CLC Newsletter - November 2011
November 2011
Hello again from the west coast of Ireland. A bad month for weather yet again with lots of storms and rain. In early October each year there is an organised windsurfing course held on the beach in front of our house and the participants come from the UK and all over Ireland. So Sod's Law applies and there is no wind guaranteed for those days. It was no different this year and here are the unlucky windsurfers practising their poses while unable to go on the water.
In November there is an Art Fair in the RDS in Dublin where Syra has exhibited each year since it started 11 years ago. So she has been busy selecting and packing the work that we will take up for her stand. This is what the Gallery looks like today ready to load up.
If you like this painting "The Green Plectrum" you can see this and more of Syra's paintings on Stand K7 at The Art Fair in the RDS Dublin Nov 4-5-6. If you would like to come along, e-mail Syra (
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) and she will send you tickets. It would be good to meet any of you there.
Tech Bit - side bending.
At the moment I'm making a batch of acoustic guitars. To make the body shape I have to bend the sides using a hot iron. When damp wood fibres are heated there comes a point where they become pliable and can be bent to shape. If the wood is kept in the bent shape until the fibres cool again they stay in the bent condition. All the wood I use for making instruments is maintained at a maximum of 6% moisture content in the workshop so it helps if the sides are wetter than that when they are being shaped. There are several methods used for getting the water back in the wood. Some people plunge the sides into boiling water for a while, others leave the sides soaking in the bath(!) and normally I hold the sides vertically over a bucket and run water down them from a sponge. This time I tried a different approach and placed a wet cloth between the iron and the dry wood. The steam produced is driven into the wood but the very hot iron doesn't actually touch the wood surface and so does not get scorched. The wood for the sides is typically 2.2mm (0.09") thick and so it doesn't take much to get the them wet enough to work with. When the hot iron is applied the water turns to steam and this softens the wood fibres making them pliable. It is almost magical to feel the normally rigid hardwood (rosewood in this case) quite suddenly 'give' and enable you to change it's shape.
When I am bending I have a plywood template screwed onto the workbench top and I frequently 'test' the side against this until it is a perfect fit. To maintain the shape the bent side is clamped into a mould while it cools and the excess moisture dries out. The mould has two halves each of which is the exact shape of the bass and treble sides of the guitar. When the two halves are joined together it will support the body for most of the remaining work that will be done to it.
Here you can see the two sides held by a variety of clamps some of which are holding the head and tail blocks in place while they are being glued in.
I prefer to use wooden bindings on my acoustic guitars rather than plastic. Again the bindings and purflings have to be bent to fit the form of the sides and I use the iron to do this.
The bindings and purfling are glued and held in place with masking tape while the glue dries. The brown packing tape on the top is to protect the very soft spruce from damage while I work on it. The mark made by accidental contact with a sharp fingernail could be difficult to remove!
If you have a topic that would fit into the Tech Bit slot then let me know and I'll try to cover it. Or write your own and send it to me.
In the Workshop.
Last month I featured a guitar that was made for Jack Regan Kirwan. Jack entered and won the guitar competition in the Kerry School of Music where he is a pupil and his prize was to get a guitar made for him by me. So here is a picture of Jack, myself and Jimmy Canty when he came to the workshop to collect his guitar.
Jimmy, apart from being a great friend is also an amazing jazzer and bassist and is Jack's guitar teacher. Just found this vid of Jack's winning performance. Jack's normal style of playing is a bit heavier than this!
Also last month Geert was seen being forced by me to put the colour on the top of his 7 string ASAD Custom. Well it was finished and shipped off to him since then and he seems to like it. It was one of the most complicated solid bodies jobs I have ever done. Geert bought his first ASAD Custom guitar from me more than 20 years ago but for this one he wanted the body to be bigger to be in proportion with the larger neck so this became the first ASAD 110 - ten percent bigger than normal. Apart from being a 7 string he also wanted it to have MIDI function on the normal 6 strings and piezo saddles to offer acoustic sounds on all 7. And a trem and three outputs and loads of circuitry to get all this to work. The control compartment looked like a spaghetti dinner with the wiring required to joint together all the bits that included Ghost Hexpander and Acoustiphonic modules from Graphtech.
