge or washcloth in an open plastic bag kept inside the case). You will save yourself a lot of headaches and heartache.

Guitars and tomatoes

2010-11-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

My apologies for being delinquent on the blog updates. It's been a busy summer and things are just now starting to calm down.

My family and I spend our summers gardening and enjoying the outdoors. One of our goals has been to put up as much food as possible for the long winter. We kept three gardens this year one in the backyard, behind the shop, one at a community garden, and a large one out at a friends farm, intended for low maintenance storage crops like potatoes, onions and squash. We put up about 150 lbs of potatoes, 300 heads of garlic, 50 squash, a dozen pumpkins, 15lbs. of sauerkraut, gallons of tomato sauce, applebutter and jam. Next weekend we get a pig from a friend and I'll make salami, bacon and prosciutto with one of my brothers. That is when the fun will really begin. All of this hard work has given my mind ample time to wonder, or wander.

When I was a kid, my folks raised a lot of our food, which partly explains why I have the desire to do the same with my family. I also grew up next door to an apple orchard, and some of my earliest food memories are of going out and picking apples in the orchard. I always loved the apples from that orchard the best. They weren't always the prettiest things, some of them were downright gnarly, but their flavor could not be matched. They were three dimensional. An extravaganza of flavor. I remember at Christmastime, my uncle Frank, who was a fruit wholesaler in Chicago, would always bring a fruit basket that was full of the shiniest, most gigantic fruit that could be had anywhere in the world. I'd immediately set my eyes on the apples, a perfect candy apple red softball sized fruit with a high polish like they had been under a buffing wheel. I'd sink my teeth into them and be immediately struck with disappointment. Their texture was mushy and their flavor was nonexistent. They paled in comparison to the apples that we'd pick at our neighbor's orchard.

I planted my first vegetable garden in my early 20's when I worked as a gardener on an estate, in exchange for rent. I had a surplus of tomatoes that year and I wanted to learn how to make sauce from fresh tomatoes. I went to a family reunion and figured I'd ask a bunch of old Italians how. Everyone gave me the same answer, "Why would you want to do that?" They all said that I should make my sauce from canned tomatoes. It would take me too long to make it from fresh ones and I wouldn't be able to get the consistency that I'd get from a canned tomato (I should add that many of these folks made gnocchi, a potato pasta, from instant potatoes, rather than the real deal, but, I digress). Being a respectful young person, I didn't question their logic. I made my sauce from a can and my few attempts at using fresh tomatoes fell short. Years later I learned how to make sauce from a fresh tomato, and I realized how wrong they all were. I can't say that my sauce is better than my grandmothers or any of my aunt's or uncles, that would be sacrilege, and if the Lord didn't strike me down, one of my siblings or cousins would. All I can say is that canned sauce lacks the same depth and intensity as the highly polished apple. With the fresh sauce, you can taste the sunlight and the earth. It is a transcendental experience.

These days I'm a tomato fanatic. I put in about 40 plants each year, hoping to beat any disease or bad weather that may jeopardize the crop. There is no such thing as too many tomatoes, so it is better to be safe than sorry. Our home becomes a tomato processing station during the late summer. When we have the time we oven roast the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and spices and then pass them through a food mill to get some of the best tomato sauce that can be had. When they are really coming in, we simply stew them and then can them, and when they are really really coming in, we freeze them whole to use them later for stews, soups or sauces. We'll use up every last one before next year's start to come in.

I have found that I can't bring myself to buy a "fresh" tomato from the grocery store. If I did I'd face the same disappointment as I did with the apples when I was a boy. The grocery store tomato is not bred for flavor, it is bred primarily for shape, color and shelf life. It is nothing to celebrate. I'll wait it out, until I can pick my gnarly fruit from the vine and use it as I see fit.

What does any of this have to do with guitars? Well, that's a good question. People have gotten hip to good food and it is a good subject to draw parallels with. The best chefs realize that you have to start with fresh, good quality ingredients to make a good dish, and people are gaining a new appreciation for fresh local foods, supporting local farms and farmers markets. But, there is a learning curve to working with all this stuff. It's not as simple as going to the farmer's market, buying some fresh produce, bringing it home and everybody's happy. You have to learn to work with it, and your taste buds have to get used to the real flavors. Once that's accomplished, there's no going back.

Often times people stray away from traditional methods because they seem cumbersome, take too much time, and don't always get consistent results etc. Maybe that's true sometimes, maybe at times they lack patience. Certainly not all traditions are good. But the further we stray, we lose a lot of good stuff in the process. You have to first learn the traditional methods before you can say that they are a waste of time.

The more I dig into traditional methods of instrument construction, the more I learn. The more practiced my hands and mind get at working together, the better and quicker my work becomes. I learn about ingredients and methods from people who have kept these traditions alive, I find out which ones work for what I am doing and incorporate them into my practice. I've found that once you have these methods down, they are as quick and efficient as "modern" methods, and often produce better results. As an exercise into how quickly I could build a guitar using traditional methods, I recently made one in four days. From joining the plates to stringing it up. I cut no corners. I used all hide glue, hand cut the inlays and French polished the finish (which was a combination of bug excretions and tree sap dissolved in vodka). It is a great guitar.

In short, if you can learn to judge an apple or tomato using your taste buds more than your eyes, your whole self will thank you. If you can learn to judge an instrument with your ears rather than your eyes, you will reap the same reward. Presentation is important, but it is not the key.

The Apprentice

2010-07-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

For the past two and a half years I've been training an apprentice, Cyrus Brown-LaGrange. I met Cyrus almost twenty years ago, back when I used to play music on the street. His mother worked at the Farmers Market and he used to come by and listen to us play. Before long I was giving him music lessons in exchange for home cooked meals. Since then he has become a very close family friend.

A few years back, Cyrus and I were talking and he expressed some interest in building an instrument. I invited him out to the shop and started him out on a ukelele. I was impressed with his follow through and ability to stick with a project. Cyrus is a guitar player and understands how things are supposed to work and feel. He also has a natural gift for working with his hands, something that many people lack.

