falcate nylon "cross-over" style

[Mark McLean]

It has been a while since I posted any of my own guitar builds here. This is the most recent one – the fifth guitar that I have completed. It is my first nylon string, and my first try of falcate bracing.

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In a nutshell it is Blackheart sassafras and European spruce. Indian rosewood bridge and fingerboard. Bindings and headstock faceplate are bocote, which is very close in colour to the EIR, but with more interesting grain and figure. Neck joint is a bolt-on butt joint with bolt-down fingerboard extension (so a completely removable neck). Bracing is falcate pattern, sitka spruce. Scale length 24.7 inch, 13 fret neck and zero fret.
I actually started this guitar a few years ago as a L-00 steel-string project. I had a disaster due to my complete disregard of humidity control in the workshop at that time. Before I even finished it the original bunya top caved in and cracked when it got a bit dry. I shelved it for quite a while and built another two guitars before reconsidering what to do with this one. By now I had a few spare steel-strings lying around the house so I thought this small body might make a good nylon-string instrument instead.

The back and sides (originally from Tim Spittle) were fine to re-use. I teamed it up with a new European Spruce top. I had also been thinking and reading a bit about Selmer-Maccaferri guitars and obtained some plans from the Charle shop in Paris – so you will see a bit of that influence here. Finally, I had obtained the Gilet/Gore books so I was keen to give falcate bracing a try.

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This one is certainly not a classical guitar. Perhaps in the category of a "cross-over" nylon string. The nut width is 1.75 inches, the fingerboard is radiused and the neck profile is more like a steel-string than a classical. Bound fingerboard and semi-hemispherical fret ends (my first try of this - not too hard, but certainly takes a bit of time). I stole that "snooker-cue" treatment of the backstrap/neck from Nigel Forster's guitars (nice idea Nigel).

18-hole bridge gives a good break angle over the saddle and it looks much neater not to be tying a knot across the lower part of the bridge.

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I haven’t done any testing of the plate frequencies yet. I put in capacity to add side mass, but haven’t got into that black magic yet.

Here are a few pics of the neck joint method, using the jig from Luthier's cool tools, which I really like:
http://www.luthierscooltools.com/Tools.htm#Bolt-on

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Finishing is still a weak point of my building. This is a hand applied satin oil finish. I quite like the matt and rustic look, but it is not as slick as some would prefer. Maybe I will perfect that in the next build. There are always new challenges to look forward to…….

Here it is hanging with two of my other builds.

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[lamanoditrento]

Very nice! I love the back strap

[Fisherman]

Really pretty guitar, Mark. It's nice to see a classical classical that is different to the usual Hauser or Torres shape. If my counting is right... the 13 fret join means 20 frets and still plenty of real estate for the soundhole to still be a circle (although even more space in this case with the oval). Nice idea and I like the look, it really highlights that pretty rosette.

How did you cut the oval shape for the rosette and soundhole?

Cheers
Peter

[Fisherman]

Really pretty guitar, Mark. It's nice to see a classical that is different to the usual Hauser or Torres shape. If my counting is right... the 13 fret join means 20 frets and still plenty of real estate for the soundhole to be a circle (although even more space in this case with the oval). Nice idea and I like the look, it really highlights that pretty rosette.

How did you cut the oval shape for the rosette and soundhole?

Cheers
Peter

[Mark McLean]

Thanks Trent. The backstrap extending down the neck is quite easy to do. You bend it to fit the scarf joint angle and glue it oversized onto the neck blank while it is still flat - before any carving is done. You need to work out the thicknesses, but then as you carve the neck shape you remove most of the darker wood and it magically takes on the desired shape.

Peter - you are right - the oval soundhole was an aesthetic choice. There was room for a round one if preferred. In my last photo, of the 3 guitars, the one on the right is a similar body size and a 13-fret neck, but with a round hole.

I spent a bit of time working out a method for doing the oval shape. I am sure experienced mandolin builders like Peter Coombe or Graham McDonald have perfected a method for this, and perhaps they do it using more traditional hand tools. I am used to cutting circles with a Dremmel tool jig so I tried to adapt that for cutting an ellipse. I have put my method in a separate post in the tutorials section, so that it won't get lost in this thread. I am not sure that it is better than any other method. All I can say is that it worked for me.

cheers
Mark

[Fisherman]

Thanks Mark. I asked because I hope to try it out on an upcoming build... the oval shape looks great on this guitar.

[nkforster]

A few folk have nicked the backstrap idea - but you're the first one to credit me so ta! Actually, when you look back, it has been on Gibson mandolins and some banjos since the 20's so I can't claim it. But I think I may have been one of the first to try it out on a steel string.

Great work!

Nigel

[Mark McLean]

Thanks Nigel. It is true that most ideas and techniques are derivative from somebody else's idea. But I think it is important to give credit to where you found it.

[ckngumbo]

Very nice congrats!