Finding a 7 string Floyd Rose trem was hard enough but not half as hard as drilling holes in the baseplate to let the connections from the piezo saddles pass into the control cavity. The steel used in a genuine Floyd Rose is very, very hard and normal high speed steel drill bits will not touch it so I had to buy 3 solid carbide drills and these were all blunt when the 7 holes were made. In order for the intonation to be adjustable the holes had to be elongated and this took me 2 and a half hours on my knees with the Dremel and another two solid carbide routing bits.
There were lots of other technical problems in the build and it was really rewarding to solve them. So here are some shots of it completed.
In the end I was very happy with the way it turned out. It seemed to do all that was required of it. It was a delight to play, loads of sustain and magnetic tone and the MIDI tracking was good. I'm not convinced about the Ghost Acoustiphonic being a good representation of an acoustic guitar tone but I didn't have it in my hands long enough to experiment much with it. Somewhere below you can read Geert's thoughts on it.
And on the player's thoughts front, at the end of last year I delivered an ASAP JM to Jo Schmidt. The ASAP JM is a small bodied acoustic guitar of all mahogany construction. In the recession times (not this recession, the one in the last century!) many guitars were made this way and they have a distinct tone. The idea for this model came from my friend Juan Millan who asked for an old sounding guitar made in a modern way hence the JM after the ASAD. Jo promised to send me a report about the guitar when he had become used to it and he sent it to me this month.
Here is a pic of Jo with his JM as well as his Blen and a rather fine looking double bass.
Hi Chris,
As I promised "some time ago", here comes a little report about the "sweety" alias the "chameleon":). It's not easy to compare the sound to the sound of the beginning,because you can't hear the earlier sound anymore, but in my ears the guitar has developed a lot and got better and better... "she" is more dynamic, but also very "honest" in some way... which creates lots and lots of possibilities to influence the sound.. but sometimes it's still
to fast for me..:). The sound has the warmth of an all mahogany guitar, but there is also "more". Depending on the strings used you can hear a brilliance and "sophistication", which reminds highly of a very good spruce guitar (I hope, you are able to get my point.. :P it's not easy for me to express it in English..;)). Playing the guitar with a thumb-pick brings lots of joy and also strumming works really fine. At the moment I can't really decide, what kind of strings should work better. After the Newtone Master Class I tried the Newtone Heritage
Series and in some way they work still better than the Master Class, very sweet and very smooth and elegant... not soooo loud, but highly dynamic. But the Master Class have their own appeal. a very hard"decision"...:). Sometimes I get a problem with other guitarists... if I let them test and play the guitar, I have at times difficulties to get my guitarback...:).
By the way talking with other guitarists about strings and changing strings on a acoustic guitar we discussed about the "problem" of changing ALL strings of a guitar at one time... to say.. removing all the strings first and then putting the new strings onto the guitar. Somepeople supposed this way being not really good for the guitar causing some kind of damage. I never heard of this before but to be sure I would like to ask for your opinion...:)
Sorry again for my poor English. I feel, it's time to go to Ireland again - I'm out of training.
Regards from wet Germany
Jo.
I can empathise with wet Germany but I can't complain about Jo's English - I wish I could manage as well in any language other than my own! On the string changing issue I always change all the strings at the same time. It gives you the opportunity to properly clean the fingerboard and if a guitar cannot cope with having the strings removed and replaced I don't think it will last very long!
Reader Article.
As promised above this one comes from Geert Annys and I'm grateful to him for it.
The Quest For The Holy Guitar
My first good guitar was a ’78 Strat I bought new in the Fender Soundhouse in Soho, London.
