My Tony Francis Weissenborn Construction Photos

[James Williamson]

I've have a magnificant coorespondence with guitar builder Tony Francis from New Zealand over the past 1.5 years. It began with some simple questions about my newly aquired Herman Weissenborn Syle 1 Spanish Neck guitar. Once I established that Tony was clearly an authority on the subject, I proceeded to learn all about my new friend which he helped me date and told me quick alot about....these are things which are very difficult to find out as aside from Andy Volks book and one other one...there is not much out there.

Anyway, one thing lead to another and I became fascinated with the square neck Weissenborns and ended up commissioning one from Tony since to my knowledge he is the most traditional of all the Weissenborn makers out there in that he keeps completely to the original wherever possible.

Anyway, for those of you who wish to view the construction, I've posted the early construction photos here http://get.mystagemusic.com/view/displa ... 574547-p=1

I'll be posting more as I get them in the upcoming days....its really exciting and inforative to see.

Below, is an email that I received from Tony today.

Hey James,

Here are some pictures from the making of your guitar. The building of any musical instrument is quite a process, and indeed when trying to replicate the greats of the past it can be a very humbling experience. Although its not possible to ask Herman how he made these instruments, or even the workers at the old factory, I am lucky enough to have a few of his gorgeous instruments to work from, and the answers are there if you look under the surface a little.

Your instrument is patterned from my favorite Weissenborn from 1927. Its has the same choice of wood grain, straight forward construction and design as instruments from that specific era. I love this era because all these elements kind of roll into one and becomes seamless. You dont see all the parts, nor the construction, just a beautiful looking and playing and wonderfully musical instrument.

When I build the guitars there are three references I am relentless with, firstly the book where I keep all my building notes and details, the scaled out plans with measurements, and finally and most importantly I always keep the Weissenborn with me in the shop as a reference for feel and mojo. Since most guitar supply houses carry hardware and stuff based on old Martins and Gibsons, Its almost impossible to find the right ingredients (I think of it like chefs recipy) to build the guitars in the old style. You have to make everything yourself, and later down the track you will see my special reproduction pins and of course the tuners.

Making all the linings and marquetery in shop really adds a lot of time to the construction process. But there isnt really any other way to do things. Everything is all totally hand made. I guess a guitar must be made up of 600 steps, and its hard to say which one is more important than the other, Its the amalgam, and so I kind of feel like every step is super important because of how everything effects everything else. So of course details like old fashioned hide glue in all aspects of contruction and marquetery and a really very dry building enviroment is super important.

I hope the pictures tell a story, even though there are a few gaps. If you would like commentary on anything just let me know and I will be happy to explain in detail.

Thanks again James, this has been a real honour for me to make this instrument for you. Its really cool to hear how you are into slide in a big way now. I really look forward to hearing more of your recordings.

Part 2- Marquetery, tomorrow.

Best,

Tony

[Jerry Desmet]

Yeah, Tony is really good guitar marker, but how long to realize guitar ?

[James Williamson]

Well, my answer is that it takes as long as it takes him. In my case, we began the project about 1 year ago, but in mid stream we switchd from a Style 1 to a Style 4, so that delayed things by a few months. Anyway, this guitar is about 3 weeks away now and although its been a long wait, I know that the results justify any delays.

By way of update, Tony has now moving into a new larger shop and is able to build 2 to 3 times more guitars in parallel, thus his throughput will not only be faster, but he's planning to have finished guitars in stock so that for many people, the turn around time will be virtualy instantly (only shiping time).

[James Williamson]

Apparently many have been having problems with the link I posted, so here's a new one and hopefully everyone can see these photos who are interested.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jameswillia ... directlink