Coming Soon From Sebastian Stenzel

We just got some photos from luthier Sebastian Stenzel of the guitar he is currently working on for us. This one will be a cedar-top with ziricote back and sides. Here’s what Sebastian had to say about the photos and the woods:

This particular piece of cedar comes from a tree that died in a fire in the 1930s. The trunk has been standing upright in the forrest until several years ago. It is the best cedar not only that I have worked with, but that I have ever seen. I have – unfortunately – only 10 soundboards from this tree.

1. The two halves of the soundboard are prepared to be joined.
2. The channel for the rosette is being cut.
3. The rosette is inlayed and the outside surface is cleaned.
4. When the outside is finished, the soundboard is worked to the right thickness, which varies within a range of a few tenths of a millimeter. At this point many of the properties of the guitar sound are determined.

As always, just click on the photos to see them bigger.