Good Things Come in Threes – Necks

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I’m building three guitars. They are intended to be as similar as they can be… except for the top composition. The tops will cedar, cut from the same billet. The backs and sides will be East Indian Rosewood. The doubled … Continue reading

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Turn Around – Lefty to Righty

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Sometimes I get requests to build left-handed guitars.  Some players learn to play lefty.  It just seems ‘right’ to them.  Hey, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix…  So anyway, there are left-handed guitars on the market to satisfy the relatively small … Continue reading

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A new month, December, a new GOTM

It’s for a young lady in Vancouver and you can check it out

 

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A new guitar of the month…

Big news … there is a new guitar of the month.

Go see it here….

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New music from de Falla…

Nacio sent me a couple of recordings.   You can find them on the music page…http://www.ganzguitars.com/music/ but here are direct links Sparrows Watch Sun Dog Playful Loons Brujo – 8 string Thanks Nacio! You can visit his facebook page…  

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Experimental 8 – “Spare Partita”

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In 2002 I built this guitar , Spare Partita For an individual luthier, labor is the most expensive part of any instrument.  That is why quality materials are so important.  However, when creating a prototype, downgrading the materials just a … Continue reading

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Angelito Agcaoili plays Weiss Suite in D maj.

18 minutes of music!  Recorded with a camera from the audience…. there was a tripod.  Mr Agcaoili displays his musicality and focus, in addition to command of the 8 string guitar.

A couple years ago I got an email from a guitarist, Angelito Agcaoili.  He had bought a guitar I made in 2003.  It was an experimental prototype in a few ways.

  • It was a double top, made entire of of sitka spruce, with channels of air making it lighter and thicker than a typical guitar top.  My first double top.
  • The top has no braces other than a bridge patch.
  • It had two banjo tuners.
  • Back and sides made of Alaskan Yellow Cedar.
  • Two-part bookmatched fingerboard of Honduras Rosewood.
  • The biggest experiment.  I sent the guitar on a national tour….  I asked members of a guitar email list to volunteer to try the experiment.  The deal was this:  All you had to do was send the guitar to the next person who wanted to try it.  That simple.  I had a handful of volunteers who gave me nice and useful feedback.  Guitar people are almost always good to me.
  • Basically, I built the guitar out of spare parts, and I labelled it “Spare Partita”.

I think the guitar had two owners prior to Angelito.

Angelity studied guitar (doctorate) at Arizona State University and now teaches at Arcadia Music Academy in Phoenix, AZ and during the summer at the Philippine Women’s University where he heads the graduate studies for guitar.

His website is http://www.angelitoguitar.com/

I’ll see if I can find some pictures of the Spare Partita for a future post.

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Neck shape standards and templates

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There are a infinite possibilities for shaping a guitar neck. The luthier needs to work within constraints, making decisions about what is desirable and how to carve the neck to execute those decisions. For example, I am working on a … Continue reading

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Some changes ’round here.

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Having someone else in the shop for a month made me realize that I wasn’t making the most of my space. Places to store tools (d)evolved from their original locations, and with another builder at one of my benches, I … Continue reading

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Why buy a custom built classical guitar?

Here is one player’s perspective. Click to go

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