In the past two and a half years Cyrus has built a handful of ukeleles and about ten guitars. He's turning into a very good luthier and his work continues to improve. Not long ago I asked him to build two copies of an old concert sized Oscar Schmidt made Galiano that I have. I wanted him to focus on getting the old look down and to hone his craftsmanship. We decided to do one in white oak and one in birch. I wanted him to build them very traditionally, using all hide glue, with a varnish finish and he did a really great job.

Both guitars have red spruce tops, poplar necks with modified V profiles (the oak one has a truss rod), rosewood fingerboards and pyramid bridges and Golden Age tuning machines. The oak one is a little warmer and probably a little more suited for John Hurt style picking, while the birch one is a little more resonant and a little more raspy, probably better for Delta style blues, or playing behind a fiddler. They both sound and play great, putting out a lot of punch for new guitars. They are both currently available so email me if you're interested for more details or pictures.

Birch 12 String

2010-03-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

For the most part, I try to build my guitars like the old ones, but standards and expectations have changed a lot since the old days and I think that in order to sell guitars, the workmanship has to be a lot cleaner than it was in the old days. Not that I judge my guitars by the same standards as some of the small and medium shops of the day. When I look at a lot of the stuff that comes from some of the small and medium shops, it looks flat to me. It doesn't have the depth of the old stuff. So many modern builders rely on CNC technology that their instruments are more hand assembled than hand made. Some folks think they look great, but I don't see a lot of distinction between some of the high end American makers and some of the stuff being made in China.

Enough of the ranting.

Occasionally I have a desire to build something "like an old guy", build a great instrument but without the attention to details that is expected of the modern luthier. Don't worry about cleaning out every little bit of glue on the inside of the box. Don't worry about pencil lines on the inside of the box. Don't worry about filling every single pore in the wood, and push the limits in terms of the lightness of the construction. I had a very rough winter and needed something a little cathartic to distract me.

Pat Conte is one of my favorite musicians alive today. Pat plays both blues and old time hillbilly music equally well, and he has mastered a variety of instruments, including fiddle, mandolin, banjo and six and 12 string guitars. He's a great singer and interpreter of old music. I had talked to Pat a while back and he said he was interested in a BBQ Bob style 12 string. It seemed like Pat was the perfect fit for the kind of build that I wanted to do.

I started out looking really closely at the photos of BBQ Bob, trying to figure out if there were any details that I had missed from previous viewings. Judging from the shine on the sides of his guitar, it looked like birch with a heavily tinted finish. I had some nice flamed birch which I decided to use for the project. I also had some nice diagonal checkered purfling that I made last fall that would give the guitar the perfect old time look. For the top I picked the gnarliest set of red spruce that I have ever seen. The grain was very tight in the center, then turned to wide, then tightened up again. It had some irregular steps in the grain that gave a bearclaw effect, but was very close to being knots. I also decided to go for a poplar neck (not truss rod) with a flat fingerboard and very small mandolin frets. The old guitars had much smaller frets than they do now and were equivalent to modern mandolin wire.

At a certain point the guitar departed from being a straight BBQ Bob copy and took on a life of its own. I've been into the whale tail bridge lately and decided to go that route on this one, with six pins instead of 12. I also considered a "ebonized" maple fingerboard and bridge, but decided to switch to rosewood as it would be an improvement to the sound and feel.

For the finish, I used button lac, which is the rawest, least refined variety of shellac. It has a deep orange color with lots of impurities that add to the character. It's probably the closest thing to what was used on the old inexpensive instruments. I put a bright white binding on the guitar, and let the finish give it an aged tint and pool up in areas, something you always see on old instruments. I gave both the birch back and sides and the poplar neck a brownish red stain to simulate mahogany. I strung the guitar with my standard gauges, but with round core nickel strings instead of bronze.

I'm really happy with the way that the guitar turned out. I built it in about half the time I usually spend on an instrument, and because it was built so lightly and had such a light finish, it really roared. Every time I do a project like this, it gives me a little more insight into the past. I get to try out some different techniques and see if I'm on the right track in terms of what the old guys were thinking and doing. I'll look forward to doing more like it in the future. Plus, it went to one of my favorite players!

Thanks to John Heneghan for the video and to Frankie for being the test pilot and delivery man.

So Long Pop.

2010-03-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

After a long battle with cancer, my Father, Orlando Dominic Cambio, a.k.a. Champ, a.k.a. Fred, passed away on February 11th. He spent his last month in hospice, at his home, with is family providing much of the care. Three days before he died, he and my mom celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.

My father was a brilliant man. He spent most of his life working as a mechanical engineer. He had 14 patents granted in his name and another 7 which were granted in the name of companies he had developed them for.

He always said that an engineer who didn't know how to use a hammer or a wrench wasn't worth much. He practiced what he preached. He was a great mechanic, cutting his teeth on his first car, a Model A Ford, at the age of 12. He built a few hot rods in his teens and twenties before getting his engineering degree. He always worked on his own cars to keep his mechanical mind sharp. I remember when I was a teenager, he disassembled a Fiat transmission, cleaned it, replaced some worn bearings and put the whole thing back together again without ever looking at a manual.

When I was a kid, my folks bought an old dairy farm. My dad refurbished the whole place, and in the process honed his skills as a carpenter, mason, plasterer, plumber, electrician, and architect. When I was working as a carpenter, I remember being impressed with his abilities as a self taught trim carpenter, not to mention the fact that he had shaped many of the mouldings and trims in our home.

My folks were a little to old to be hippies and went back to the land before it was a movement. In addition to four kids, they raised chickens, ducks, geese, lambs, steer, a few ponies and a couple of horses. He kept bees and we made cider in the Fall. It was a great way to grow up and I'm grateful that my folks had the courage and abilities to make that leap.

I should also add that, with four young kids in the home, my father made the very bold move of becoming self employed. He worked as a consultant for over 30 years. He could have made a much more comfortable living had he stayed with one of the companies that he had worked for, but it was more important for him to spend time with his family.

