The special costs on the flamenco and classical guitars on my available page will hold until the end of march.
After March the prices will rise to their normal amount! Get one now at these great prices while you can!
One Flamenca Blanca and one Classical have been massively reduced in price.
They are both gorgeous looking and sounding instruments.
I have to get some space in my small workshop for some new guitars that I am making, is all, so I made a challenging decision and the first two listed on my
Currently Available
page is them. Please go have a look. I’ll hold on the to prices, for sure, until the end of 2022.
This is your chance to pick up a gorgeous, luthier-made guitar at a factory price!
https://catthompsonguitars.wordpress.com/available/
Some photos of a couple of recently made rosettes. One made with: Flame maple, Coconut wood, Padauk, East Indian Rosewood, Cherry. And the other primarily Flame maple, Padauk and East Indian Rosewood,
If you’d like a guitar made around one of these beauties, please get in touch!
As shown in in these images the rosettes are finished to the point where they will next be inlaid into a guitar top. The final filling and polishing of the rosettes happen in conjunction with the finishing of the guitar top.
Some photos of a recently made rosette. Made with: Flame maple, Coconut wood, padauk, East Indian Rosewood, Cherry.
If you’d like a guitar made around this beauty, please do get in touch.
Some of the photos are showing the rosette in process and then in when finished. Finished, at least, to the point of inlaying it into a guitar top. The final filling and polishing happens in conjunction with finishing the top.
I owe so much to my dear friends Pi Add and Khun Kung… I live in their house up on the mountain for one!
Over the years Pi Add has been my go-to authority on Thai woods and now and then he passes on some beautiful wood for me to use in my instruments. I still have a little of the extremely rare Mai Rak and he recently they gave me some Mai Bradu which is now resting and drying in my workshop.
Pi Add also gave me some beautiful ไม้ขี้เหล็ก a while back which is English is sometimes called Siamese Cassia among other names. I don’t have enough to use it for back and sides but I do have pieces large enough for a headstock veneer and bridge. I used that wood for those two purposes in a recent Ovankol classical. I wasn’t sure if the bridge would hold up never having used it for that purpose, but now a number of months later I ‘m finding it to be an excellent bridge wood.
I’m now using that same wood on my current guitar, a flamenca blanca, and you can see that in the photos below of the headstock veneer.
I just love the asymmetry of the piece. The bit of Shibumi playing with Wabi Sabi within it.
With my most recently worked on classical guitar having left my shop a week ago, I’ve since been pondering my next instrument. I had about 5 Engelmann tops that I joined and rough shaped while I thought about what is next. Now it is decided.
Not a commission, this, next on the table is going to be a flamenca blanca. I’ve spent the last year focusing on classicals and I am going to go back to my guitar making roots and first love, which are flamencos. Blanca – Engelmann Spruce top, probably Canadian Cypress/Yellow Cedar B&S, Cedra neck, traditional ebony tuning pegs. Over the past few years I’ve been subtly experimenting with bracing patterns, primarily making use of a slanted harmonic bar. To my ears the result has been a nice tight fast flamenco sound. I use a 1932 Santos Hernandez as my base and inspiration and on this guitar I’ll be going back exactly to his pattern. She’s going to be fast and light as a feather, gorgeous in view and sound.
Here are some photos from today of the beginning of this new guitar. Setting in the rosette, levelling and setting the sound hole.
This guitar has been sitting in my studio for a few months now. I recently reworked the french polish on the top, but the main reason for the delay in posting is that I used a local Thai wood for the bridge (and head plate) that I have never used before and wanted to make sure that it was strong and stable and sounded great as well. I am very happy with this bridge wood. I still have a few more pieces and will use it again on a future instrument.
When compared to the IRW classical that I have in stock, this guitar sounds/feels a little brighter. I love them both. Video with me playing soon!
I’ll be adding the details and a video soon, but for now I’ll add a gallery of some photos that I took this morning. Note that I don’t have a proper photo booth, and simply take them outside on my work bench. Please keep that aspect in mind.
Working on a commission at the moment that will have some interesting and new, to me, aspects to it. Not on the new stuff yet, but thought I’d put up some photos of where I am at the moment. Soon the top, attached to the neck will be going into the solera mould. Bending sides will be coming soon!
March 2 2022 – I’ve just uploaded more photos of this guitar in process. You can see how I’m working with the sound port and the internal support for the arm rest that will go on to the guitar soon. Today I’ve just glued the back on, which secures the neck angle and general structure of the instrument.
Catherine Thompson Guitars 