Archive for June, 2009

The HEALDSBURG GUITAR FESTIVAL commences on the 14th August and runs through to Sunday the 16th of August.

It is held at the Wells Fargo Centre for the Arts,  just out of Santa Rosa, close to Healdsburg in the beautiful Napa valley area.

Hundreds of handmade instruments ,carefully and lovingly crafted by Luthiers from six (6) continents, will be on display, to play,purchase or just otherwise browse and admire. Custom steel string,crossover and Baritones’,Classical, Solidbodys’ and beautiful archtops will be found amongst the hundreds of exhibits.

FURTHER there will be ongoing Concerts and workshops, Featuring some of todays most sought after performers and instructors, for example on Saturday morning the 15th August there will be a Luthiery workshop held by—- who is regarded as being amongst the finest of Luthiers in the World he will be talking to the subject of——–  so what a treat in store for all those lucky enough to be able to attend.

There will also be  a bevy of Guitar Merchant Booths  —- SO BRING YOUR MONEY WITH YOU.

I fly over for the festival arriving on  on the 12 Th. August  and attending some of the workshops and seminars. I have arranged my program so that I will have plenty of time to look at and play Instruments that take my fancy. Subject to me obtaining permission ,I will record and photograph as much of the festival as I can. I plan ,each night to post to the Valleys Guitar Web site an edited selection of each days events all photographic material will be in High Definition Video that can be downloaded from by site along with sound patches in MP3 Format. I will also be uploading still Photos of interest taken in RAW format but manipulated in Photoshop so that the High Definition stills can be uploaded and therefore assessable to those who wish to download from my site. Inquiries that I have so far are very positive and I do not expect to meet with any resistance to me Photographing or sound recording material from the Festival. I will post further on this site later today,particularly with respect to the program.

As you will recall the sides had been bent and were ready for the next stage.

The Universal mould was to get its maiden trial, that required the wooden bolsters to be positioned,using a templet, so that it exactly represented the dimensions of the Parlor guitar that is being built in this Project. This is not a big or difficult job and with use of the Templets, was accomplished in 10 minutes.The moment that the Mould was ready the bent , but as yet uncut sides, were fitted into the mould and the spreaders were positioned and tension applied.

The sides were then trimmed and contoured neck and heal blocks were positioned and glued into place and the tension re-applied.

* NOTE that the 2 bolsters at each end of the  mould have been removed and specially contoured blocks positioned in their stead. This assures an even application of the glue over the blocks and at the right radius.

Well the mould is now finished and quite a job it was. It was crucial that the holes in the wooden bollards be absolutely straight and of uniform depth. This was accomplished with a vice bolted to the plate on my drill press and the depth gauge on the side of the press.

Here is a picture of the finished mould, if you want to see it being used go to the posts under “Special Projects” PR-2

Finished Universal Mould -- in use

You may have all been wondering what I have been up to and why I have not been posting on the four Special projects that I have commenced. Well, I had  a guitar to complete for a Client and importantly I have been on the hustings looking for a Universal Mould that would allow me to move between Guitars in the course of completion and importantly looking for a mould that would allow me to set-up for unusual dimensioned instruments and different  size and type of cutaway.
I have for some time, been a great fan of Instruments made by Dennis Scannell of True North Guitars, Vermont USA., Dennis is a true Artisan and from the Pictures I have seen of his Shop, his imagination and innovation is truly orsome. It was amongst the moulds and Templets that he has fashioned that I found the Templet that I needed,so I set about to make one of my own. 

I first had to make a templet of the Templet Mould.I needed to make a Templet that would  fit everything from a small bodied Parlor Guitar to a super Jumbo of say, a J-200 size. This was not  an easy task and required a deal of experimentation until I was able to fit the sliding circular bolsters to fit all the different sizes that I wanted to build.

Close-up of Templet showing workings

Templet of The Mould Templet

Having made the Templet I drew it onto a piece 25 mm ply and cut out the Mould. The Bolster were cut from 30 mm wooden rod, cut to 100 mm in length, thirty seven (37) in all.The Bolsters were then drilled out to a depth of 50 mm. Thirty seven, 8 mm diameter threaded steel rods were cut to a length of 110 mm and fitted on one end with a washer,wing nut and a locking nut ,the other end was stuck into the Bolsters to a depth of 2″. These were then allowed to slide to the desired point one at a time until the shape of the Guitar, to be constructed, was proportioned. A cross base was then fashioned from Timber 60 mm by 90 mm so that the finished base could stand by itself or be affixed in a vice.

I have set out a series of pictures that tell the “construction”story. I will finnish the Templet to day and get it straight to work. I hope to be able to post Pictures of the Templet at work tonight.