I was 16 at the time. Later on I had some other guitars that came and went until I found a G&L Interceptor. It was an exceptional model that never caught on. There were only 77 made and apparently I have the only one in Europe. I got it as a wedding present from the light of my life so you can imagine this one will never go.
With the advent of Floyds and heavily customized Strats, I started modding mine. Until I had enough of it (because I ruined it) and sold it. I tried some different models in the superstrat vein and ended up with Kramer. I liked them a lot and the importer was quite impressed with my playing he asked me if I would be interested in demonstrating for Kramer. Of course I jumped at the occasion. On one of the fairs I met this strange Irish luthier who made wonderful guitars from the most beautiful wood I had ever seen.
I kept looking him up whenever I had some time off from the demos. I couldn’t get enough from these beautiful instruments that not only looked good but played exceptionally well. I got on quite well with Chris (I assume you already figured out I was talking about him) and we had lots of fun whenever we met, being silly all the time. One time he had this guitar that had a gorgeous quilt top. Well they were all gorgeous but this one was really special. On the last day, Chris let me try it, with an apron on to make sure I wouldn’t scratch it as it was already sold. The next year, Chris told me he had found a piece of quilt of the same quality and that he would keep it for me. At the time I couldn’t afford a Larkin so I kept whining about the price. I finally sold two guitars and ordered my ASAD. Chris wrote in the back trem cavity; “Finally the guitar of your dreams, but does your wife know how much it costs”. Under my initials on the headstock he added “VSP”. When I asked chris what that meant he said: ‘Very Silly Person”. A few years later I had to send the guitar back to Chris for repairs since I managed to break the neck near the headstock. He added another “V” so it read “VVSP”. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t change it to “VCP” – Very Clumsy Person.
This is the beauty:
A few years later, when my musical career wasn’t going well, I decided to stop playing in a band and go back to night school to get a degree. I never got to finish my studies because of family problems. After a while I started to play again in cover bands. At one time, I got back in touch with Chris was when I wanted a guitar that could combine an acoustic sound with the electric part. And preferably a twelve string as well. So a double neck would be appropriate. Unfortunately, after a fall on my elbow, my Ulnar nerve got damaged and I needed surgery. I couldn’t play anymore since I lost all force in my left hand and there was a constant tingling in my pinky and ringfinger. It took more than a year of intense kinesytherapy and practicing before I could play again. By then, modeling guitars had made their entrance. I messed around a bit with those but after a while I decided I wasn’t happy with the quality of the guitar and was afraid the technology would become outdated quite soon. A guitar with midi and something like a VG-99 would be better. I also wanted a sustainiac on it in combination with the piëzo’s and midi. A luthier from Belgium who did a a magnificent job on restoring my G&L would make the new guitar. But he kept me waiting for about five years. Meanwhile I had bought enough hardware and electronics for two guitars, because he couldn’t be bothered with that. So I had to look for someone else. At the time, I only found one company who had any experience with this (or so I thought), because they already made a guitar with all the features I wanted. It would start with a sixstring version and if that would be ok, I would need a sevenstring as well. This was for a band I started in a year back, that plays prog rock. Unfortunately, there were some things wrong with the guitar and to make matters worse it arrived with a hairline crack in the neck. On top of that, I didn’t like the way I was treated and felt that the communication was not good at all. They failed to inform me about delays, problems and so forth. So no wonder I didn’t want them to make the sevenstring. I had already thought of Chris but was afraid this wasn’t his cup of tea. Stupid me. I should just have asked. So after the Light Of My Life – who had told me several times I should contact Chris - hit me over the head with a frying pan a couple of times, I decided to send him an e-mail. It took about four months until we settled on the final specs. It was going to be a scaled up version of the ASAD body, a sevenstring with a Floyd Rose, piëzo’s and a Graphtech Acoustiphonic and Hexpander kit. There would be three outputs: one for the RMC 13pins, one for piëzo or piëzo and mags when a stereo jack was used, and a mag output for true bypass (mags not going through the preamp). So as you can see, quite complicated. Chris had some trouble acquiring the parts and started work in July. All the time he kept me up to speed about any delays, kept apologising if he didn’t answer me right away, although I never had anyone answering me so fast. I asked Chris if he would send me pictures from every stage of the build. This is a service he offers for a small fee. I used them, and his funny comments, on a thread I started on two forums. You can find them here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=930923
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/luthiery-modifications-customizations/164179-larkin-asad-7-string.html
When the guitar neared its completion, we went over there to visit Chris and The Lovely Syra. I was the best trip we ever made even with the remnants of hurricane Irene almost blowing us with the bike off the road, hurricane Kate being responsible for cancelling our ferry end lots of rain getting us soaked.
