The final finish for the guitar was French Polishing. It took several weeks.
There's an excellent web site with detailed information on this technique by Orville and Robert Milburn.
(Click on the pictures for larger images)
This is a picture of the moment when
it was finally strung up and I heard its sound for the first time. It was very satisfying, no teething problems like string buzzing
to sort out, which I had expected.
It had a deep rich tone despite the bridge
being chunky, prior to final trimming for intonation and height adjustment.
Bridge material - ebony, hollowed, final height 18mm, resting on the
soundboard along its whole length .
The sound is totally different to a regular steel string acoustic, more like a Spanish guitar's balance of sound. It's also very dynamic and responsive to touch, with a wide range of tone and volume.
Over the last year or so it has
matured nicely and used regularly with our band (The
Pluck & Squeeze Band).
Here are sound
clips from a recent gig.
Looking back, it really has been a worthwhile project. The research was very rewarding, established makers of these instruments have been generous in sharing their expertise on particular aspects of Maccaferri guitars - so a big thank you to John Le Voi and David Hodson.
It's also been great to correspond and exchange ideas with Bill Raymond from San Diego, while working on our projects.
A web site that's become invaluable for guitar construction is The Musical Instrument Makers Forum.
The guitar was completed over 4 years, working intermittently,
(with a long break to build a loft conversion for a workshop).
It's been great, working away, listening to Django on the stereo in the workshop
as the project progressed, using mainly hand tools.
The process of working with fine woods has been satisfying in
itself and has become compulsive.
The next guitar is now almost completed, a similar
Maccaferri type, with the addition of the heat-bent dome in the front.
It will be interesting to
hear if there's a big difference in its sound.
Here are some final pictures of the completed instrument -
(Click on the pictures for larger images)
Sound Clips
Chords Single Notes A bit of both
Home, Sides 1 - 2, Back, Front 1 - 2, Binding, Body, Neck 1 - 2, Neck & Body, Finishing
Just finished - Maccaferri Project 2, with a heat-bent top (pliage).
Any correspondence on this topic
would be very welcome.
Contact Peter Davies at - pluckandsqueeze@hotmail.com
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