Vicente Arias

The Vicente Arias guitar that I worked on earlier on in the year has been attracting alot of attention, so I thought I would post a few more images of it. Apparently this guitar was selected by Julian Bream for a cousin who wished to play guitar, although Bream has not been personally associated with Arias guitars to my knowledge. This is a plainly decorated guitar but the picture of the rosette illustrates the precise and delicate nature of the workmanship.


The bridge had lifted badly and so needed to be removed and re-glued. The picture above shows part of the process, and an original locating mark on the soundboard. The bridge is very dark, plain rosewood and completely unadorned.

This picture of the heel shows some delicate and graceful carving.
The label is incredibly faded and is not the later, and more familiar, 'medallion' type.
The picture below is of the headstock with a fine piece of Brazilian rosewood as the facing.
These final pictures show some internal details. The picture above shows the foot, or slipper (and some old repair cleats) and the picture below is a detail of the back bar, bent lining and side support.

A fine collection of old guitars that are in the workshop at the moment. At the back of the workbench in the Davis, then the maple Weissgerber. An anonymous Austrian(?) guitar is next then an unlabelled French guitar. Finally at the front (and so it should be) is a Rene Lacote.
Polishing is under way on this cedar and rosewood guitar. I love French polish as a finish and it seems wholly appropriate for a top classical guitar. I have nothing against a well applied synthetic finish, and many fine guitars are lacquered with cellulose for example; it's just the feel and appearance of shellac feels right for my guitars. This guitar is about halfway through the polishing process. I have built up a 'body' of polish and I will spend the next couple of weeks putting on thinner and thinner coats before working the surface to a high gloss.