Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hi All,

My first attempt at a Flamenco , sounds good, not quite as bitey as I had hoped , but loud enough and with enough attack to Pass for a Flamenco.

Top is Lutz ( High Mountain)
B&S are Cypress ( Tim )
Trims and Fretboard are all EIR
Neck is Spanish Cedar (Tim)
Top is Finished with hard shellac
the rest is finished with Nitro

Cheers,

Paul.

Beautiful work Paul, and good to see a macrocarpa guitar on here - I've got a soft spot for it! A nice renewable and cheap timber which looks great.

R

Very nice Paul, the colours all work great. The electric's not too shabby either.
Wayne

hi, which variety of cypress is that?
i am thinking of building a flamenco next. what weight is your guitar, and do you know what body resonance you ended up with and what interval the back pitch is to the top pitch?
did you take any work in progress photos? interested to see inside
did you use light weight woods for the linings inside and the braces?

Hi KPCART,

In order,

Macrocarpa.

1.2 kg .

Around 90 ish for the main air T (1,1)1 and around 172 ish for the top T (1,1)2 .

No measurement for the back as all the flamenco guys I have seen play have the back firmly up against their gut's so was irrelevant for me.

No WIP shot's , No internals.

Top / side joint is Spanish cedar tentellones, Back side joint is Solid Pallowinia laminated linings, Braces are fine grained Engelman.

5 brace fan , with 3 ladder braces for the back with some small radials in the lower bout.

My first flamenco build, so I'm no authority on flamenco or indeed and other style, I just plug away and try to improve with each build, probably best you get yourself a copy of Trevor's Book and get your guidance from that along with some plans for a well regarded design, if i built another

I would use Engleman for the top.

Cheers,

She looks pretty cool Paul, very well done.

Steve

ozwood wrote:Hi KPCART,

In order,

Macrocarpa.

1.2 kg .

Around 90 ish for the main air T (1,1)1 and around 172 ish for the top T (1,1)2 .

No measurement for the back as all the flamenco guys I have seen play have the back firmly up against their gut's so was irrelevant for me.

No WIP shot's , No internals.

Top / side joint is Spanish cedar tentellones, Back side joint is Solid Pallowinia laminated linings, Braces are fine grained Engelman.

5 brace fan , with 3 ladder braces for the back with some small radials in the lower bout.

My first flamenco build, so I'm no authority on flamenco or indeed and other style, I just plug away and try to improve with each build, probably best you get yourself a copy of Trevor's Book and get your guidance from that along with some plans for a well regarded design, if i built another

I would use Engleman for the top.

Cheers,

thanks for your reply, the montrey cypress is cosmetically not to my liking (too wide grain), and is a bit heavier then other cypresses from what i have read - but that is personal oppinion, and you look to have done a good job of using it and if it works then that is great! -i personally like the canadian yellow cedar - cypress i believe, super tight grain with super crossgrain. i like your internal specs. dont agree with you on not thicknessing the back though... you can do a comparison yourself, play a guitar with a heavily laminated back, and one with a very light cypress back, then play them with the guitar against your belly, you will still notice a difference. the belly doesnt do as much effect as you think! the sound bounces off the inside of the back wood before it hits the belly (or something like that, i am not a scientist - either way you can hear the difference in real time better then just assuming it doesnt matter).
i like your rosewood on back of the headstock, reminds me of a great Aussie classical/spanish guitar maker, Andreas de Jaeger, dutch maker who built in perth 60s, 70s and 80s.

Yeah Right .........thanks for that.

Looks even better in the "flesh" and sounds wonderful both to play and to listen to.
It's a winner for sure Paul.

Floorboards never sounded so good! A beautiful guitar, Paul and a joy to play.
Wasn't able to do the "double-blind belly test" though. Mine had so much tasty tucker in it I couldn't separate it from the back of the guitar. Thanks again.

What can I say Paul....you're banned!!!

Thanks fellas,


And Umm......... Martin


The Local Luthiers Dinner, pictured below , Jeff Highland ( Jeffhigh), Paul Lambert (ozwood) , Derek Dowding ( Dekka) including a ring-in from WA Timothy J Spittle Esquire with our good mate and prolific Luthier ,Mark Redman not picture , who took the photo.


Was a great night and they were all very polite and said nice things about my wide grained floorboards flamenco.

Cheers,

Nah, we weren't being polite, we just wanted to take it home!!

hi , i want to apologise if my comment came across as mean, the guitar actually caught my eye, i was very interested in it, but maybe my ignorance came through when commenting about this wider grain cypress (even though i said if it works, then that is great). i am actaully looking at building an alternative australian timber flamenco guitar soon, and if also calls for wider grain wood, then i will use it if it works!
it sounds like this one worked, so maybe i will need to purchase some macrocarpa at some point for my collection just to feel it in my hands.

having owned about 80 classical and flamenco guitar, i will politely stick with my view that the back thicknessing (and bracing) is very important to the whole package, and much more so to a tradtional fan braced instrument, but at the same time, no offense intended! just a comment.

you guys seem like a great bunch of guys in thise forum, ill try not to make any more commentary that comes across as rude.

No offense taken,

Just the boy's having a tongue in cheek dig at me, because the most common use of Macrocarpa is T&G floorboards.

But I did not say that I did not give due consideration to the bracing or how I thicknessed the back, I just did not see any point trying to separate out a back frequency for the collection of data, when it's going be pressed up against someones belly, because whatever the frequency is in free air is different to what it will be pressed up against someones belly and therefor of little interest for me.

Same goes for stage guitars, no point making a live back if the guy is standing up with a strap, back is against his belly.

You wish to build a Spanish style guitar with KBP, for a top, many would argue that it's not the first or best choice for that purpose but you have your reasons for wanting to try, whilst I agree that Macrocarpa may not be the premium Flamenco wood, for a first time build I would rather learn my lessons with a lower value alternative, than spend hundreds on master grade stuff, that set was under $100 so if it was a disaster ... no great loss.

If your going to build a Spanish style guitar with all Australian native timbers you are going to be building with some very unconventional timbers, BUT I say go for it, see what you can do and learn from it, no one on this fine forum will criticize you for having a go

It's a great forum, full of very supportive, mostly hobbyist Luthiers who pride themselves on providing honest advice in good faith, and any advice sought in good faith is always generously forthcoming.

I look forward to seeing your all Aussie timbered Spanish style.

Cheers,