Early Guitars and Vihuela

A network for historic guitars and vihuelas

Just returned home from visiting my Maple wood supplier. A visit him is like going to the casino; put only as much cash money in your pocket as you can afford to part with, leave all plastic money at home (for obvious reasons) and swear him to refuse to extend a line of credit...it's the only way, the temptation to go broke can be too much to bear!

 

He'd cut a stack of one piece back sets for me, a full 40cm/ca. 15 inches. These two are going to make a couple early romantics (probably 8 string) patterned after a late 19th century Ludwig Reisinger which I was fortunate enough to document last summer. The flame is a little more "timid" than my usual fare but is very reminiscent of the grain and flame quality in the original so is appropriate for these instruments.

Trees big enough to get the one piece backs are no longer common as they once were in the 19th century.  It is evident by the vast number of Lacotes, Stauffers, Pons etc. made with a single width across the instrument that the forest was full of rather large wonderful trees.

 

But even today occassionally one appears. For many of the smaller 19th century instruments it's still not too bad finding pieces wide enough for one piece but once the design calls for anything bigger than ca. 30cm/12" things get significantly more complicated.

 

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