Ganz Guitars Blog

More of Brandon’s guitar

Posted on July 23, 2019 by steve

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bracing, cedar, rosewood, workshop | Leave a comment

A guitar for Brandon

Posted on June 7, 2019 by steve

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Brandon, bridge patch, guitar parts, workshop | Leave a comment

Batuque goes away after a trip to the Guitar Spa

Posted on May 29, 2019 by steve

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

She’s had the full treatment.

Posted in Repair and restoration, workshop | Tagged bart, batuque, repair, restoration, rosewood | Leave a comment

Still Life with Guitar

Posted on May 8, 2019 by steve

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.:)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Movingue, Torres FE 5 | Leave a comment

Batuque – refreshing the finish

Posted on May 3, 2019 by steve

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 | Leave a comment

Batuque… more pictures from before restoration

Posted on April 24, 2019 by steve

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 | 2 Comments

Batuque from 2003

Posted on March 31, 2019 by steve

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.

I remember this time in my life. A pretty good time.

That’s a clothes iron in the foreground. I use it to heat the tools when taking off the back. This takes so much patience. But the back came off in one piece, without disturbing the braces. It just took time, and calm work.

So, there’s a bracing style I haven’t used in quite a while. For as rough as the guitar looks on the outside, it looks beautiful on the inside.

The back needs the braces glued. There must have been some extremes of heat or moisture, or both. After I put it together again, it will sound better without those rattling braces.

Posted in bracing, cedar, workshop | 1 Comment

A concert and a walk with Gyan Riley

Posted on March 10, 2019 by steve

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Gyan Riley | Leave a comment

Kyle takes the cake…. The OC Guitar Festival

Posted on March 6, 2019 by steve

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.