My father was proud that I eventually ended up making guitars. He always liked the fact that I played music, though I'm not sure he could relate to it. He could relate to working with your hands, building something that was well thought out and honing your skills as a craftsman. I had the good fortune of working with him on making the tailpieces that I'm using now. If it hadn't been for his contributions, I never would have been able to pull it off. I remember taking the plans that he had drawn for the tailpiece to the machine shop that made the die. Four machinists surrounded me and asked, "Who did your plans?" I wasn't sure what they were getting at so I asked, "Why, is there a problem?". "Not at all. They're beautiful," was their reply.

My dad was the tech guru of the family and the day after he passed away, my computer died. I had lost all of my photos, business records, email contacts etc. After getting over the major frustration that this entailed, I realized that he had taken the hard drive with him so that his Luddite son would be forced to get a little more tech savvy. With the help of my brothers and a couple friends, I was able to recover the lost files, replace the hard drive, reload the drivers and get the computer up and running again. In two short weeks I finally feel a little bit of competence when it comes to computers.

I can't say enough about my Dad. He was a really great man. Never talked down to anyone, never gossiped. For the most part he was very quiet, and when he did say something, his words were very measured and they cut to the chase. He provided all of his kids and grand kids an example to live by.

So long Pop. And Thanks.

Finish

2010-01-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

I've been in the process of finishing guitars and have been thinking a lot about finishes lately, so I thought it would be appropriate to write a little on the subject. I'll try not to get too geeky or technical.

Finishing is the most tedious part of the guitar building process and I'd consider it the most frustrating. It seems like, at any moment, things could go terribly wrong. That's one way to look at it. You can also look at it as the most rewarding as things seem to come to life. The finish brings out the grain and figure of the wood and adds depth and character.

There are all kinds of finishes on the market today and most guitar makers use types that they spray on. Some use water based finishes, some used catalyzed lacquers, some of the folks who build traditional style instruments use nitro cellulose lacquer. Nitro Cellulose lacquer became popular in the 30's and remained the main finish through the 1980's. It goes on very nicely and each coat melts into the next. It flows out nicely and gives good color to the work. The downsides are that it cracks over time and it is extremely toxic and flammable. I have used lacquer in the past but have stopped, mainly because it makes me physically ill and I don't want to have anything that is that combustible in the shop. I also don't want to blow the exhaust fumes all over my neighborhood.

I'm always trying to figure out the ways that the old guys did things, and finishing is no different. From working on a wide variety of pre 1935 guitars, it seems like most of the old builders used varnishes or shellac. These finishes were applied either with a brush, or by a process called French polishing (which is a lot like spit shining a shoe).

Shellac is a resin which is secreted by a bug called a lac beetle. Folks in India and Thailand collect that resin and process it and turn it into flakes. The flakes come in a variety of colors, ranging from a very blond amber to a brown orange. The flakes are dissolved in alcohol and that is what is used as a finish. Shellac is great for a variety of reasons. First off, it is completely non toxic (I usually add the flakes to 190 proof vodka, Everclear). Second, it provides wonderful color to your work. It can turn a fish belly white spruce top into a beautiful pumpkin color and make things look instantly old. Third, it dries very quickly and is easy to apply and work with. Finally, it is very easy to repair, as long as you know what you're doing.

The downside to shellac is that it doesn't hold up to water. My response to this downside used to be, "Don't get your guitar wet." I have since learned that some folk's sweat can cause the shellac to get a little rough, and occasionally you are caught in a rainstorm, in a foreign country, with a guitar, and despite the fact that it's in a case, it can still get wet and the finish can get damaged. It can also be difficult to find the materials needed to repair a shellac based finish in a foreign country. How do I know this? It's a long story and I'm not going to get into it now.

Shellac does eventually harden and become more resistant to alcohol and water, but that takes a very long time. Like 20 years.

Varnishes come in two different kinds, spirit based and oil based. Spirit refers to alcohol and technically speaking, shellac is a spirit based varnish. Usually though spirit varnishes are shellac based with other resins added to them to make them more flexible, and heat or water resistant. Spirit varnishes can be applied with a brush or by French polishing. They dry very quickly and you can apply several coats in a short period.

Oil based varnishes are not as quick to dry as spirit based varnishes. As a result they need to be applied with a brush (some folks apply them with a spray gun), and more time is needed between coats. The up side to this is that the varnish flows very nicely and it also provides more protection than a spirit based varnish.

For a long time I French polished my guitars, first with straight shellac, then spirit based varnishes. This was very time consuming but it was perfect for working in a small shop with no ventilation and the results were terrific. As I gained more experience, I started looking into different options that provided a little more protection. I briefly used lacquer, but as I said, it made me sick and I didn't like the thought of using something that toxic.

I've always been curious about varnishes but there is very little information out there on varnishes and the whole subject is very intimidating. I had heard about some guitar makers using "varnish", but upon further inquiries realized that they were actually using polyurethane. I have never been crazy about polyurethane, the depth and color of the finish doesn't appeal to me, neither does that fact that if you sand through a coat, you get "witness lines".

I started to talk to some of the mandolin builders who use varnishes. Both Don MacRostie and Lynn Dudenbostel were extremely helpful on this front. Both Don and Lynn recommended alkyd resin oil based varnishes. Don sprayed his, Lynn used a brush. I should add that I did my first instrument work when I was 19. I rebuilt an upright bass with an old violin maker. When it came time to finish the bass, he recommended that I use Pratt and Lambert #38,an alkyd resin varnish. I did a competent job on the bass and it has held up through all sorts of conditions, playing on the street, in touring bands and now it is exposed to all my kids can dish out. It's held up wonderfully. It's funny to thing that after all that experience and research I've come full circle.

I had read somewhere along the line that the folks at Gibson used to use oil based varnishes, applying several coats, and then French polishing shellac over the top. I started trying this technique out and it works beautifully. The shellac adds to the depth of the varnish, it goes on really quickly and builds up a beautiful shine. So currently that is what is working best for me.

