A customer brought his guitar in to refresh the finish. So I took some pictures.
Stuff 
Crud in finish – before 
Crud in finish – before 
Before 
Before 
During 
During 
Difficulty 
Difficulty 
Difficulty 
After. 
After 
After 
After 
After
Joachim Schneider Guitar spa treatment
A guitar for Brandon
I’ve been working on a guitar for a player in nearby Vancouver BC. I make all the parts in my shop. They will start going together pretty quickly.
I’ll use this to press down onto the bridge patch 
Getting ready to glue. 
Getting ready to glue. 
I like the shadow and light 
This is the bridge patch. Soon there will fan braces glued here too. 
This is all it takes to glue the bridge patch.
Batuque goes away after a trip to the Guitar Spa
Batuque was in rough shape when she came in. (See these posts (1) (2) .) Back braces loose, bindings broken, rattled when played. The fix was to remove and replace the back, reglue the braces, new bindings, refresh the finish and make sure playability and sound were good. After the owner got the guitar back, he wrote how much the restoration pleased him. “Fab” he said. Bart also has another guitar that I built for him in 2004.
Hi Steve,
Yes, the guitar came in today. The restoration is absolutely wonderful! I definitely was not expecting it to be this fab, considering the shape it was in. It looks and plays beautifully. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking such great care of it! Also, this is the first time that the 7 string and the Batuque are in the same room. It was truly a pleasure to a/b them for the first time ever! I feel like a kid in a candy store with these two guitars!
Cheers, Bart
Posted in Repair and restoration, workshop
Tagged bart, batuque, repair, restoration, rosewood
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Still Life with Guitar
I got an email from James Bishop Edwards this morning. Here is what he wrote:
Hi Steve, sometimes the morning light hits the guitar and it looks beautiful so I have to take a photo.:)
Batuque – refreshing the finish
One of the nice things about french polish shellac is that it can be refreshed. So, after Batuque got it’s back repaired and replaced, I began give it a refreshed finish.
It looks pretty good. Not perfect, but it’s not so rough anymore. Compare to the before pictures
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged batuque, finishing, french polish, restoration, shellac
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Batuque… more pictures from before restoration
The loose back braces were the biggest issue and needed to be fixed. Some of the cosmetic issues were really not critical. Although the broken bindings were. Because of the damage to the bindings, I decided to replace them, and take off the back, repair/reglue the loose braces, make and install new bindings, and then finish the guitar.
The following pictures are from before the restoration on Batuque was started, back in March. I’ll post some”after” pictures soon, I just wanted to show the condition when the guitar arrived. (Although this guitar has had some rough use, I’m happy to see that over the last 16 years, it appears to have had alot of use, and that is a good thing.)
Separation 
Separation 
Ouch. 
Ouch in context 
Multiple ouchs 
The other side ouch. 
Top wear 
Top wear 
Top wear 
Top wear 
Generic wear 
And tear 
Top wear 
Top wear 
Wear and tear 
Loose Braces 
Loose Braces
Posted in bracing, cedar, sides, top, Uncategorized, workshop
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Batuque from 2003
Here is a guitar with a history. It’s been through some emotional and physical trials. It’s nice to have it here in Blaine to be fixed up. Built in 2003, in Bellingham. Brazilian rosewood that I got in the early 1990’s. Beautiful Cedar top. I wish I could get this color and quality nowadays. It’s definitely worth fixing up.
The guitar had been banged around a little, there were two broken bindings in the back. The back braces had come loose. Sometimes things just need to be taken apart in order to put them back together for the best result. Such is the case with Bart’s Batuque.
A concert and a walk with Gyan Riley
Friday night I went to a concert at the Western Front art house in Vancouver. Gyan Riley was playing and it was a total pleasure to see and hear him play for a long set. Gyan’s technique is classical, but his music transcends that. Innovative, creative, sometimes textural and sometimes lyrical phrases offered up with seemingly effortless precision. I have to say that it was the most interesting concert I’ve been to in a long time. Definitely worth the trip from Blaine. Also worth a visit: http://gyanriley.com/
Then today I went back to Vancouver to pick Gyan up for a walk in the sunshine to catch up on each others’ life developments over the past 9 years. We made a quick stop at the nearby sign, so Gyan could make the visual joke.
And then headed up towards Squamish for a pleasant trek.
A fun time in the good weather. Pictures Credit: Gyan Riley
Kyle takes the cake…. The OC Guitar Festival
Kyle Khembonjong placed first in the youth division at the Orange County Guitar Festival last weekend. Congratulations Kyle. Here he is holding his certificate and with Manuel Barrueco. These guys can both play guitar pretty well, and it looks like they have the same haircut… Kyle will have to work on the facial hair.
I’ve posted about Kyle before. http://ganzguitars.com/wp/kyle-khembunjong-and-his-100-days-of-practice/
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