Because Chris wasn’t happy with the color of the guitar we decided to strip it. Well Chris felt I should do it. So he put me to work. He even let me put on the new black stain. Meanwhile I got to know more about him, his workshop and his love for wood and the passion with which he builds his guitars. My guitar turned out beautifully. It plays like a dream and really surpassed my expectations. This proves that Chris can handle any job.
And I have found my way home.
And now I’m already making plans for my next guitar. Guess who will be building it……?
So it could be you!
Why not contribute an article for the Newsletter yourself? Write a paragraph or two about something relevant and get a chance to shamelessly publicise yourself and/or your project in the Newsletter. Send your effort to me along with a suitable pic/video/soundclip/url/link, etc., and I'll see if I can include it (if I don't lose it). It does not have to be about how good your guitar is (even if it is!) but maybe something about a situation it got you into, a gig experience, the design and ordering process or anything related to it. Use your imagination! Or simply send me a pic of you and your Chris Larkin gigging.
Stocklist plug!
Hopefully there will be an ASAP CAW acoustic guitar in superb flamed Swiss maple on the Stocklist by the next Newsletter but for now I still have the following available to buy right now from the workshop
Probably not suitable for jazz but does like to scream and wail a bit with ridiculously low action. It is actually much more versatile in tone than the appearance might suggest.
Did you say jazz? then this is The One. It has 'that' tone when amplified and a sweet voice acoustically. And it is very pretty.
The ASAD 2HB is so truly versatile I'm thinking of asking it to write the next Newsletter. And it has a face of beautiful Irish maple.
All available now. More details on the Stocklist and you can contact me for other pics and details if you would like to know more. If you are in Kerry, call and arrange to meet with one or more of them and it could be the start of a long term relationship.....
And Finally..The Recipe.
Actually no. I don't have one this month. And anyway the Newsletter is already almost the length of War and Peace. But you could send me one for next month!
And finally, finally....
A good friend sent me a T shirt that he bought in the USA that exactly fits with one of the pillars of my Philosophy for Life. It looks better on The Lovely Syra so here it is.
Very sharp eyed readers may notice that she is holding a bottle of Chateau Chalon- Ségur of 1982 vintage which, according to the experts, should be drunk before 2049 so we have a bit of time yet...
Some of you may be members of The Lounge section of the website. Those who join up can upload videos and mp3s of their own work or anyone else's and discuss stuff with other members. I'd like to be able to link these to the Newsletter but so far I have been unable to find a way to do it so anybody out there with better IT skills than me who has an idea of how to do it could they please tell me?
Boris RIP. My pet spider Boris was eaten by a bird earlier in the month. She had survived stroms and other bird attacks and had given me much pleasure watching her work on her web through the office window. She is missed.
And finally, finally, finally....
If you have any suggestions for the Newsletter please send them to me. If you think anyone you know might be interested in this Newsletter please send it on to them with their permission. If you do not wish to receive future issues please email me with unsubscribe as the subject and I'll remove you from the mailing list. If you are a new reader and would like to subscribe to get future editions please email me with subscribe as the subject or sign up on my website. There is an archive of previous Newsletters on my website.
