What's He Building in There....?
#9 was my first nylon string classical. I built it from a couple of plans I had, but did not really understand the difference in a nylon vs. a steel string. It was also a “test” guitar for three things I had not done before: 1) a nylon string, 2) an adjustable action neck, and 3) an arm bevel. The only thing that actually turned out good was the adjustable neck. I learned a lot on that build, but I have wanted to make a better nylon string, so let’s try it again.
This time I got John Bogdanovich’s Classical Guitar Making: A Modern Approach to Traditional Design. A nylon/classical is a complete different animal from a steel string - my first nylon was WAY over-built and so this time I wanted to get a better understanding of what makes a good nylon string.
Although I tried to follow a traditional approach as much as possible, except for body shape and sound hole. The body shape is my own parlor design. I wanted to put an offset sound hole on this one to give me more flexibility in the bracing of the top. I really dig this particular design because the guitar looks like cutaway, but it ain’t, really. The cedar I used on the top was so thin and brittle by the end, you could blow on it and it would crack.
You can see the fan bracing style that is used in most modern nylons. Torres brought this innovation and it has worked well for over 100 years.
Another HUGE deal on this build was making solid linings as you see in the pic above. I have only used kerfed linings - the linings have saw cuts all around them to make them flexible - up to this point. (The pic on the right shows kerfed linings) Solid linings are supposed to make the sides more rigid and keep more of the energy from the top isolated in the top and thus give more volume and responsiveness. These were very time consuming to make so we will see if they are worth the effort.
Kerfed linings yall
The back is all standard stuff - mahogany bracing, east india rosewood back and sides. You can see the extra support I build in to the upper transverse brace where the fretboard comes out over the body. This is notched into the linings to help support the pressure in that area.
UT brace with extra support locked in
This guitar is the most delicate of any I have made so far. The top is not much stiffer than a piece of cardboard. The nylon strings put far less tension on the top - about 70 lbs I think. Steel strings put about 200 lbs of pressure on the top!!! The nylon has to built in a way that makes the most of that little bit of energy.
closing the box
Now to put the tuning machines and strings on and see what it sounds like.
More pics to come a little later.