So, for all of you out there who are guitar builders, either professional or hobbyists, I encourage you to give varnish a try. It's not nearly as difficult as it seems and you don't have to wear a space suit to brush it on. In most cases you can get some good stuff at the local hardware store, and you can't match the beauty of it. If you have any questions, send me an email and I'll try to answer them.

New Craig Ventresco CD

2010-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

I'm always excited when I hear that my friend Craig Ventresco has released a new recording as he is one of my all time favorite guitar players. Imagine my excitement to hear that his latest CD, "Craig Ventresco Plays the Guitar", features a guitar I made for him a year ago. Finally a chance to hear him put it through the paces!

Craig is probably best known for playing guitar on the soundtrack to the film Crumb. He should be known for being one of the most talented guitar players in the States, playing in a traditional vein, but in a style that is all his own. He's a really fantastic player and I regard him as highly as the greats like Blind Blake and Lemon Jefferson

Craig's past recordings have focused on Ragtime and popular music from the early 1900's. His latest "Craig Ventresco Plays the Guitar" focuses on classic blues and jazz. Besides the guitar tracks Craig plays ukelele on a couple, and one features Meredith Axelrod on vocals.

It's a great CD and I encourage everybody to get a copy. Drop Craig a line at his website www.craigventresco.com.

Here's a video of Craig and Meredith performing Terrible Murder Blues at the West Coast Ragtime Festival.

Guitar Ad

2009-11-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

I've always been fascinated by old instrument catalogs and ads, and have wanted to create something similar for the guitars that I've made. There were several challenges that stood in the way of the project, first I suppose was making all the guitars and then getting pictures of them. Second was finding someone to take on the task, as I'm not that savvy when it comes to that type of thing. My buddy Jimmy Burns from Vermont, in addition to being an ace fiddler, is also a talented graphic artist who understood what I was trying to do.

Jim and I did a lot of work to get it together. I had to track down a all the different models and get good quality pictures of them. I also had to buckle down and write all the text. In some cases I took language right out of the old catalogs. I tried to capture the language and spirit of the time.

Jim thumbed through a lot of old catalgs to get ideas for the layout. He converted all the photos to line drawings. His layout really managed to capture the look and feel that I was after. He did a bang up job and I couldn't be happier with the final product.

I'm currently looking at different printing options, so I can't even say that it's hot off the presses at this point.

Thanks a million Jim!

Eventful summer

2009-10-21T19:16:00.001-07:00

I've had a full and busy summer and haven't been too good about updating the blog. Sorry about that. I made a conscious decision at the beginning of the summer that I was going to try to make the most of it, spend a lot of time with my family and outdoors. Now that the weather is turning colder and the days are getting shorter, I'm sure I'll be better about sitting down to record what's been going on.

I usually spend a fair amount of time traveling around during the summer. I try to get to a couple old time music festivals each year and get as much playing in as possible. The music festivals that I tend to go to usually focus on old time hillbilly music. The festivals are participatory in nature and the attendees are the ones who provide the music. The focus isn't on a stage, or on outside acts. The folks who go to the festival are the entertainment. People set up camps and sit around and play music and catch up with their friends. When they're not playing, they're usually walking around listening to music at the other camps. It's a foreign concept to a lot of folks who are into Country Blues, but it's a really great way for people to get together and play music.

I'm not really a hardcore old time nut. I consider myself more of a songster. You can only play tunes for so long until it gets boring and somebody needs to start singing. As a result, I usually congregate with people of like mind, who appreciate good tunes but need to have some ballads or blues in the mix.

My favorite festival of all the ones that I've been to is the Harry Smith Frolic in Greenfield, Mass. The Frolic was started by a group of folks in Northern Massachusetts and Southern Vermont who felt that people who play old time music should listen to the recordings of artists from the 1920's and 30's who played the music, rather than listening to modern musician's interpretations of this music. The have brought a lot of new people into their community and folks up there are making some of the best music I've heard.

In addition to being a great music festival, the Harry Smith Frolic is a celebration of the Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology was a six album set of music originally released in 1952. Much has been made of it since its reissue in the late 90's and I think that all that hub bub sort of made me shy away from it. The fact is, Harry Smith did a pretty amazing job of presenting an accurate snapshot of early American vernacular music. I'm not going to go into it here, but in short it's a great collection and everybody should have a copy.

While most festivals tend to focus on old time fiddle music, the Frolic equally values ballad singers and blues players. There is a pretty eclectic bunch of performers for the relatively small number of people who attend. One of the highlights of the festival is a reenactment of one of the three volumes of the Anthology, which occurs on midnight of the second night of the festival. For the first seven years of the Frolic, folks performed Vol. 1, Ballads. This year the decision was made to perform Vol. 3, Songs.

A guitar maker is much like any other trades person in that they don't often get to reap the rewards of their craft. In other words, I don't usually have one of my own guitars. When I do have one, I usually end up selling it during a lean time. When I go to festivals, I don't usually have anything to show for myself. Sometimes there are folks there who have an instrument that I've made, but I'm not usually one of them. I decided that this year I was going to make a guitar at the beginning of the season that I could haul around to the different festivals and not be shy about letting folks play it. I didn't want to put a huge investment into the guitar and I wanted to build it as quickly as possible.

I decided that I would make a smaller model as it would be easier for traveling. I chose the Annunziata as it is sort of a combination between the Loretta and Erma and I thought it would get the most sound out of a small body. For materials, I decided to use wood that people had given me, or things that, for one reason or another, I couldn't use on a custom guitar, but were too good not to use. I had a nice set of koa that my good friend Federico Sheppard gave me, so I decided to use that for the back and sides. I had a nice old set of German spruce that was too small to use on anything but a concert sized guitar, so that was going to be the top. My buddy Federico had also gifted me with some Madagascar rosewood that I wanted to try for the fingerboard and bridge (he is a really good friend and super generous guy).

