A special treat about this trip to Banff was the walking tours of historic Banff. We chanced upon the event while visiting the Banff Springs Hotel for lunch (like we can afford to stay there!) On the cover of the tour brochure was a photo of a lutherie shop. I asked at every stop that we visited "Where is this place in this photo?". Finally we got an answer and had a lovely visit with the luthier who now makes his home in banff.

Work has progressed on the scroll carving on the viola da gamba. Progressed, but slowly. This is intricate work as the wood grain is constantly changing as the carving wraps around the scroll, and there is not much space to work in.

Once all of the background is done I can work start the relief work. I was anxious to get started on this carving, now I am anxious to be done with it! After the relief carving is done, then I will be able to carve the scroll itself, then I can hollow out the pegbox.

THEN I can continue on the back and belly.

While the shop is set up for lutherie I am finally getting to the repair of my wife's 200 year old 'cello. This old instrument is a Czech made copy of a large body Amati 'cello.

Before work commences...

A real problem area is the lower bout. There is some cracking in the wood, the belly and back plate are experiencing chronic glue failure, and this particular section is actually bending outwards.

With the top off I can examine the 'cello in its present state. Oh my...

It appears to have at least three sessions of work done previously. I judge this by the apparent age of the different repairs. This would help explain the chronic glue failures, each time the top was removed new glue was applied over the old glue. You can do this with Hot Hide glue, but as the glue builds up the surface areas tend to get smaller. Pretty soon you have very little glue holding it all together. This is supported in my mind as many places required very little effort open the glue joint. Too little effort.

There were some odd repairs done over the years...what is up with that multi-colour fabric?

Just wanted to add that I got the Panormo guitar closed up last week. I've been wanting to build one of these for years. I've had the tone wood and the neck made for quite awhile, just waiting for the right time.

Its a little bigger than the Torres SE117's that I'm building, but still smaller than the Torres FE17, and a lot smaller than a modern "concert" guitar.


A close up of the Panormo rosette. The original would have used pearl for the rosette, cut in diamond and squares and set in mastic. Mine is using figured maple set in black epoxy, surrounded by walnut and maple veneer lines.

Now that all three are closed, its time for binding. I have the binding made, but the surfaces need to be cleaned up and then they need to be bent to the guitar shape. Then the binding channels need to be cut around the perimeter of the guitar. After all that, then I get to put them on.

An update about my electric guitar project. I've decided that I'll be building a Telecaster style. Telecaster were the first real production electric guitar put out by Fender. They developed out of the Esquire, which had just the bridge pick up, and were originally called the Broadcaster. The name had to be changed because Gretsch was already using it for one of their products.

I found a great forum dedicated to the Telecaster here: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php

So, being undecided about exactly how I want the guitar to look, I decided that I'd just build a bunch of components so that I can try bunch of approaches. Its far easier to make some of these parts in batch runs than it is to do just one a time. Set up time is far more time consuming than actually doing the work. This way I'll have seasoned bodies and necks ready for when I need them

Here, you can see my master template sitting on a pile of Pine body blanks. Alder and Southern "Swamp" Ash are the traditional woods, but Pine was used on the early guitars and is seeing a renaissance with some builders these days.

Here are four body blanks of Elm

In addition to preparing some body blanks, I've been developing the drawings, templates, and some of the jigs. Oh, and doing lots of reading, research, and parts sourcing!