> From: ron fernandez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:08:25 -0700 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [CITTERN] A little more on the Andrade guitar > > Dear Roger, > > I bought the Andrade guitarra about 7 years ago from World of Strings in > Long Beach, California. They had if for 25 or more years in a display > case. They had gotten if from some collection. The instrument had 2 > cracks in the back which had been poorly repaired and small cracks in > the sides. > > German Vazquez in Los Angeles removed the old style straight brass frets > and refretted it with modern mandolin fret wire. I repaired the cracks. > The finish had blistered off so I set about finishing it from scratch. I > thought about the issues of restoration or renovation for several months > and arrived at the conclusion that for this instrument I should repair > it completely so it could be played and that the wood would be properly > protected by properly applied shellac. If this instrument was a one of a > kind instrument I would have left it in it damaged condition for future > generations. > > I tried to repair the back cracks 10 times before I could get them > closed. I cleaned the crack and tried to fill it with hide glue which > did not work completely. I then tried to fill the crack with shellac. > Next, I tried "super glue" with ebony dust. Eventually, after > consulting a number of fellow luthiers, I was able to fill the crack > with epoxy and ebony dust--which is a stable repair material. With this > mixture I was able to get the crack closed. Since the ebony dust was in > a black lines in the Brazilian rosewood it is barely visible. The reason > I had so much trouble closing the crack was that someone had tried to > repair it inside with large wooden cleats which prevented the parts from > laying flat. Eventually I French polished over the back with dewaxed > blond shellac. On the face I was able to fill the crack with lycopodium > ( a light yellow spore) and hide glue (which is completely reversible) > and then I French polished using dewaxed blond shellac and then a light > orange shellac. I have intended to match the shellacs with that of older > instruments but I have not had the time. > > For information about shellac, seedlac and buttonlac see my web pages on > the Shellac Project and the Shellac Sampler kit I offer from my Indian > sources: http://fernandezmusic.com/ShellacforGuitarmakers.html > > Your red flags about the color of the binding is partly because the > original old shellac is not on the instrument (because it was blistering > off). However, part of the bright color is because I used a lightening > filter on the photograph before I converted it to gif format--don't > trust photos you see on the internet. > > You are correct about the fretwire looking modern because the old > straight brass frets were removed. While it would be nice to have kept > the original frets we opted to replace them with frets which made the > instrument more playable. The old brass straight frets are very hard on > the fingers. > > Yesterday, I searched for information on Alban Voigt and Company and > found that they was importing Italian Mandolin in 1900. Apparently he > was also involved with importing Spanish made guitars in the in the > 1880's. This internet information on Alban Voigt supports the dating of > this instrument as pre-1900. > > Regards, > > Ron Fernández > www.fernandezmusic.com >
Alrighty, thanks for the info. So you believe the binding is just old white Celluloid but stripped of original shellac and brightened by your photo-editing SW? It's good to know what to watch for in future. Thanks Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