I kept it simple using only a black/white/ black line for the rosette and purfling. I bound it with some nice flamed maple, on the top only, and skipped a center strip on the back. The neck blank was one I had sitting around the shop that had a knot on the back of the peghead. I put a rosewood veneer on the front and back of the peghead and it was no longer an issue. I decided to do the Neapolitan headstock and whale tail bridge to dress it up a little bit. I was out of pearl dots, so I cut some quick diamonds for fret markers. I gave it a pretty quick French polished varnish finish and had it strung up nine days after I initially joined the plates. I probably could have done it in seven, but I have a family and I don't work in the shop on weekends.

The finished product is a really sweet little guitar. I've been playing on it all summer and it has really opened up. It's been great to have one of my guitars to bang on and not worry about. It's also been great being able to pass it off to friends for them to try out. It's had quite a bit of playing done on it in it's relatively short life. I'm looking forward to seeing how it continues to develop, and where it ends up.

9 String

2009-05-06T18:42:00.001-07:00

A few years ago my friend Mike Ammons and I were looking at the liner notes to the very excellent CD of minstrel tunes, Good For What Ails You, on the Old Hat label, and Mike asked me "What kind of guitar is that?", commenting on a picture of Daddy Stovepipe. I hadn't really looked at the picture that closely as there are plenty of odd things going on, a musician in a top hat posing next to a recording horn. We got out the magnifying glass and saw that the odd shaped headstock had 9 strings, three single strings on the bass side and three courses (six strings) on the treble side. Neither of us had heard of a nine string before, and I thought it would be a fun side project.

I could tell from the photo that the guitar was an inexpensive Chicago made guitar, smaller in size. Since I didn't have any orders for a nine string, and seeing as it didn't seem likely that I'd get one, I decided to start by making a neck and fitting it to an existing body. I had a couple candidates, the leader being an old Regal whose neck had been boogered up by someone along the line. The Regal was an all birch Hawaiian model. The top was in pretty rough shape, so I decided that it would probably be best to replace that while I was at it. I know what you're saying, "Why didn't you just start from scratch?" At a certain point I think I asked myself the same question, but these things tend to snowball, and when you're obsessed and have to get something out of your system, you don't always make the most prudent decisions.

I put on a new spruce top and made a poplar neck for the guitar. Lots of folks don't take poplar seriously as a neck material, but as I've said before and I'll say again, it's great stuff. I've made several poplar necks and have never had issues with them. The 80 year old guitar that I play on a regular basis has a poplar neck with no reinforcement and it's as straight as the day it was made. I'd choose it over maple any day of the week. I made a rosewood fingerboard and a six pin pyramid bridge.

The guitar had a short scale of 24 5/8", so I put on light gauge strings (doubling the 1st and 2nd course with an octave on the third) and tuned it up to E. I was pretty happy with the way that it turned out. Definitely a lot of fun to play. I sent it around to some friends, one of whom, John Miller, decided that he would rather keep it than send it off, so we worked out a deal. I was very happy to see it go to such a fantastic player.

As these things tend to work, I eventually got an email from someone who inquired about the nine string. Gary Selufsky, who proved to be one of my bravest customers, put in an order for a nine string and decided to have fun with it. I was very excited that Gary decided to get maple back and sides and a poplar neck. He also decided to add a Kay Kraft type bridge, funky pick guard, bound headstock and fingerboard. I was really looking forward to building an uptown version of the guitar.

The guitar turned out great. After some experimentation with strings, we decided that the it was happiest with a set of extra light strings, doubled on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd courses.
I was very happy to hear that Gary and John met at the Country Blues Week at the Port Townsend Washington and were able to compare their nine strings. My only regret is that I wasn't there to hear the ensuing madness.

Celebrating Five Years of Self Employment

2009-05-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I celebrated five years of making my living solely as a guitar maker. I've been making and repairing them for much longer than that, but I made the leap from a nice cozy, secure construction job, for a life as a luthier. From a financial standpoint, it probably wasn't the smartest move in the world, but I'm healthier and happier for it and I've been able to pursue my passion. The task would not have been possible without the many great customers that I've had, the musicians who play my guitars, my consigliere Frank Basile and, most importantly, my very loving and patient wife Lily who has stood by me during all of it, encouraging me and advising me along the way. Thank you to all.
As part of the celebration my old friend Paul Geremia came to visit and play a gig. I don't know how long I've known Paul for, but I've been going to see him play for quite some time and he was very instrumental in developing my interest in the 12 string guitar, as he is one of the only people who has been playing an old style, long scale 12 string for his entire career which has spanned over 40 years. Paul is a real road warrior. He plays all over the country at venues ranging from small coffeehouses, to blues festivals, to Prarie Home Companion. He drives every inch of the way, putting on miles like a long haul trucker.
Paul comes through Madison about twice a year and usually plays a gig at the local cofeehouse. He stays at our house and we usually end up doing some setup work on his 12 string, adjusting it for seasonal changes or applying some French polish where the finish has been worn away by his right hand. He's had his Fraulini for 4 1/2 years now and has probably played it every single day of that time. As a result it is an extremely live and open instrument. When I was making it for him he told me to build it as lightly as I dared, which I did, but the real reason it sounds so great is that it gets daily use, by one of the best people in the business. An instrument is happiest when it is played.
The gig was at Mother Fool's Coffee House, a local institution that is the best place in town for acoustic shows. I opened the show and played a variety of songs spanning from Reverend Alfred Karnes to Cryin Sam Collins. I always like to open for Paul because then he comes out swinging, showing everybody why he has the reputation that he does. He was fantastic! My favorite tunes were Silver City Bound and Meet Me in the Bottom. Of course I'm biased because he plays both of those on 12 string (his 30's Gibson J-35 sounded pretty good too). It's always great to sit back and listen to a master play, especially when it's an instrument that you've made. I'll look forward to the next time he comes.

A Tenor Guitar for Hank Sapoznik

2009-04-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Hank Sapoznik presented me with the challenge of making a tenor guitar a little while back. I was not very familiar with the instrument and the role that it played in the music that Hank played. Hank is a fantastic 5 string banjo player and plays both claw hammer and classic three finger style for old time, hillbilly music, as well as a variety of rags. He primarily uses the tenor when he's playing Klezmer. I wasn't really familiar with Klezmer, so I had to do some listening and acquaint my ears with the role of the tenor in the group. I also stopped down to Spruce Tree Music to get Wil Bremmer's opinion on tenors and see if he had any guidance to offer.

