A Whole Bunch of Guitars

 I have been a bit negligent of the blog, but nevertheless busy in the shop.  I figured rather than write a post with a specific subject, the best way to catch up would be to post photos of some of the work I've done since the last post.  So here goes:

Numero Uno:  Here's a nice little 14 Fret Anunziata that I made for my friend Jack Klatt.  Jack is a great guitar player and singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He's an excellent fingerpicker and fabulous writer of ballads.  Check him out at his website http://www.jackklatt.com/.  Jack told me he wanted a 14 fret, smaller bodied guitar.  As I was in an X bracing frame of mind and as I thought something along the lines of an old Gibson would be suitable, I decided to make him a very lightweight, X braced, 0 sized, plain Jane Anunziata.  It's a great sounding little guitar.  I think it was in the 3lb range.  He's been traveling the country with it and sounding fantastic.

 

Next up;  Ernie Hawkins contacted me and asked me to make him a rosewood guitar.  He had played the 14 fret Angelina that I made for Mary Flower and said that it was the first rosewood guitar that he ever liked.  He said he wanted something like Mary's but with more of a plain look.  I made him a 14 fret X braced Angelina, 00 sized, red spruce top, Madagascar rosewood back and sides.  A powerful sounding box.  I look forward to hearing him work his magic on it someday.

Round Three:  I had the opportunity to build another Leadbelly 12 string, bound for Austin Texas.  I always enjoy building Leadbelly guitars.  The challenge on this one was the pickguard.  I haven't put one on one of my copies and it was such a prominent aesthetic element of Leadbelly's guitar.  It was fun tracking down photos of him with the guitar and scaling out the pickguard and making a pattern.  Rather than screwing it directly into the top, as it was on the original, I opted to put in two false screws and adhere it to the guitar with padded double sided tape.  This way it has the look of the old one but the screws invite cracks.  With the tape, the guard can be removed with no damage to the guitar.

Numero Quattro, the Wild Child, ladder braced Angelina:  David Bragger is a great player of blues and old time music in Los Angeles.  David wanted something unique and suggested the idea of a blue guitar.  The challenge was to make it look classy, less like a cheap Chinese made blue instrument, more like a 1930's hallucination.  Classy may not be the right word, but it is definitely unique and makes a statement.

In addition to the blue, I upped the ante by adding a layer of glitter.  I varnished over the blue and the glitter.  The back and the sides were nice flamed birch, maple neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge. The glitter was a bit of a challenge.  It plagued all of my French polishing pads which I had to throw out at when the guitar was finished and start fresh.  Nevertheless I'm glad I did it as it really added to the overall look.  I had some old stock pearloid from the Harmony factory which I used for the peghead veneer and pickguard. 

Numero Cinque:  My friend Alvin Youngblood Hart was in town last Spring.  Alvin was very instrumental in me becoming a guitar maker.  I made him a 12 string about 12 years ago and he's been traveling the world with it ever since, and I'm honored that he's done so.  I've offered to make him a newer 12 a few times as I've learned a few things in those years, but he's always declined as the guitar suits him fine.  When he was here though he did say that he may be interested in a six.  The only guidance I was given was that it needed to have a solid peghead, and that he liked the old Regal Coke bottle headstocks.

Alvin's a ladder braced dude.  He hipped me to that style and I was going to stay true to it.  I wanted to make him something that looked like it was from the mid to late 30's, bigger box than his old Stella but with the same scale.  I made him a 12 fret Angelina with a 24.9" scale, birch back and sides, hand rubbed sunburst varnish finish.  I really dig this guitar and hope to hear him playing it soon.

Numero Sei:  My friend Eden Brower of the East River String Band wanted a small guitar as she is a rather diminutive young woman and has had trouble finding a guitar that fit her.  I have a couple cheap kids guitar that kick around our house that my boys play on and I find myself gravitating toward from time to time.  I also have a small guitar that Antonio Cerrito built in the 1910s or 20's.  I decided to make a new model based on a combination of these two.  Some folks call a guitar like this a terz, I'll opt for a small guitar.

Eden gave me the direction, "I like black and pink".  The spruce top has an ebonized finish, the paduk back and sides have a pink varnish.  There are skull, heart, liquor bottle and "Slum Goddess" inlays, and an inlaid pink leopard skin pickguard.  The rosette is reminiscent of the grooves of a record, as records play a prominent role in her life. The scale is 22".  With the short scale it can be tuned up to G, but she tunes it to standard pitch.

While I was laying out the top for the guitar, I realized that I could get another top out of the scrap of spruce which was left over.  I joined that scrap spruce and pulled out some wood from my scrap box which is full of cutoffs and mistakes and made a guitar for my boys.  Really it was a guitar for myself to play around the house, but the kids were a good excuse.  That is the blonde one.

