A Tenor Guitar for Hank Sapoznik

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

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

I've been wanting to make a guitar for my friend Craig 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

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

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

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.