I learned from listening to Hank's group, the Youngers of Zion, that he primarily uses his tenor guitar as a rhythm instrument, to compliment the bass or tuba as the fiddle does the majority of the solo work. He occasionally inserts a fill or a run, but primarily plays a very hard driving rhythm.

Wil's take on the tenor guitar was that it evolved from the tenor banjo as a somewhat softer alternative. The tenor banjo had evolved from the banjo mandolin, as a less shrill alternative, and the banjo mandolin evolved from the mandolin during the banjo craze. He said that there were no rules that applied to the scale or body size of the tenor guitar and that most companies just attached a shorter tenor neck to one of the many body styles they offered. I had been thinking about making a smaller instrument, but Wil told me to consider making a bigger one in order to get more sound.

The main influence for the guitar came from an instrument called the Octachorda which was played by two early wizards of the strings, Roy Smeck and Sam Moore. Smeck had told an interviewer at some point that he and Sam Moore were the only two people to have octachordas made for them and that his was stolen from a hotel room sometime in the 20's. Smeck's octachorda was a very fancy instrument, with lots of inlays, pearl trim, heart shaped soundhole, elaborate carved bridge and a scroll type headstock with some type of head carved in it (possibly a lion?). Sam Moore's instrument was more plain, with a standard slot head, simple white binding and a square pyramid bridge. The feature that really sticks out on both instruments is the Florentine cutaway, which just sort of dips off at the 12 and curves elagantly down to the center of the upper bout, rather than curving back up as is the case on the majority of modern cutaways.

Rather than trying to do a somewhat straight copy of the octachorda, I decided to use the shape, hoping the wide, short lower bout would fill out the tone of the smaller body, and draw from bowl back mandolins for the other defining features. Instead of the heart shaped soundhole, I went with an oval. I had made some mosaic purfling for a Stoneman copy and decided that the pattern would give the body a nice look. I've been favoring European spruce and maple back and sides lately, so I decided that it would be a good combination for the tenor.

The shape of the headstock and the scroll cutout came out of the Neapolitan mandolin playbook. Hank and I discussed inlays and he decided on an intertwined Star of David. It was good exercise for my developing inlay and engraving chops. It really stands out on the finished product.

The bridge was my design, a hybrid of a couple different mustache bridges. It added a nice touch to the overall look and seemed to compliment all of the other curves and features of the instrument.

It's always great fun to get an order for an instrument and not have any rules to follow. This one was the product of several different instruments and a lot of sleep deprivation, largely due to a teething one year old. It made it's debut at Hank's Klez Camp Roadshow this past weekend and it was fantastic to see and hear it in a great room with a bunch of world class musicians. That certainly doesn't happen every time.

A Guitar for Mike Seeger

2009-03-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

I recently had the honor of making a guitar for one of my musical heroes, Mike Seeger, . I can't say enough good things about Mike. He's a fantastic player, scholar and historian. In addition to being the first person to record Elizabeth Cotten, and the person who tracked down Doc Boggs, Mike is one of the people who made the world at large aware of old time traditional music, as well as Bluegrass. As a member of the New Lost City Ramblers, he turned people's ears from the Folk Revival back to the source material that the Revival was to have generated from. Two of his latest recordings, Southern Banjo Sounds and Southern Guitar Sounds, are essentials for any collection.

I first met Mike at the Appalachian Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia. He is working with country music historian, and fellow Madisonian, Bill Malone on his biography, so he occasionally passes through town. He came to the shop a few years ago to see what I was up to. This past summer he was in Madison to play at the Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival. He had sent me a Galiano guitar to do some work on and stopped by the shop to talk about the work. He saw some of the things that I was working on and expressed interest in getting a new Fraulini. He was interested in getting a guitar made of all North American woods and wanted something lightly built as he preferred to use extra light gauge strings. He said that one of his favorite guitars was a Bradley Kincaid Hound Dog, which I believe was made by Harmony in the early 30's.

I borrowed a Hound Dog from Wil Bremmer at Spruce Tree Music. After going over it, I realized that it was very similar to my Loretta model, so I was able to use existing molds. The Hound Dog was a little deeper than my standard Loretta. Other than that, it is a fairly standard, very lightly ladder braced parlor guitar.

Mike said that he liked white oak for back and sides and I had some nice oak that came from a tree not too far from the shop. For the top I used red spruce, which came from the Adirondacks in New York. I used yellow poplar for the neck. Poplar is a great neck wood. It is strong and stable, knot free, carves nicely and takes stains like a dream. I have several old guitars with poplar necks and they have stayed straight and true over many years. I would use a lot more poplar if people understood how good it was. I used persimmon for the fingerboard. I have heard that persimmon is the N. American ebony and have wanted to try it for a long time. I also wanted to try it because it grows in Mike's part of the country and because of the old song "Possum Up the Simmon Tree". Master fiddler Kirk Sutphin was able to locate some persimmon boards that were perfect for fingerboards. For the bridge, I used some maple which had previously been part of an old beam in a barn that I worked on back when I was a carpenter. I did a simple black/white/black diagonal purfling and a maple binding.

For the finish, I fumed the oak using industrial strength ammonia. The ammonia causes the oak to turn dark brown. It also caused the top to turn green, but a coat of garnet shellac made it instantly look 80+ years old. The garnet shellac also added to the color of the fumed oak. I ebonized the persimmon fingerboard and maple bridge, and I stained the poplar neck a reddish mahogany color. I used an oil based varnish over the shellac and left it thin, in keeping with the lightly built, old style motif.

The final product surpassed my expectations. The white oak back and sides and red spruce top gave the guitar a lot of volume and sustain, while the deeper sides gave the tone a little more time to develop. I was a little nervous that, with the extra light gauge strings, it wouldn't generate all that much sound, but keeping the bracing and the finish on the light side allowed the top to move enough so that it made plenty of sound. You didn't have to lean into it either, it almost played itself. What a relief.

