An incredible 6 months

As you my or may not know it's been an incredible six months for my family and myself.
My wife gave birth to our beautiful son Oscar in February a whole 2 months earlier than planned and from then on it has been a whirlwind.
Unfortunately Oscar was born with a complex heart condition which required open heart surgery to correct, but all did not go to plan and we sadly lost him in July.
We have been on a roller coaster ride since Oscars birth as he spent his entire life in different hospitals but we are determined to turn our tragedy into something positive to help other families like ours.

So we have now embarked on a series of fundraising campaigns the first of which is a coffee morning to be held here in my workshop with all money raised going to Oscar's Adventures charities.

In addition to this first event we are also planning an acoustic open mic night later on in the year and a children's story book. Watch this space for more updates on these events.

To find our more about the charities we are supporting and donate in memory of Oscar you can find everything you need to know by clicking here or visiting our facebook page.

I hope to see you on the 13th  to enjoy a relaxed cuppa and delicious bite to eat in aid of some amazing charities that are extremely close to my heart.

a resonator and small jumbo guitar

A couple of new ones...

First up is the return of the Terz guitar, in a 14 fret resonator form. It'll be all sycamore; back, sides, top, neck and binding. The cone is hand spun by Beard Guitars in the US of A and is the smallest one they make. Cramming everything into such a small body is an interesting challenge but great fun!

Next is a custom guitar shape; a small jumbo in... mostly cocobolo. The soundboard is Sitka spruce and the neck is laminated lacewood, back sides, fingerboard, bridge, headstock veneers (front and back) and laminations are cocobolo. To buck the trend the bindings are ebony.

The neck is joining the body at the 13th fret, there will be a sound port, only 16 frets... should be a nice one!

My 3 Minutes of fame....

I've finally got around to uploading the snippet featuring me on Fishlock's Wales back in April. The program was all about being left handed, the oppression in Victorian education, how the brain functions differently and how a left handed guitar is different. I think it was a happy coincidence that I am a leftie too!

If anyone is interested, the guitar I'm playing at the beginning is a European spruce and Mahogany Cilgerran and the tune I'm murdering is Jefferson airplane's 'Embryonic Journey'

Thanks to Bob for recording the show for me.

Ok, the two guitars are coming along together, the bodies are all but done and the binding is coming along on the cilgerran.


Binding on the Oxwich is figured maple with purfling around the edges and soundboard

The binding on the Cilgerran is Boxwood with purfling between it and the abalone and the abalone and the back, sides or soundboard... the mitre joints, oh the mitre joints!! Hundreds of them, all hand cut at different and varying angles, I'm starting to see double.

Necks next, as well as a couple of full body shots

Lovely pair...

I've decided to build my next two guitars in tandem. Different body shapes, so each can spend time in its own mould but it'll be easier to make a batch of braces, do a lot of thicknessing etc, not to mention having less dust over a long period to clean up. That's the idea anyway.

 The first is a Cilgerran 12 fret. The soundboard is Carpathian spruce with back and sides of Cocobolo. For those of you who are interested, Carpathian spruce Picea Abies is the same as German, Italian, Swiss.... any European Spruce but it grows in the Carpathian mountains in Eastern Europe. It is typically quite slow growing, showing tight grain lines that we like although heavy logging by the Soviets means that often the rings are rather wide at the edges of the board. Not so with this piece, very nice grain with little runout, lots of cross silking and a lovely tap tone already. Not content with beautiful tonewoods, the future owner of this guitar has specified abalone trim galore; around the soundhole, around the edge of the soundboard, around the back, along the binding on the sides (top and bottom), around the heel of the guitar, around the end fillet and around the fingerboard extension over the soundboard, not to mention an ornate inlay on the headstock and fingerboard markers... I think that's everything. The end result will be my take on Martin's 45 range of guitars. It'll be a thing of beauty when finished!

Scraping down the marquetry backstrip

The first bit of pearl on the guitar

Braces all glued on, ready for voicing

 Next up is an Oxwich parlour in Walnut, I love the size and sound of parlour guitars and Walnut, particularly Claro Walnut is my favourite wood for back and sides, if nothing else, then for the lovely woody smell. The wood has a great tone as an added bonus, plus it looks great!

The soundboard is a really nice piece of Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata for those into their Romans) that I have had in stock for a little while waiting for the right opportunity

This month I was also fortunate enough to be a finalist in two categories in the Monmouthshire business awards in the young entrepreneur and best rural enterprise categories. Although I didn't win, Sammie and I had a very nice evening eating delicious food at the glitzy awards ceremony and dinner at the Angel hotel in Abergavenny. Its great to see so many businesses doing well in our (well, my) neck of the woods.

well after a long journey in the back of at least 3 vans the Terz guitar eventually made it up to Lanarkshire so I can show it off for all to see here. As you might expect from such a small bodied guitar it responds very well to a light touch- no heavy strummers please. Its great for gentle fingerpicking whilst on the sofa watching TV its new owner assures me! I have another Terz in the pipeline for early next year.

...And so on to the next one. I've been working with guitarist Paul Brett to resurrect an idea for a harp guitar from the late 19th century. What makes it different from usual harp guitars (if there is such a thing!) is that the extra bass strings are played with the thumb of the left hand. Paul was keen to take inspiration from the original design and use environmentally sound materials so we settled on oak for the back and sides as per the original, Sitka spruce from a naturally fallen tree, sycamore for the neck and neck dowel, bog oak fingerboard, bridge and head veneer and English walnut binding. The body is based on my 12 fret Cilgerran model. Hopefully it'll be finished by the end of the week so I'll put up a couple of completed pics.

In between working on the terz and other guitars I've managed to find the time to finish a guitar I started late in 2010! I was building it to demonstrate methods and techniqes alongside Richard who was building his own. He finished his in 2011 (see a few blogs down) and I... didn't. The Rhossili got left behind whilst I worked on commissions and repairs but its all finished and sounds and plays lovely.

The soundboard is Sitka spruce,
Back and sides are Claro Walnut
Neck is Sapele
Fingerboard, bridge pins and headstock veneer are ebony
Bridge is Indian Rosewood
Binding is figured maple
Tuners are Grover sta tites

This Rhossili brings my total number of stock guitars to two and is also for sale at £1300. If you would like to come and give it and its stablemate (well, cupboardmate) a european spruce and mahogany Cilgerran a play you are most welcome.

The Terz is nearly done, body and neck are finished and buffed ready for assembly, bridge and setup

That's all for now, I'll post up some nice pictures of the lovely little Terz when its finished, and when I have decided on a fitting name for it! Also a little taster of a guitar I've been working on over the last few months, should be finished by then.

Richie