Very happy with the latest GammelGuran. It felt good to work with a completely "ordinary" European salon after several slightly awkward jobs before. New methods and tools made it better than most GammelGura I finished before this one. Every project brings new experiences and better results in details on the next one 🙂 What's new about this one is that I reduced the dimension of the bar behind the bridge and I got a little more bass out of the guitar that way. Used my new old polishing machine and Autosol on the bands which became shinier than they usually are, intermediate sanding with wet sandpaper between the spirit varnish layers gave a silkier and finer surface on the finishing varnish. Worked out perfectly with the placement of the saddle leg on the saddle and the neck angle, always a bit of a lottery but with my jig for gluing the neck it's getting better.
The guitar was of a finer kind with beautiful mother-of-pearl inlays around the sound hole and braz rosewood board. European parlor guitars with rosewood boards are usually a bit newer than those with black painted maple boards. Guess it's from 1915-1920 and German-made. They had finer eye maple in the bottom and almost always in the form of a veneer. The bottom was a two-layer laminate with a simple maple (or al) on the inside.
To cover the edge of the bottom, a strip of wood had been laid. It made it much harder to break loose, but it went exceptionally well and the whole wood molding was complete when I was done. Some cracks from the cracking had to be glued. After the dismantling of the bottom, neck and grip board the position was this:
The guitar had been involved in a previous repair when the neck foot in the form of a glass spout cracked and the neck was glued. The lid under the grip board was battered. But besides a few cracks in the lid / bottom it was unusually whole. Thickness on the lid / bottom / side was good. The bottom ribs were extremely oversized in the usual order. The ribbing in the lid was perfectly OK though not as I want it, reinforcements at the sound hole had helped the guitar survive without folding in the middle. The head of the V-shaped neck had a slightly wider angle than usual.
The grip board in good condition, but a little thin and also not flat on the top. When I was planning it, it disappeared safely 2-3 mm to be able to smooth out a weakness in the middle. Wanted to save the fine wood and skin glued a shim in rosewood under the board to compensate. The band placement was really good on the original board. A large hole for a wood screw on the 12th band was drilled out and replaced with new rosewood and a mother of pearl.
The stall was missing and I made a replica in ebony. A little easier to make with my little band saw instead of the jigsaw! New uncut string sticks with 4 mm mother-of-pearl embroidery. The surface underneath the stable was cracky so I milled away and glued a new piece of spruce to get a smooth surface to glue the stable on.
Took some pictures before gluing the bottom in my bottom gluing jig. Mounted a narrower bar behind the stable, also made the "cross" at the stable plate a little longer to hold the rotational force. Covered the entire biscuity area under the fingerboard with a piece of spruce. Otherwise my usual ribbing with an A frame at the sound hole and more sensible ribs at the bottom. A K&K mic was fitted, takes 5 minutes when the bottom is up!
The neck sizing, banding and adjustment went as it should. Did my oversaddle lining and made a composite stable leg with spruce between leg posts. Went as lubricated 🙂 New tuning screws were drilled in and mounted. The customer wanted as sparse strings as they could get, the ribbons cut very tightly at the ends and separated the strings from what went at the string holes. Vibrated it for three days and couldn't play much on it as it was a local customer who picked it up immediately when it was finished. Wish I got to play some more on it, liked it sharply! A few nice pictures.
Some close-ups.