New 14 Fret Model- Felix

2009-03-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make a guitar for my friend Cr aig Ventresco for a long time. Craig is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. He plays real ragtime, drawing from source material that is neglected by the vast majority of musicians who attempt to play early American music. Craig has an incredible of knowledge of early popular music and plays it with the spirit and attack of some of my favorite early blues players, without attempting to imitate their music. He has a unique technique, using a flatpick while also picking with his ring finger, that leaves the listener wondering how one person can possibly make all that sound. If you haven't heard him, I strongly encourage you to look him up and get one of his CDs, or check out one of his YouTube videos. You won't be disappointed.

Back to the guitar. All of my existing models have 12 frets to the body. Craig is a player who takes full advantage of the fingerboard and really needs to have a 14 fret model. In general, the guitars that I draw my inspiration from are 12 fretters, and there are a fair amount of luthiers who are making copies of early Martin and Gibson 14 fret guitars, so I didn't want to copy one of those. I decided that I would have to design a model especially for Craig. I tried to imagine what some of my guitar building heroes might have done if they had to build a 14 fret guitar.

I started out looking for suitable shapes. I settled on an early guitar by John D'Angelico. D'Angelico learned his trade in the shop of his uncle, Raphael Ciani, and built a lot of really beautiful instruments before he started making arch tops in the early 30's. The shape was very distinct with a wide lower bout and a tight upper bout.

For woods, I chose a German Spruce top and maple back and sides. I wanted the guitar to be loud and to ring out very clearly. Craig is a dynamic player and I wanted to make an instrument that would be capable of kicking out some sound, but wouldn't muddle all that was coming out. I've had good results with the German and maple combination in the past, so I thought it would work well for this one. I ladder braced the top.

It's always fun when you just get to build a guitar and you don't have to follow any rules or try to match an existing instrument. Craig gave me free reins on the project, so I was able to pick appointments from some of my favorite instruments and mix them up on this guitar. I chose a headstock design that I saw on a guitar by Rocco Mango, a NYC luthier who worked independently in the early part of the last century. The design is fairly common on Neapolitan mandolins, but doesn't tend to show up in guitars. It is a beautiful effect.

I used the same fingerboard inlays that showed up on many of the old Galiano and fancy Oscar Schmidt instruments. The old inlays were most likely cut in Germany and sold through some supplier at the time as they show up on quite a few of the old instruments.

For the bridge, I designed a sort of hopped up floral/mustache bridge, similar to the bridge on the Stoneman Galiano, but with relief carved flowers on the ends, something that shows up on a lot of early European parlor guitars.

I figured that there was enough going on with the general aesthetic, so I used a fairly plain diagonal purfling, along with a rosewood binding .

I finished the guitar with an oil based varnish. The oil based varnish can go on thin, not quite as thin as French polish, but gives better protection than either shellac or spirit based varnish. It also dries nice and hard, which I think contributes to the tone. Most importantly, it's not super toxic, like nitrocellulose lacquer, it's relatively easy to work with and gives a great depth to the finish.

The end result was a great sounding guitar. I haven't heard Craig play it yet, but from all reports he's happy with it and it's doing everything he asks of it. I'm really looking forward to the time that I get to hear him play it in person. Hopefully it won't be too far off.

12 String Tailpiece

2009-02-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

I recently made up a batch of 12 string tailpieces for some guitars in the current batch, so I figured I would document the process. The tailpieces I make were slightly modified from a tailpiece that came off of an old Stella 12 string. The guitar was an early 12 string (teens era) and the holes for the ball end strings were a little too small to accommodate modern strings. I made the holes a little larger and widened the overall dimension of the tailpiece in order to have sufficient material in between the holes. In the old days strings came with either ball or loop ends. The old tailpieces were set up to use either loop or ball end strings. These days loop end strings are obsolete, so the posts for mounting them are, for the most part, decorative.

I put in quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to make tailpieces, but I figured it was an important element that I wanted to include on my guitars. I had a very limited budget, so farming the job out to a metal shop was out of the question. I worked extensively with my dad, Fred Cambio, on the design of the tailpiece. My dad mapped out the original 12 string on Solidworks and we went over some of modifications together. After the modifications were setup, I had a die made that stamped out the embossed portion of the tailpiece. I stamp the tailpieces out of brass. That was the material that the original ones were made out of, partly because it is easy to work, partly because it is easy to plate.

After the blank is stamped out, the rest of the process is hand work. I use a jeweler's saw to cut the silhouette of the tailpiece, and I drill out all of the holes on the drill press. I've developed quite a few jigs and fixtures for the drilling portion of the process as the drill press can grab ahold of the brass blank and do some real damage to your hand. I learned this the hard way.

After the holes are drilled, I use a jewelers saw to cut slots in the ball end holes. On a side note, the jeweler's saw that I use belonged to my great grandfather. I don't know what he used it for, but it was in his toolbench, along with some carving tools. I had been using a new jewelers saw, but it did a poor job of holding the blades. This saw is over 100 years old and continues to do a great job.

After all the holes are drilled, I use a countersink on the back side of the holes for the loop end posts. When the posts were turned, we left a little extra material on the portion that goes through the hole. The extra bit of the post that sticks through the back side is"skwedged" over with a hammer. "Skwedging" refers to the process of smashing the brass on the post so that it fills in the countersunk portion on the backside of the blank. I hope that all makes sense. After the post is set, it won't move. This is that same way that the old posts were set, and it is that same way that old tuning machines were made. I've repaired gears on old tuners using the same technique.

Once the posts are set and everything is filed and slotted, the final step is to bend the tailpiece in a metal brake. Everything is then polished to a high gloss and then it is sent off to be nickel plated.

I have thought about having the tailpieces laser cut as it can be difficult to dedicate a day or two to making them, breaking the rhythm of production, but that would limit the possibilities. As things are currently set up, I've made six, nine and 12 string tailpieces. I've also made left handed tailpieces. One of the things I appreciate about the old tailpieces is the variety that they come in. I feel that the more handwork I do, the more that variety will be reflected in my work.