Numero Sete:  Rami Gabriel, a great jazz guitar player from Chicago asked me to build him a 14 fret Felix like the one I made for Craig Ventresco.  Rami was digging the sunbursts I've been doing lately and I was happy to do another.  He was looking for something loud and punchy so I decided to ladder brace it, and use maple for the back and sides.  It's a honking good box.

Numero Otto:  A friend in North Carolina asked me to build a Loretta like the black one I built earlier in the year.  It was a great pleasure to do another one of these.  A ladder braced parlor with an ebonized top and inlaid pickguard.  This guitar was very light in weight, I think it was 2 lbs. 10 oz.  24 1/4" scale.  Despite it's small size, this guitar can really bark.

Finally, A nice little Erma which was Chicago bound.  Adirondack top, mahogany back and sides, mosaic purfling that I made, engraved fret markers, varnish finish.  This is my take on the Stella concert guitar, true to the old form but a little more refined. It is a lovely sounding box and I'd love to have one like this around the house.

There they are, the guitars that closed out 2013.  There are some new ones on the bench and I'll try to be better about posting them as they are completed.

The Many Faces of Loretta

 Fraulini was my grandmother Angelina's maiden name.  There were seven sisters in the family and I have named a model after each one of them.  My great Aunt Loretta was the baby of the family and is the last surviving sister.  She is in her 90's and doing well.  She always gives me a hard time that the model that bears her name is the "cheapest", but I like to remind her that it is also the most petite and sweetest, which usually gets her to ease up on me a bit.  This year I have found myself making a surprising number of Loretta's, each very unique in their own respect.  It started me to thinking that there is quite a bit of variation that can be done with a basic shape.  I thought it would be interesting to put up pictures of the three to compare and contrast.



The Loretta is a parlor guitar, modeled after some of the great guitars made in Chicago in the early 1900s.  It's short 24" scale makes it very nice to play as the strings are slack which gives it a very comfortable feel.  The first of this batch is one I've written about before, a fairly plain guitar, with a black spruce top, mahogany back and sides.  It's only noticeable trait is the leopard skin pickguard.  The plain look really makes the pickguard pop.  I've been calling this one The Black Widow.

The second of the batch is on the fancier side.  The same pickguard shape, with an inlaid mother of pearl flower.  The spruce top has a nice multi layered mosaic purfling which I made a while back to match some old Larson brothers purfling, ebony whale tail bridge and fingerboard, diamond fingerboard inlays and rosewood back and sides.  I really like the look and sound of this guitar.  I've been playing it in open G for the past month or so and it's been fun to listen to it open up.

The final guitar of this batch is a 12 string.  This guitar is loaded with inlay, fancy purfling, beautiful tuners and some fine ribbon mahogany.  The customer wanted to be able to tune the guitar up to E, with the 24" scale this works beautifully with a light 12 string set.  The guitar sounds great and is a real joy to play.  Quite fetching to boot!

So there they are, three of the same, very different guitars built within a few months of each other and each headed off to different points on the globe.  Each one is very much one of a kind.  All a joy to build.

First batch of 2013

I recently finished the first batch of guitars for the new year.  It was a fun group, Gibson inspired more than anything.  I've really been getting into the hand rubbed sunbursts of some of the early Gibsons and got to try my hand at it again.

The most unique of the bunch was a seven string that I made for my friend Adam Kiesling.  Adam is a great musician in Minneapolis.  He mentioned to me a while back that he had been thinking about a seven string, with a low B for quite some time.  Adam has an old Galiano six string, made by Antonio Cerrito, which has a 26 1/2" scale.  He plays a lot of upright bass and is a big dude, so the long scale doesn't bother him.  Having the low B string, it made it nice to have an extra inch on the scale.  I used a .066" for the low B and the rest of the strings are a light gauge set.  The tuning is B,E,A,D,G,B,E.


I had a couple weeks to play around with the 7 string.  It was definitely fun, though I kept messing up as the extra string kept me thinking that I was somewhere where I wasn't.  With continuous playing I'm sure I wouldn't gotten used to it.  There is definitely a lot of potential for open tunings.  I look forward to hearing what Adam does with it.

 The second guitar in the batch was a Fenezia six string for another great musician, Mark Rubin of Austin, TX.  Mark plays all kinds of great music, from Honky Tonk to Klezmer, with all kinds of great musicians.  He was looking for a guitar to cover that wide variety of music.  After putting our heads together, this is what we came up with .  It's a great sounding box. Strung with medium gauge strings, it's got a lot of bark and very nice bass.  It's going to be a real gem once it's had some playing on it and has broken in.

   Last but not least was a Loretta for Todd Albright of Toledo Ohio, a straight ahead bluesman.  Todd gave me the instructions, "I just want a small guitar.  I don't want to tell you what to do, I don't want to see any pictures.  I want it to be a complete surprise when I open up the case."  I don't think there are better words you could give to a craftsperson.

