Making a Copy of a Hernandez y Aguado Guitar: Gluing the Fan Braces

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Hernandez y Aguado guitars are very highly regarded and rarely seen.

Aaron Green, luthier


It was -15 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday morning with snow. The temperature got up to 2 degrees by noon, but quickly dropped back down to
-3 degrees for the rest of the day. Needless to say, I went out only twice, I am so glad I don't have to work out in that kind of weather anymore, even the dogs realized that it was too cold to be outside.


I spent the day doing the final rub out on the guitar it the photo above, it is based on a Hernandez y Aguado guitar. It has the same plantilla, or shape, as a HyA guitar, but is built with a 640mm string length. It has a Douglas fir top with mahogany back and sides. I had to do some touch up on the finish, I figure 3 more quick sessions of the French polish touch up, let shellac harden and this guitar will be ready!



The new copy of a Hernandez y Aguado guitar is coming along fine, I got the braces glued on Tuesday afternoon. Once again, I will say that I love hot hide glue! I posted about its wonders while I was making Julia's guitar, click here to see that post.




Top, back, sides and neck for the Hernandez y Aguado copy. The top is redwood reclaimed from a barn outside of Yosemite National Park, the back is Indian rosewood, the sides are Indian rosewood laminated with Alaska yellow cedar and the neck is made out of a stick of Spanish cedar that is over 40 years old.

Now that the humidity is close to 36 percent I will glue the upper harmonic bars to the top and hopefully tomorrow I can start assembling the guitar!



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