Born Again - Caucasian Spruce/African Blackwood
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:09 am
Sad news about the hacking and great work Bob and all getting the ANZLF Forum resurrected. I think I posted this here back in August 2010 so I'll give it its second resurrection 
The Caucasian spruce top has blossomed beautifully over the last few months and it's a little monster 
"Six years ago I made a "dream guitar" for my 50th birthday present - a European Spruce/African Blackwood 13 frets clear of the body guitar called “Butterfly” :
It was called "Butterfly" because of the figure on the back:
African blackwood is the king of the Rosewoods - it is to Brazilian what Brazilian is to Indian rosewood. This was my ninth guitar and although sounding good there has always been a little something lacking to make it "great" - the African Blackwood is so full of overtones and with my current abilities I wanted to make it "great". I left the back and sides far too thick for African Blackwood and the funky shape with large upper bout of the “Butterfly” was to take full advantage of the butterfly figure of the back.
I came up with a more elegant shape that still shows off the figure. It has “similarish” size to the Torres style classical guitar “El Levantine” that Colin Symonds made for me that has a Caucasian spruce top so when Colin kindly gave me a Caucasian spruce set it became obvious to me where it should end up. With a 13.5" lower bout its similar in size to a Martin O sized guitar. Taking apart, rebuilding and eventually recycling all of the pieces of a guitar is an interesting challenge in itself and I have a low boredom threshold, so in June and July this year the “Butterfly” became “Féileacán” – the gaelic for Butterfly.
In wood terms this guitar is almost fully transcontinental. Europe is represented by the cherry and lime end-blocks, the European spruce linings, and the sycamore neck, Asia (just) by the Caucasian spruce top, Africa by the African Blackwood b/s and fingerboard, Australasia by the Curly eucalyptus binding, North America by the Lutz bracing and South America by the Katalox rosette and headstock veneer and Brazilian Rosewood bridge. I don’t think wood grows in the Arctic and Antartic regions but I could be wrong.
Here are some pictures of the finished guitar - it is 630-660mm multiscale but has 13 frets clear of the body:
The guitar has been strung up for nearly a month now and I'm happy with the result. Today I did a first recording - a piece introduced to me by Keith and that he recorded with The Traveller, Ken Nicol's lovely waltz I.H. (Scottish Tune). It's in DADGAD Capo 3, and was recorded with my usual set up of an AKG C1000S microphone mixed down with flat EQ and no added effects.
I.H
I did a photo documentary of the deconstruction and reconstruction here on the Luthier Community Forum."
Here's a Youtube video of me playing a DADGAD version of "Yesterday" (loosely based on Laurence Juber's arrangement) filmed on a small camera for someone who wanted to learn the piece - hence the focus on the guitar rather than my beautiful features
The Caucasian spruce top has blossomed beautifully over the last few months and it's a little monster "Six years ago I made a "dream guitar" for my 50th birthday present - a European Spruce/African Blackwood 13 frets clear of the body guitar called “Butterfly” :
It was called "Butterfly" because of the figure on the back:
African blackwood is the king of the Rosewoods - it is to Brazilian what Brazilian is to Indian rosewood. This was my ninth guitar and although sounding good there has always been a little something lacking to make it "great" - the African Blackwood is so full of overtones and with my current abilities I wanted to make it "great". I left the back and sides far too thick for African Blackwood and the funky shape with large upper bout of the “Butterfly” was to take full advantage of the butterfly figure of the back.
I came up with a more elegant shape that still shows off the figure. It has “similarish” size to the Torres style classical guitar “El Levantine” that Colin Symonds made for me that has a Caucasian spruce top so when Colin kindly gave me a Caucasian spruce set it became obvious to me where it should end up. With a 13.5" lower bout its similar in size to a Martin O sized guitar. Taking apart, rebuilding and eventually recycling all of the pieces of a guitar is an interesting challenge in itself and I have a low boredom threshold, so in June and July this year the “Butterfly” became “Féileacán” – the gaelic for Butterfly.
In wood terms this guitar is almost fully transcontinental. Europe is represented by the cherry and lime end-blocks, the European spruce linings, and the sycamore neck, Asia (just) by the Caucasian spruce top, Africa by the African Blackwood b/s and fingerboard, Australasia by the Curly eucalyptus binding, North America by the Lutz bracing and South America by the Katalox rosette and headstock veneer and Brazilian Rosewood bridge. I don’t think wood grows in the Arctic and Antartic regions but I could be wrong.
Here are some pictures of the finished guitar - it is 630-660mm multiscale but has 13 frets clear of the body:
The guitar has been strung up for nearly a month now and I'm happy with the result. Today I did a first recording - a piece introduced to me by Keith and that he recorded with The Traveller, Ken Nicol's lovely waltz I.H. (Scottish Tune). It's in DADGAD Capo 3, and was recorded with my usual set up of an AKG C1000S microphone mixed down with flat EQ and no added effects.
I.H
I did a photo documentary of the deconstruction and reconstruction here on the Luthier Community Forum."
Here's a Youtube video of me playing a DADGAD version of "Yesterday" (loosely based on Laurence Juber's arrangement) filmed on a small camera for someone who wanted to learn the piece - hence the focus on the guitar rather than my beautiful features
