Madagascan & Brazilian Tirga Beag

Here are few pictures of a Madagascan Rosewood Tirga Beag. The Headstock veneer and heel cap are reclaimed Brazilian Rosewood, beautiful stuff that just finishes this guitar nicely! The Soundboard is European Spruce with Indian Rosewood blinding and rippled Sycamore purfling.

A few words from the owner :

   'I'm really loving the guitar. The neck shape is great,
 sometimes I get cramp with bar chords but haven't with
 this guitar..
  It's also so loud! Everytime I compare with another
 guitar it blows them away, got my martin D15 back and
 that sounds so bad now!..I've relegated it to slide
 guitar.'

    Ally Brown

Old Work

I was just looking through some old pictures of some work I did years ago and found a few of the first Octave Mandola that I made. I did this during my second year at University, it wasn't part of the course so I spent my evenings (alot of them at that point) making this!

I'm going to start making carved top Mandolins in the coming months as this was the instrument that first got me hooked on instrument making. Watch this space!

New Wood

I was joined by Stefan Sobell on the weekend to look at some boards of reclaimed Honduras Rosewood that where brought to Edinburgh in 1979 from Belize. I bought 5 boards of rosewood and 2 boards of Belizean Mahogany which I may consider using for necks. This was the first rosewood board deep cut into back and side sets.
I thought the wood was beautiful before I saw the water marks and the spider webbing. Both rare in Honduras Rosewood. I will be offering these sets as 3 piece backs (2 Honduras wings with a Indian or Madagascan center strip) to utilize this beautiful wood. The sets have a strong ring when tapped, similar to good Rio Rosewood.

Tirga Beag Ready for Spraying

The Tirga Beag in Madagascar Rosewood, Caucasian Spruce, Quilted Sapele Bindings, Brazilian Mahogany Neck and Southeast Indian Ebony Fret Board and Bridge (not shown).

Its off to pay Dave Wilson a visit today so I'll get it back in a month all shinny. More then!

Click on any image to enlarge.

Necks

I'm fitting the neck to my new Tirga Beag. This is how I do it. My neck joint is not a standard construction. When I designing a guitar I think long and hard about all of requirements and the best way to do things. My belief is that when making anything its longevity is paramount. If something is made well it will not need to be fixed or adjusted at any point. People ask me 'how do you reset your necks?' my response it that a guitar that needs a neck reset has not been designed and made with all of the requirement catered for, thus my guitar necks don't need reset!

I have adapted the classical slipper heel to my making process, the neck is removable from the guitar until the end of the build upon which it is glued in place. This construction gives an incredibly strong joint that is stable and only aids energy transfer.

Here's the neck with the 2way truss rod and cover, this gets glued in with polyurethane to stop any rattle from the truss rod. And then the neck in place with the carved heel on the in side French polished.
Looks good ay?

www.taranguitars.co.uk

Bits You Don't See

I was fitting a soundboard today and thought that I'd take some close up photos of the inside of the guitar before it was hidden forever.
Click on any Picture to enlarge.
www.taranguitars.co.uk