On the Bench - Antonio Torres FE 19 Guitar: The Bridge is On!
Torres believed that the soundboard was the single most vital component of the guitar.
Jose Romanillos, Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker, 1987
I assembled this guitar earlier this year and today I was able to glue the bridge onto the guitar's top.
This is always a little nerve wracking, there is always the chance that the bridge will shift under the clamps pressure and I may not notice it in time. Before I do this procedure, I do spend some time making sure that I locate the bridge in the correct place with the proper amount of string compensation (for intonation), the saddle must be parallel to the frets and that the outer string holes are parallel to the neck.
Three clamps and cauls to glue the bridge in place.
I should really call this a Torres/Santos model guitar. It's outline is that of Torres FE19 guitar (as rendered by Neil Ostberg, click here to see his wonderful site and to download those plans), but at the last minute I decided to use a bracing pattern that was used by the great Santos Hernandez on a guitar he made in 1930.
Torres used a bracing pattern that resembles a kite, click here to see that, it makes for a very well balanced guitar, but the parallel bracing of the 1930 Santos really intrigued me. Click here to see that guitar plan.
I've used the standard Torres bracing on other guitars and it works well, I wanted to experiment on this guitar and next weekend after I have fretted over the frets, installed the tuning machines and new Savarez strings I will find out what voice "Amparo" will have.
Jose Romanillos, Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker, 1987
I assembled this guitar earlier this year and today I was able to glue the bridge onto the guitar's top.
This is always a little nerve wracking, there is always the chance that the bridge will shift under the clamps pressure and I may not notice it in time. Before I do this procedure, I do spend some time making sure that I locate the bridge in the correct place with the proper amount of string compensation (for intonation), the saddle must be parallel to the frets and that the outer string holes are parallel to the neck.
Three clamps and cauls to glue the bridge in place.
I should really call this a Torres/Santos model guitar. It's outline is that of Torres FE19 guitar (as rendered by Neil Ostberg, click here to see his wonderful site and to download those plans), but at the last minute I decided to use a bracing pattern that was used by the great Santos Hernandez on a guitar he made in 1930.
Torres used a bracing pattern that resembles a kite, click here to see that, it makes for a very well balanced guitar, but the parallel bracing of the 1930 Santos really intrigued me. Click here to see that guitar plan.
I've used the standard Torres bracing on other guitars and it works well, I wanted to experiment on this guitar and next weekend after I have fretted over the frets, installed the tuning machines and new Savarez strings I will find out what voice "Amparo" will have.
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