Wilson Burnham Guitars

The classic guitar is a difficult and demanding instrument. There are no short cuts. Vladimir Bobri, The Segovia Technique , 1972 I got back to work on a close copy of a 1930 Santos Hernandez guitar yesterday by glueing on the so called "fan bracing", as you will notice, these braces are nearly parallel to each other, and the transverse braces to the top. When I got up this morning I un-cinched the clamps and discovered that the top had a definite twist to it. Hmm. Bad glue up technique on my part and the humidity had dropped from 39% to 29% overnight, not good for a guitar top or my nerves. That is the problem with working at lutherie this time of the year, especially during and right after a big snow storm, the relative humidity can really drop. The humidifier can't keep up. I needed to run errands this morning, when I got back I split the transverse braces off the top and shaved the remnants down to the glue. Then I made new braces. I clamped the top

As you can expect, the neck is the most complex part of the guitar. In the Spanish school, every part of the classical guitar is built in conjunction with the neck and in line with it. Manuel Rodriguez, The Art and Craft of Making Classical Guitar , 2003 I am often asked what part of the guitar takes the longest to make, everyone assumes that the task of calibrating the top consumes the most time. I find that carving and shaping the neck takes the longest, other than the French polishing. As a classical guitar player, I know the importance of a well shaped neck, the profile must not be too round or too thick, both will tire a player quickly and can lead to physical issues. I spend as much time needed to make the neck perfect! Here is a short photo essay of carving the neck and heel on Kyle's guitar... The heel... Refining the heel to match the profile used by Santos Hernandez... Almost there... Refining the other profile... Time for the draw kn

The workshop at home is generally a spare room, maybe a surplus bedroom or a room in the basement... Bernard E. Jones, The Practical Woodworker , 190? I've always worked in small spaces. When I was learning how to use hand tools, my grandfather's workbench was so crowded with stuff I had only five feet of surface to work on. When my wife and I first were married, I had shop that was a spare room in the log cabin we rented, maybe it was 8'x10'. Our next place had an old shed, 10'x11', that I fixed up into a nice unheated space. When we moved to our place outside of Lassen Volcanic National Park I built a nice 12'x16' studio that I got to work in for only four months before we moved to work at Yosemite National Park. There our house had a 10'x 10' space that worked well... ...and now I use a room off of our bedroom for a studio. I think it measures 10'x11'. In random order, here some things I have learned over the yea