G Weigert Handmade Guitars - Guitar Makers - UK - Original Hand Built Acoustic Instruments

Materials, Methods and Tools

Gideon inspecting the 4-piece back for a Steel-String Guitar made of Maple.

Materials

I use a wide variety of timbers in the making of my instruments, some chosen for their function, others for their decorative appearance. Usually both.
It is particularly important for me that all of the wood I use, especially the exotic varieties come from certified and reputable sources.
Because of the rapidly diminishing tropical forests of the world and also because I believe in using local resources, I now try to use as much British and European timber as possible as well as reclaimed wood.

My most recent guitars have been made either from local sycamore from Sherwood forest or mahogany from antique furniture which has the advantage of being seasoned for many decades. I have recently aquired some excellent spruce which was salvaged from a 150 year old grand piano which was destinedfor destruction. This spruce I am using for the bracing in all of my instruments.

For my soundboards, I generally use Alpine Spruce. A good quality piece can be expensive but it tends to be the best wood available for the purpose, being very strong, very light and being capable of producing a broad tonal response and an extremely rich sound. Like a fine wine it improves with age and matures gradually over the course of years and decades. I have also had good results with Red Cedar which usually comes from North America and Canada. It's slightly softer wood than Spruce and orange-brown in colour and will deliver a good sound and response right from the start.

I am always on the lookout for unusual, colourful wood for use in inlays and rosettes and very seldom throw anything away. Over the years I have accumulated an Alladin's cave of very exotic materials which I use as a palette to create my unique designs.

Methods and Tools

For every piece of wood that I use, no matter what its place in the instrument I carry out a number of checks:
I look at it from every angle to check the grain and the cut. I test its weight, balance and flexibility or rigidity. Then the most important test: I put it to my ear, give it a tap and listen.
Whether the piece of wood is destined to be a soundboard, a back, side, neck, bridge, fingerboard or even one of the harmonic bars inside the guitar, its job is to resonate. And so at every stage of the guitar's construction I pay close attention to the wood in order to guage its response. The art of the luthier is in judging how much wood to safely remove and knowing when to stop. With experience it is then possible to get the optimum response for the particular materials being used. This is the main difference between hand built instruments and factory made ones.
Because every piece of wood is organically different, it's full potential can only be reached by paying very close attention to its response as it is gradually and carefully crafted.

My instruments are constructed using a traditional Spanish method whereby the various parts are assembled on a 'Solera' - a guitar shaped workboard.
This has several advantages: It is simple. It provides a very accurate way of aligning the neck along the centre of the body. It incorporates the 'arching' (dome) of the soundboard, which can be hard to achieve accurately using other methods. It allows for some variation in the shapes of instruments being made without having to construct hefty moulds for each model. Therefore it allows me greater freedom to design and build differently shaped instruments.

For the neck to body join I use the 'Spanish Slipper' as it's sometimes known - whereby the neck block continues inside the guitar and the ribs are slotted into the side of the join. This is a very strong join and guarantees the whole structure stability and integrity since there is no chance of any unwanted vibrations between various parts of the join (there is only one part to to this join and it is fixed).

With the exception of a very few electrical tools which I use very sparingly, all of the work is carried out using hand tools. Mostly these are traditional woodworking tools. Aside from a number of specialist clamps, jigs, cutters and guides that I made myself, most of the tools I use are either very old, British and hand forged of Sheffield steel or else from Japan, where the steel-smiths employ the ancient knowledge and art of the Samurai to create the finest blades with the sharpest possible edges.

Certain processes, such as the way I make my rosettes, as far as I know, are unique to me.

My techniques and methods are always elvolving since I never stop trying to discover innovative and creative solutions to obstacles that arise and questions of design.

As always, I welcome any feedback so please take the time to drop me a line.