My Tony Francis Weissenborn Final Assembly and Guitar
Posted: 7 Mar 2010 7:35 am
For those who have been following this I've posted a series of photos of my Tony Francis Weissenborn being made over the past months.
This is the last of the series documenting the creation of the bridge and final assembly and setup along with the stunning photos of the finished guitar. I couldn't be happier with the results. The guitar is on its way to California shortly.
Here is the link to the final photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jameswillia ... alPictures#
and here is another link to all of the photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jameswilliamson77/
I've included Tony Francis's description of his work below:
Anyway, its time for the final part of our series on the Style 4 - Bridge, Hardware and Setup.
Last time I was talking about the lacquer process, which as you know is Nitrocellulose over natural resin without any kind of modern sealers or fillers. The goal is to replicate what the old Weissenborns looked like new, and so its as much keeping with hand applied and rubbed techniques, old style.
One of my favorite details I want to elaborate on is the bridge – they are such a work of art and exceedingly difficult to replicate. Crafting a proper reproduction bridge is an undertaking, It’s like copying a hand script or signature. Weissenborn was a violinmaker and spoke Spruce and Maple as a first language, so it’s not suprising that he used what Violinmakers today call "ground" in the finish process. Its called Gamboge and it’s a totally natural and quite deadly resin used as a base color under varnish. Weissenborn used it on bridges the same way Lloyd Loar did on his Mandolins, which is what we see as a gorgeous natural "green black" color instead of "blue black" of using dyes alone. Its these kind of details that separate Weissenborn from other makers of the era.
So with the bridge firmly in place using hide glue (of course!), its onto setup which is a simple process fitting the nut and all the hardware. Your guitar is the first one to have the complete full range of my custom 1920s Spec reproduction parts which includes ivoroid bridge and end pins, classic plate style tuners (with jumbo eyelets!) and aluminum wire saddle. Im really happy how they turned out – having the right parts really makes a difference to the feel of the instrument. And of course the K&K is installed ready for completion at your end.
Today I managed the guitars from this batch outside and down to the beach for a few snaps. I hope you enjoy.
More later.
Thanks again and best regards,
Tony Francis
This is the last of the series documenting the creation of the bridge and final assembly and setup along with the stunning photos of the finished guitar. I couldn't be happier with the results. The guitar is on its way to California shortly.
Here is the link to the final photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jameswillia ... alPictures#
and here is another link to all of the photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jameswilliamson77/
I've included Tony Francis's description of his work below:
Anyway, its time for the final part of our series on the Style 4 - Bridge, Hardware and Setup.
Last time I was talking about the lacquer process, which as you know is Nitrocellulose over natural resin without any kind of modern sealers or fillers. The goal is to replicate what the old Weissenborns looked like new, and so its as much keeping with hand applied and rubbed techniques, old style.
One of my favorite details I want to elaborate on is the bridge – they are such a work of art and exceedingly difficult to replicate. Crafting a proper reproduction bridge is an undertaking, It’s like copying a hand script or signature. Weissenborn was a violinmaker and spoke Spruce and Maple as a first language, so it’s not suprising that he used what Violinmakers today call "ground" in the finish process. Its called Gamboge and it’s a totally natural and quite deadly resin used as a base color under varnish. Weissenborn used it on bridges the same way Lloyd Loar did on his Mandolins, which is what we see as a gorgeous natural "green black" color instead of "blue black" of using dyes alone. Its these kind of details that separate Weissenborn from other makers of the era.
So with the bridge firmly in place using hide glue (of course!), its onto setup which is a simple process fitting the nut and all the hardware. Your guitar is the first one to have the complete full range of my custom 1920s Spec reproduction parts which includes ivoroid bridge and end pins, classic plate style tuners (with jumbo eyelets!) and aluminum wire saddle. Im really happy how they turned out – having the right parts really makes a difference to the feel of the instrument. And of course the K&K is installed ready for completion at your end.
Today I managed the guitars from this batch outside and down to the beach for a few snaps. I hope you enjoy.
More later.
Thanks again and best regards,
Tony Francis
