Here is the latest on the guitar – bouzouki build.

After gluing the heel and tail blocks yesterday, today I scribed the curve of the back onto the sides and cut them down.  This means the back will fit onto the sides neatly without having to be pulled down.

The lining has already been bent to shape on the bending iron, just as the sides were.  Now I partially shape them and glue them to the sides.  The lining will give gluing area when I glue the back to the sides.  Here they can be seen clamped while the glue dries.

And here are the sides with linings glued and ready to smooth and trim.

Before preparing sides and lining to receive the back, I started on the neck.  I routed a channel for the truss rod, then prepared and glued the head stock onto the neck.  Here it is glued and clamped.

Cody from the US says he’d like to see more in my News page about what goes on in my shop.  So OK Cody, here goes.

Currently I’m building a guitar-bouzouki for an Irish musician.  He plays accompaniment and tunes, so I’m building it octave mandolin scale, which will suit it to both. He will tune it GDAD.

Back and sides are African Blackwood, the soundboard is figured Sitka. It should be a great instrument.  The full scale guitar-bouzouki has 16 frets to the body, so this shorter scale instrument will have 14.

This musician already has two of my instruments, so is familiar with my work.

Here the braces have been shaped and glued in place, the go bars having been removed from the bottom two braces.

African Blackwood varies.  Some bends easily on the heated bender after light damping, some less easily.  After an hour soaking, these sides still felt like iron so I left them to soaking overnight and the next day they were fully cooperative.
After bending on the iron, I clamped them in the mould and left them on the top of the stove for another night.

When the sides came out of the mould, they retained their shape perfectly, so can be built into a guitar creating a minimum of stress.

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Here is the back, with outline and brace positions marked, having the centre join reinforcement glued in the go-bar jig.  The decorative centre strip can be seen at the end of the reinforcement.

It’s my understanding the go-bar jig comes from Japan via the US.  So useful, it simplifies all sorts of gluing procedures and makes cleaning up much easier than working round clamps.

I have colour coded the different bar lengths, each length living in a separate compartment by the side of the jig.

Here the soundboard braces are gluing.  It looks a bit of a forest, but there isn’t too much force being used, just a lot of bars to spread the pressure.

Here are the sides, joined with heel and tail blocks, the back and the soundboard.

Always interesting when a guitarist comes to collect his guitar. Today it was Mark Dennis collecting his Mark 3 Martin Simpson model, identical to the one Martin himself plays.

Mark and Vanessa showing how disappointed they are.

Mark already has one of my earlier guitars. Both he and partner Vanessa commented on how different this one sounds and how much they liked both guitars. After playing it for an hour or so, Mark returned it to its case, looked at it, and said ‘That is fantastic’.

Mark Dennis is a remarkable guitarist, playing with energy and great variation in both volume and technique. Here he is playing my latest Verona model on an earlier visit.  He liked it a lot; it took him the best part of a day to choose between the Verona and the MS.

But after several hours of playing each, Mark settled on the Mark 3 MS Model.  Here he is today, clearly not regretting the decision he eventually made.

Darrell Scott collected his Bearclaw Sitka and African Blackwood Model 2D last March.  He said lovely things about it and took it back to the US.

Recently he sent me this photo.  He didn’t say where it was taken, just that it showed ‘a new part of his act and was very well balanced’.

I also have a Model 2D for sale. Like Darrell’s, it has African Blackwood back and sides, but the soundboard is figured German spruce rather than Sitka.
Very newly strung, it already sounds wonderful and will be on my ‘available now’ page when I’ve taken photos.

My friend Klaus Janke sent me this link to a Mark Knopfler concert in Italy.

https:www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XieQxMDSJo

At around 50 minutes, Mark plays my MS Model on Matchstick Man. It looks wonderful. And he gives it a little kiss.

Figured Sitka soundboard

Malaysian Blackwood back and sides, Wengé neck

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Steinbeck S and Model 2 D guitars

Darrell playing the figured Sitka and African Blackwood D guitar

Playing the figured Sitka and Malaysian Blackwood Steinbeck S