Parlour guitar questions

[Stephen M. Faulk]

I've inlet X braces into the upper transverse brace in the past. I would not leave those upper ends floating: too much of a chance of them peeling up, particularly if the top takes a knock.

Noted for the next one. This top still has 10 mm of over hang from the outline, then 2mm of ribs and 7 or 8 mm of liner. By the time all this is done the brace ends will be very close to the liner and I will secure somehow, maybe a pillar running up the side sitting on the brace end.

[Stephen M. Faulk]

Hey Stephen, I've built some guitars based on a plantilla very similar to the guitar in your third photo. My regular, daily players are both based on that shape. The SS is bubinga with Eng spruce, and the CG is CA walnut with Eng spruce. I also built a SS from CA walnut with Eng spruce for a friend. All sounded great. The SS versions are a pretty standard X brace design, 12 frets to the body. CG's are a basic 7 fan. The SS ones were optimized for light tension strings. Scale lengths are close to 640mm, so the light tension strings end up feeling pretty good. These guitars are all about 14 1/4" at the lower bout, and the proportions look very much like yours.

If you built a SS to that shape, you might really like it. If I build any more like that, I'll be sticking to back and side materials that tap as bright as possible. The bubinga was really good, the walnut a bit mellow for my taste.

I left the necks on the SS's a couple of mm wider than standard SS necks, so they're a bit more comfortable for CG players crossing over to the dark side. It does make it tough to sneak your thumb over the top to fret the low E string, but not many classical players are comfortable doing that anyway. Thumb muting is about as much as I can get used to myself. The necks on the classicals are a couple of mm narrower than standard CG's.

Hey Brad, long time no see.

Good idea. The narrow lower but classical is 13" wide in the lower bout. The photo does not really show the proportion well. I have been toting with the idea of just making SS with my regular flamenco plantilla which is a Santos derived outline. And I have a 19th century Torres size I have made as a classical that would be nice. I think I am going to have change some of what I am doing and make SS half the time, folks around here just shrug their shoulders over nylon guitars. The repair work I get is all steel string also. 90% of my work is export and it's getting tiring to buy boxes and do all mailing and worrying.

I've been making nice compound curve cutaways and I think those might be sexy as SS. Thats' why I'm making this off handed small one, I have the material laying around and the stake are not high. I've already learned you must make those brace ends tuck under something!

This is the Torres-ish plantilla I make another small classical on. I think i could be a SS

[Bryan Bear]

I post this picture not as advice but because it may spur the discussion on x bracing these little guys. I have not finished this guitar so I have no idea what it will sound like. The bracing was as much intuition as anything else so I make no claims that it is a good way to go. This body is bigger than yours but I had to make the same types of descisions, how wide to make the X and still hit the bridge, tone bar behind the X. . . I ended up widening the splay of the X as much as I could which meant I had to tuck the upper ends right at the waist.

Body length 18 1/4", lower bout 12 3/4", 12 fret 24.9" scale.

[Mark Day]

Bryan Bear said:

welcome you to the dark side!

Actually classical guitars are the "dark" side and steel strings are the "bright" side ; )

[Matthew Lau]

Bryan Bear said:

welcome you to the dark side!

Actually classical guitars are the "dark" side and steel strings are the "bright" side ; )

Not to Stephen. He's a flamenco man--so steel strings are definitely darker.

On a side note, I think the steel string guitar in a classical plantilla would sound really great.
It's enough where I'm thinking of getting back to building just to use classical plantilla to build a steel string guitar for my little sister.

-Matt

ps. Stephen, are you back in the States? I owe you a great burrito

[Matthew Lau]

Not to derrail the thread, but I'm thinking of building a parlor for my sister.


Would you guys recommend any particular wood to compliment a redwood top?

My sister isn't really a true player, so will probably be too lazy to develop calluses--thus short scale and low tensions. She's a slender, asian female about 5'4", so a parlor or 00 guitar might be perfect for her.
Lastly, she seems to like darker colored woods for the back and sides.

I'd appreciate your thoughts guys!

[Alan Carruth]

I use my standard Classical pattern for 00 size guitars; it's somewhat different from Martin's shape, but fits in the case, and I have the patterns already.

Walnut and redwood is a great combination, as is cherry and redwood. Both walnut and cherry are close to mahogany in some respects, and that's a good combo as well. Redwood usually has much lower damping than spruce, so it tends to make up a bit for a higher damping B&S wood. I've made a number of 00 size guitars with those combinations and liked them all.

[James Meloan]

Not to derrail the thread, but I'm thinking of building a parlor for my sister.


Would you guys recommend any particular wood to compliment a redwood top?

My sister isn't really a true player, so will probably be too lazy to develop calluses--thus short scale and low tensions. She's a slender, asian female about 5'4", so a parlor or 00 guitar might be perfect for her.
Lastly, she seems to like darker colored woods for the back and sides.

I'd appreciate your thoughts guys!

I'm pretty fond of walnut for sides and backs. I just built a smaller short scale (24.75) guitar in redwood and walnut, kind of a small deep body, based on the Nick Lucas model.
The sound is definitely "good enough for the girls I go with", but I haven't built enough instruments yet to know how much the wood species contributes to the sound and how much comes from from the overall brujeria of luthierie.

[Mark Swanson]

I have also used and really liked Cherry and Walnut with redwood...and I built small guitars with it too. I agree, it is great!

[Stephen M. Faulk]

This is encouraging. I really don't have time to make steel string forms right at the moment, good to know making SS with the classical pattern is still ok. The only real challenge is to come up with a neck attachment system that I can deal with.

I'm curious light Hinoki top wood do, and also god to now redwood and cherry is pair together well. I also can pick up other woods like Keyaki and other woods. My problem is getting it rewawn. I am having a difficult time locating someone who knows how to resaw under 4 mm thick.

Matt, Next I visit I'll let you know. Perhaps in the rainy season here I'll get to dry California to hawk my wares. In Kyushu rainy season is mid May to mid June give or take two weeks. Building during that window is fairly miserable, and fishing is not happening either so it's not productive. We call it 'nombiori' - 'drinking weather', and the commissar in charge of health and household order does not appreciate my having taken to the local custom of celebrating drinking weather. May and June are really the cruelest months.