MIMF

The paper on D.Field style shows that he is now staying under a double influence. One, the traditional romantic "french design" for instance Louis Pons as shown by the American lutherie plan N° 63 . Two, the Fleta family design, but treated in a much lighter way. Also, the ribs are made he...

Stephen, The main "French masters", long after R.B. have, I think, all departed from the RB original designs, but the complete set of their more recent designs kept some ideas of changing the amount of transverse compared with longitudinal rigidity to a slight benefit of the transverse one...

Stephen,
My feeling is that your First Bouchet bar could be on the strong side . It is vanishing more progressively at both ends. If you decide to shave, do it a little more on the bass side. Good luck.

Stephen,
Two points. One, Bouchet suppressed the closing bars when the soul bar was introduced. Second, he almost always braced a little less strongly the bass side.
Very nice work of yours, as usual.

Bill, you found the Field document and I thank you . Hello to you and Suzan .Hope you are well.

The most interesting document I know about the structural evolution of the set of guitars made by R.B. is the work of Dominique Field. It is a rather short paper but from a very well informed author. Field shared a lot during a large period with R.B. who considered him as his "fils spirituel&qu...

Thanks, specially to Stephen, who make me aware of a kind of "big sleep of mine", at MIMF level, and that was not very kind for the good friends I have in that very helpful and cosy forum. First I apologize. I should be more in the "digital world" than I am. My defense is my very...

Hi Simon, I am not so sure poplar here is the same as poplar there. For instance the poplar used sometimes by the Cremona masters for back and sides of the quatuor instruments is "black poplar" (pioppo nero) also called sometimes "pioppo cypressino". The tree look different and I...

Hello Dick, Sorry I did not notice quickly tour post. I have followed the Charles plan but introduced a very slight FB "rounding", I would say half way between a flat line and an usual rounding as seen on electrics. I stick to the Savarez Argentine since they gave me full satisfaction, but...

Very interesting instrument, and superb realization. What kind of thicknesses for that top would be my question. Congratulations.
I also love El Choclo. Do you know Roland Dyens (one of our leading guitar players) interpretation of that standard on You Tube?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6k7hPWJOUQ

Young Slovenian guy and surprising imitation...

Hi Paco, Bernard Michaud " Le bois de lutherie" in Fertans near Besançon usually has nice guitar necks planks in Walnut (I suppose from South West France where there are a plenty. Also somewhat expensive but very nice maple cuts. Curly or "moucheté"... I do not know the English w...

It seems this maker was following the standard (at this time) covered V joint method (all over Europe except Spain). A set of videos on You tube by David Schramm can be useful. Also a discussion of possible interest for you on the Delcamp English guitar Forum. BTW, in American Lutherie N° 104 Winter...

X-ray tomography has been often used by very exacting measurers, generally Museum guys. To give an example an interesting written introduction to this technique, in English, is found in the Journal devoted to violin research in the US. A paper by Borman and Stoel (summer 2009), if my memory still wo...

I wonder if someone has measured properly the thicknesses (including distribution) of a Ramirez III "post war" large WRC model. I do not remember having seen that info before. The short paper visible on internet (by Gruhn, Gruen or a name close to that) is silent on this point.

Just a question. Ramirez III who introduced and consistently used, to my knowledge, this new (and bold) type of diagonal "crossing" strut almost at the same time he pionnered the use of WRC for tops, maybe was also tempted to fight a tendancy to correct a little bit the usually too generou...

I just wanted to underline the fact that the role and importance of tradition, in a rather positive acceptance (which is mine I confess), should be discussed for each kind of instrument. Not"in general". And we all know that the problem of wood choices is different for instruments going di...

This topic will logically be very long, I fear it mixes too many ideas. It starts with, maybe and according to me, a slight lack of precision in what is meant about the world of string instruments. For some instruments one has no freedom of course, for others he has plenty. For some makers the input...

We all copy existing models, to a large extent. Professional builders try to reproduce, from one guitar to the other, the sound for which they are known, and this both for Flamencas and classical guitars. But focusing on bars and struts is not enough, this is what I firmly believe. You have to repro...

Hello Murray,
A nice balance around a perfect oval soundhole. You are expertly reviving some old under rated skills such as Laprévotte's. Plus your original ideas of course. Bravo, as usual.