Washburn style parlour build
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:36 am
Okay here at London Metropolitan we all have to make one of these ladder braced parlour guitars based, on an old Washburn plan.
My tutor Nick Pyall http://www.nickpyall.co.uk/ is quite the Historian, having done his dr. thesis on this stuff. He insures me that at the time these small gems weren't called 'parlour' guitars, there is in fact apparently some evidence to suggest that a Parlour was in fact a larger model.
Anyways they'r nice little guitars, I rather like the shape and the fact they don't give you a arm ache.
spec: European Spruce soundboard, East Indian Rosewood back & sides, fingerboard, head stock veneers and bridge, Sapele neck.
I had fun making the M.O.P. Rosette 22 pieces all cut out with a jewellers saw and filed to shape. On reflection it's perhaps a bit too big, a thinner more traditional one may have looked more elegant on such a dainty instrument. It's surprisingly loud and responsive to play although it does sound somewhat boxy and narrow, due I presume to limitations of it's size and the ladder bracing.
My tutor Nick Pyall http://www.nickpyall.co.uk/ is quite the Historian, having done his dr. thesis on this stuff. He insures me that at the time these small gems weren't called 'parlour' guitars, there is in fact apparently some evidence to suggest that a Parlour was in fact a larger model.
Anyways they'r nice little guitars, I rather like the shape and the fact they don't give you a arm ache.
spec: European Spruce soundboard, East Indian Rosewood back & sides, fingerboard, head stock veneers and bridge, Sapele neck.
I had fun making the M.O.P. Rosette 22 pieces all cut out with a jewellers saw and filed to shape. On reflection it's perhaps a bit too big, a thinner more traditional one may have looked more elegant on such a dainty instrument. It's surprisingly loud and responsive to play although it does sound somewhat boxy and narrow, due I presume to limitations of it's size and the ladder bracing.