The night before I made the pickguard, I had a dream about some leopard skin fabric, and that was the inspiration for the pattern of the pickguard material.  As Todd is an artistic dude, I though a black guitar would be fitting.  I followed Orville Gibson's lead, giving it a black top, but making the back, sides and neck red using a red varnish that I made up.  It turned out to be a pretty hot looking little thing.  Very fun to play with its short 24 1/4" scale.

New Logo & T-Shirts

 The great artist Robert Crumb just drew a new logo for me which has a portrait of my grandmother, Angelina Fraulini-Cambio.  I just had some100% cotton, U.S.A. made t-shirts printed with the new logo and they are available while supplies last.  $20 plus shipping.  Sizes from Small to XXL.  Any color you'd like, as long as that color is black.  Send me an email if you are interested: todd at fraulini.com

Guitars (and banjo) For Sale

 I've been going through some of my old guitars and have decided to sell off a few.  Please contact me if you're interested or if you have questions todd at fraulini.com.

Stella Concert guitar with floral bridge

1920's Stella Concert Guitar - This is the first Stella that I've seen with this type of bridge.  The bridge was likely made in Germany, along with the inlays and purfling.  I've had this guitar for a number of years.  The original bridge had been broken at the saddle and I hesitated to make a reproduction of it.  I finally got around to it, making the bridge out of ebony instead of pearwood.  It turned out great.  This guitar is in very nice shape.  I think that the bridge broke early in its life, saving it from a lot of playing wear.  There is a side crack on the bass side which has an old repair.  It could have been cleaner, but it is stable.

The top is crack free, as is the mahogany back.  Leabelly style purfling on the top and on the back.  Stella inlays on the fingerboard.  Interestingly the label reads "Stella Mandolin".  They must have run out of guitar labels that day.  The neck is mahogany and is 1 3/4" at the nut with a soft V profile.  It has a fresh neck reset with very comfortable action.  Original tuners, bridge pins and end pin.  The scale is 24 7/8" and the lower bout measures 13 1/2". Comes with a hard shell case.  A great little guitar SOLD

New and old bridges.

Bass side side crack

Stella Grand Concert

1920's Stella Grand Concert guitar- This is a well loved solid guitar with a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, Leadbelly style purfling and a nicely "alligatored" shellac finish.  There is some playing wear on the top, two very tight repaired top cracks and two very tight repaired back cracks.  Ebony replacement bridge with a compensated bone saddle.  Original tuning machines.    Fresh neck reset makes for comfortable action.  Includes a hard shell case.

1 13/16" at the nut with a soft V profile to the neck.  26 1/2" scale, 14 3/4" at the lower bout.  SOLD

 

Teens Era Thornward Guitar-Probably made by Lyon and Healy and sold through Montgomery Wards this is a great parlor guitar.  After much debate, I made the decision to replace the top and in doing so the guitar became the best of both worlds.  The varnish on the top really makes it look old.  I've shown it to quite a few people, even some experts, and no one knew that the top was not original until I told them.  The back and sides are Brazilian rosewood, the top is ladder braced to accept light gauge strings.  This guitar sounds exceptional.  Original ebony fingerboard with new frets, new ebony bridge with flattened pyramids.  There are a few repaired cracks on the back which are reinforced with linen.  Original tuning machines with ivory buttons, and original ivory end pin.  1 7/8" at the nut with a deep, yet soft V profile.  Includes a hard case SOLD

Keith Prowse & Co. English Banjo-This old girl is a cool instrument that needs some TLC.  It was made in London, probably in the 1890's.  Though there are six tuning machines, it was intended to be a five string banjo.  There is a brass tube which runs under the nut and fingerboard and pops out of the fingerboard at the fifth fret.  The string would then ride over the sixth fret (you can see it in the fingerboard photo).  This was a way of getting around the fifth string peg.  Resonator has a Brazilian rosewood veneer.  The rim is missing some inlays, as is the fingerboard.  With a little work it could get up and running.  Sold as is SOLD

Add caption

Unknown Handmade Guitar- This guitar was most certainly made by an individual rather than a shop, I would guess it is from the late 1800s.   The spruce top has a few cracks. The bridge is not original.  I think the back is a single piece of sycamore.  the sides and neck also seem to be sycamore.  There is a nice monogram painted onto the top.  The inset purfling seems to have been put in one piece at a timeThe tuning machines appear to be original.  They are in good shape and have bone knobs.  An interesting piece.  Sold as is SOLD

12 String Sets

I just received a shipment of fresh 12 string sets in light and heavy from the good folks at La Bella.  The Mari family has been making strings for a couple hundred years and they know their stuff.

The heavies are my standard sets which I've been using for a while.  They are great for getting a Leadbelly sound.  The lighter sets were put together by Frank Basile and myself for more of a McTell sound.  They have a certain ring to them that the heavier strings don't, but lack the rumble of the heavy set.  Both are intended to be tuned down to C, B or A, and the lighter sets are usually more suitable for older instrument. 

If you're interested, they are $15 a set.  Contact me at todd at fraulini.com.