Stoneman Auditorium Galiano

2009-02-05T05:26:00.000-08:00

I mentioned the copy of Ernest Stoneman's Galiano that I made, but realized that I haven't explained the guitar yet. Here goes:

Ernest Stoneman was one of the earliest people to record country music. He came before the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, and actually had a hand in setting up the legendary Bristol Sessions. Stoneman played guitar, autoharp and harmonica, he was a great singer and songwriter. His real gift was as a bandleader. Stoneman assembled the Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers and the Pilot Mountaineers, among others.

Besides being one of the pioneers of country music, my other fascination with Stoneman was his guitar, an Auditorium sized Galiano. I was first introduced to the guitar by Kirk Sutphin, who asked me if I had ever come across a similar one. That started five year search to figure out exactly what it was that Stoneman played.

Galiano was a brand name of guitar that was used by several builders, among them, Antonio Cerrito, Raphael Ciani, Giuseppe Nettuno and Antonio Grausso. The Oscar Schmidt company also made guitars under the Galiano name, but these guitar don't differ much from the other stock models that they made. The guitar that I've played for the past ten years is actually an Oscar Schmidt made Galiano, which has a Galiano label pasted directly over a Stella label. I'm not sure where Galianos were marketed. Likely it is a generic name referring to the Gagliano family who made violins and mandolins in Naples, and was used much like the Stradivarius name was used on inexpensive violins.

Stoneman's guitar was made by one of the smaller independent shops, most likely Antonio Cerrito's or Raphael Ciani. The whereabouts of his actual guitar are unknown. His daughters told me varying reports, that it had been backed over by their car after forgetting to pack it after a gig, and that he sold it during the Depression. Hopefully it will someday surface.

In making a copy of the guitar I worked off of photos of Stoneman with the guitar and gained clues off of the different angles which he was holding the guitar in the photos. From the photos, I was able to deduce that the guitar had unstained maple or birch back and sides, a dark binding, probably rosewood, the same fingerboard inlays which were used on some of the fancier Galiano and Oscar Schmidt guitars, a bound fingerboard and headstock. I had many conversations about the guitar with ace remastering engineer and co producer of the Stoneman set, Chris King.

I also gained a lot of information from old guitars in making the copy. I had an Auditorium sized guitar made by Antonio Cerrito in my collection. I compared the measurements of this guitar with the guitar in the photo and came to the conclusion that, while the woods were different, they were nearly identical in size and shape. In determining which woods to use, I looked at several different Galiano, Cerrito and Ciani guitars. Maple, rather than birch, seemed to be the choice on some of the fancier guitars, along with a rosewood binding and a German spruce top. The fingerboard and bridge were ebony and I just needed to figure out the neck wood. I went with mahogany as it is more stable and much easier to carve than maple.

For some of the details of the guitar I had to use intuition. I had the patterns for the fingerboard inlays from some guitars in my collection and had worked them out for other guitars that I had made. I had a rough idea of what the purfling looked like, but I wasn't able to find any that matched so I used something that had a similar motif, although it lacked the colors and intensity of the original stuff.

The very distinct bridge took a very long time to figure out. I did several sketches and tried to deduce the size and shape from proportional measurements taken from the photos of the guitar. It took a whole day of measuring, sketching, comparing, starting over, before I felt comfortable with the look of the bridge. it took another day to figure out how I was going to make it, and actually pull it off. I was so excited when I finally had the finished bridge in my hand and realized that I had nailed it. So excited that I fumbled the bridge, dropped it on the floor and the inlaid dots on the tips busted off. I was flabbergasted. I made a second bridge in a quarter of the time and was very careful in my handling of it. I finished the guitar with a very light French polish.

The finished product was really extraordinary. One of the best guitars that I've made. It had an extremely well balanced sound from the treble to the bass, with a nice depth to the tone. It was loud but still managed to maintain the clarity and dry sound that old guitars have. My friend Smitty became the lucky owner of the guitar and has been loving it ever since.

Eventful weekend

2009-02-03T19:58:00.001-08:00

This past weekend was quite eventful. My old friend John Hasbrouck came up to play a gig and visit. John and Matt Gandurski make up the world's only all left handed resonator guitar and mandolin duet. The Northside Southpaws play a nice variety of rags, waltzes, tangos and bluegrass and put on a refreshing show. John has does a great job on the mandolin and Matt has really put in his time learning how to second on guitar, but is still able to insert a nice fill every now and then. The Southpaws were playing at Mother Fool's Coffeehouse . Another old friend, Joel Paterson, was playing a gig down the street and stopped by before the gig. Catfish Stephenson was also there. The five of us reminisced about guitars, music, recording etc. It was great to catch up with old friends.

After the show John, Matt and Catfish came back to the shop for a late night jam session. It was nice to listen to everyone play. I spent most of the time talking to another friend, Bruce, a former machinist, about better ways to make a 12 string tailpiece. It's official, I am now more of a luthier than I am a musician.

On Sunday I finally was able to connect with Hank Sapoznik. Hank is a fantastic musician, author, scholar and producer of CD compilations on Charlie Poole, Ernest Stoneman, Murder and Disaster ballads, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm not yet aware of. Hank is in town teaching a class on Jewish music at the University of Wisconsin. The class sounds like a great one.

Hank was kind enough to include the copy of Ernest Stoneman's guitar that I made in the Ernest Stoneman box set. Hank came with his dog Stinky and also brought some fermented and smoked sausages from his friend and cohort Mark Rubin. Mark had sent the sausages up from Texas and Hank was very generous to share them with me. After catching up over sausages and coffee, Hank and I headed out to the shop to look over guitars and talk about building a tenor guitar for Hank. The project sounds like a fun one as Hank has no specific idea of what he wants, other than a tenor that is loud. I get to play around with the aesthetics, which is always fun.

I'm hoping to get together with Hank as often as possible while he's in town. We have a jam scheduled for next weekend. It's supposed to be warm out, so maybe we'll get to fire up the grill.