The Next Guitars 2023

Next up is the 3rd and final La Senorita! Returning to the Swiss pear but this time with a sitka spruce soundboard. I've made a handful of guitars with sitka tops, mostly my early guitars as that was the oldest wood I had access too. I've always loved it as a soundboard material. It's a little heavier than European spruce and more associated with the steel string but it makes a lovely classical guitar. How would I describe the tone from sitka spruce? Rich, warm, clear and purring. Perhaps not the bell like chime of European but full of other tonal charms, definitely worth a try. The other characteristic I like about sitka is the colour. European and Engelmann both are fairly white, especially Engelmann, Euro can vary but sitka tends to have salmon flecks throughout and often is as dark and "orangy" as some cedar though a little more glowing. Finding words to describe sound and colour is an art in itself. This is the 3rd La Senorita and maybe the last, we'll see.

The other guitar I currently have under construction is an ES model European Spruce with Indian rosewood, The spruce is inlayed with a rosette made with Canadian rock maple and bloodwood, the bloodwood picks out the colour in the rosewood beautifully. I look forward to seeing this guitar as the design and style evolves.

Indian rosewood with a quilted cedar centre strip and Swiss pear with an Indian rosewood centre strip.

A closer look at the rosettes and soundboards of these two guitars. I love the sitka with the Swiss pear, a truly stunning match!

The next stage is to bind the box, check back soon to see the progress!

Both of these guitars are as yet not spoken for. to register an interest in either of them, drop me an email at info@michaelritchie.co.uk

The binding begins. I use fish glue for this stage and this little brush is perfect for running the glue round the rebate.

La Senorita front binding and purflings glued in place.

The ES Spruce top bindings are done and the fingerboard is glued.

ES Spruce with Indian rosewood is fretted and the neck has been carved roughly. By that I mean it is carved almost to its final dimensions. I like to leave a little room for final shaping once the strings are on. Next step is the bridges but first lets catch up La Senorita! La Senorita is now bound, and ready for the final detail and the fingerboard.

The fingerboard glued.

Final heel carving.

End graft and back.

Three bridges nearly comple

The bridge being glued in place. This guitar is a Workshop model from 2014, to learn more about this curious instrument follow the blog here..... (coming soon!)

Three guitars! Now all with their bridges glued in position. The third guitar here is a "Workshop" model from 2014 that for various reasons never was fully completed. I'm going to post a bit more about it in a separate blog, I'll post a link here soon.

5 guitars, they're multiplying! Well not quite, one is a repair and one is "in stock" I'm just fine tuning the set up of each and they'll be ready and available, more photos and a review of each coming soon!