The latest guitar on my workbench is a double top, or composite top, classical guitar, Western Red Cedar top with a Nomex core that is covered with a veneer of old growth Coastal Redwood. I used a wider cell honeycomb Nomex on this guitar to see how a lighter top will respond under string tension. I changed up the bracing pattern for this guitar, just five struts… …and the two outer struts pass underneath the lower transverse bar.  I use lots of clothes pins to clamp the back linings to the sides. I cut up an old tire inner tube to use as “rope” to glue on the back. The t ..read more

 Yes, I have an account on Substack.com. All you have to do is type my name, Wilson Burnham, into the search engine on Substack and you will find my first post.  I’m not leaving Blogger, I will post about my new guitars as they come available and maybe a post or two about woodworking. And to let you know when I sell some of my vintage tools on eBay. The main reason for starting a Substack is to attract more classical guitarists, and those who are interested in guitars, maybe engage a few of them and gain a few more customers.  Enjoy your week working in your shop ..read more

My 2021 European Spruce/Canada Cypress classical guitar is available again at Savage Classical Guitar!   European spruce top  Back and sides are triple laminated : cypress, birch, curly maple 654mm string length 52mm wide fretboard at nut 62mm at 12th fret 59mm string spacing at bridge  490mm body length 278mm upper bout  245mm waist 372mm lower bout Ebony fretboard East Indian rosewood bridge Schaller GrandTune tuning machines with bearings A beautiful instrument with a gorgeous voice that is loud and projects, classical guitarist Alfredo Muro declares ..read more

Binding ledges routed this afternoon, bindings are thinned and BWBWB purfling is made. These two photos garnered a lot of interest on my Instagram account this week, and I am a little baffled by the interest. I assume that it is because very few people get to see what a guitar looks like before the bindings are installed. This isn’t a guitar that I made, it was built by a very, very well known European guitar maker and was horribly mistreated by its previous owner. I purchased this guitar and now in the process of restoring it. It has an Italian spruce top and East Indian rosewood back an ..read more

Inspired by Andrés Segovia’s famous 1912 Manuel Ramirez guitar, I chose Western red cedar top and East Indian rosewood back and sides from my collection of tone wood once owned by the late John Weissenrieder, an American guitar maker who lived in Italy. It has three piece twenty-plus year old Western red cedar top, a Simplicio style rosette and an East Indian rosewood bridge with a Mother of Pearl/bone tie block cover.  The back and sides are East Indian rosewood that was milled in Milan, Italy in 2001. This wood was once owned by late John Weissenrieder, an American guitar maker who ..read more

Facing up, or “taking out of wind”, is the producing of a practically true surface upon a piece of wood so that every part lies, in the same plane. George Ellis, Modern Practical Joinery, 1902 I don’t remember when I purchased this back and side set of palo escrito, maybe twelve or fifteen years ago, when Luthiers Mercantile decided that they could no longer offer that wood for sale, their buyers were having problems finding palo escrito that was legally harvested. I thought I would get a set and see what kind of guitar it would make. When the tone wood arrived, I unpacked the back and sides ..read more

Last week this popped up in my email, the famous Luthiers Mercantile is closing its doors for good! Sad news indeed! If you don’t know Luthiers Mercantile, or LMI, was THE place to buy materials to make all manners of chordophones (guitars, mandolins, etc.), tops, backs and sides, tuning machines, fret wire, glue, shellac, etc., etc. I first purchased tonewood from LMI back in 1992 when it was under different ownership than today, that was in the days when the company would mail you a small catalog printed on newspaper and you either called in your order or sent in the order form with a chec ..read more

I might hazard to say this could be one of the finest spruce/maple guitars I have ever played... Rich Savage, owner of Savage Classical Guitar This is Catalina, a guitar I completed in 2022. It is a double top classical guitar, the top is Engelmann spruce with a honeycomb Nomex core, with an inner veneer of Sitka spruce. The back and sides are flamed maple. The back fillet and bindings are East Indian rosewood, the "Ramirez racing strip" in the Spanish cedar neck is East Indian rosewood with BW purfling. The scale length is 648mm. It is currently for sale at Savage Classical Guitar ..read more

Look, listen and do, never ask why! Kennosuke Hayakawa, master Japanese carpenter I started learning the technique of French polishing about seventeen years ago, I watched Ron Fernandez's video, French Polishing for Guitarmakers, 2.0., followed his instructions to the letter on a guitar and was stunned by the beauty of the finish! Before I purchased this video I had used several well known varnishes and various recipes gleaned from wood working magazines on my guitars, the resulting finishes were very disappointing. Yes, French, or English polishing, depending on who you learn from, can be a d ..read more

Our observations have led us to a conclusion that some readers may find surprising: Specific elements of brace design, in and of themselves, are not all that important! One has only to look at the myriad designs employed on great guitars to recognize that there is no design secret that will unlock the door to world-class consistency. A great maker will probably build a great guitar no matter what brace designed is used. William R. Cumpiano, Guitarmaking, Tradition and Technology, 1987 There are many opinions among classical guitar makers and guitarists, especially the guitarists, on how ..read more