Tobias Berg.My guitars are built in the Spanish tradition. This means that the neck is an integral part of the body. When looking through the soundhole you can see the typical Spanish "foot". I believe this system to be superior to gluing or bolting the neck to the body. As with many other topics, this is one that has created an ongoing debate between the different "schools" of construction, and there is little evidence that one is really superior to the other. Having said that, this is the way I build and for me it works well.
Soundboard
I use either European Spruce or Western Red Cedar. One can not say that one is better than the other. It is a matter of taste and personal preference. I find it stimulating that there are alternatives to choose from, making our lives richer. You have to try both to find out what your preference is.
Back and Sides
Most of my guitars are built with East Indian Rosewood. However, if you are looking for a lighter (both in weight and colour) guitar I suggest you trying maple, either flamed or with birds-eye figure. Maple is a traditional choice for making musical instruments, as with all of the violin family instruments. They have been made of spruce and maple for many generations.
Neck construction
My necks are made of South American Cedar. Being light but still stable and strong it is the traditional choice for fine classical guitars. Due to the string tension I reinforce my necks, gluing in a piece of hardwood in a routed channel under the fingerboard. This is done to ensure that the neck will stay straight under tension, making set-up easier and more predictable.
Finish
I finish all of my instruments with Shellac, giving them a full French polish. It is labour intensive and time consuming, and not as scratch proof as modern polyurethane finishes or the like. But how do you treat your concert guitar anyway?
In my opinion, being aware of these drawbacks, it still has a number of benefits that other finishes don't have.
1) Shellac is so thin that it has no negative "dampening" effect on the soundboard.
2) It's been used as a finish on instruments and fine furniture for hundreds of years, and it's the only finish where we have any proof that it will stay intact over time. This cannot be said for a finish like nitro-cellulose lacquer, which might start to chip, crack and degrade after only a few decade. With even more recent finishes like Polyurethane nobody really knows what will happen to otherwise finely crafted instruments in the future.
3) The solvent used, 98% Ethanol (Alcohol), is by no means as toxic to the environment or myself during application as all the other kinds of modern lacquer solvents. Shellac is also used in the food and pharmacy industry to coat time dissolving capsules, like M&M's, apples, and fruit.
4) Regarding looks one can say that it has a warm hue, a transparency that rather enhances the natural beauty of the wood in a unobtrusive way as opposed to the common look of "plastic over wood", which would be my description of modern lacquers.
5) If the guitar does get scratched it's relatively easy to touch up. One might remember though that these scratches also contribute to the patina one loves on vintage instruments.
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Table.
European Spruce.
Neck.
South American Cedar.
Back and Sides.
Indian Rosewood.
Machineheads.
Waverly.
Finish.
French Polish
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