hello all
a flamenco question!!!!!!!!!!!!
OLE...
It so happens that as some of you know, I lived in Spain for years and
knew personally some of the most historically significant builders of
classical and flamenco guitars of the 20th c. Arcangel Fernandez,
Marcelino Lopez Nieto, Manolo Contreras to name a few. I am most happy
to offer what information I might have to help you with your very
interesting questions.
With respect to "historical" flamenco instruments, I have both studied
aspects of the construction of several such instruments as well as
having played them. The builder having been in those cases Santos
Hernandez, and with Feliz Manzanero (who has the most astonishing
collection of 19c guitars I have ever seen) in discussing the first
great instrument he ever purchased and really the jewel of his
collection, a flamenco guitar by Arcangel's great master Marcelo Barbero.
Although I never discussed the golpeador specifically with my friends
back then, I can offer a few ideas to you based on principles I saw
employed in the construction of those instruments.
First, as far as materials are concerned, I don't remember ever seeing a
golpeador made of rosewood myself, but I do remember seeing a number of
them made from figured arce (fiddle back sycamore).
As far as the glue up is concerned, we have to remember that the
golpeador will take during its life a lot of punishment and will require
replacement from time to time. Even granting the fact that prior to
removal, the golpeador will have been thinned down to the thickness of
paper with a very sharp chisel in order to reduce the trauma to the top
during the removal process and where the glue employed in attaching the
golpeador ought to have been at half strength at most, we must still
soften the glue in the removal as the golpeador is in essence peeled off
the top. To accomplish this we must employ heat and moisture. In the
case of golpeador having been glued to an unvarnished top in the first
place, it is near unavoidable for the top not to have absorbed some glue
into its surface grain to begin with. This is why gluing to a white top
is a disaster in the making . Due to the presence of the absorbed glue
(and at any strength) in the surface of the top, pulling up strips of
the top during the removal process is unavoidable.
It is with this in mind that I feel that for the flamenco guitar, we
must adhere the golpeador onto a varnished top to begin with. Much like
a body fret on a lute the golpeador not being a structural element, only
needs to be fixed onto the surface of the top where the glue can't
penetrate the top during the glue up and this will go a long way to
ensuring a clean removal.
On 4/9/2015 1:49 PM, Njål Bendixen wrote:
Dear Lute Makers
Does anyone know the answer to this:
Modern flamenco guitars have a golpeador attached to the front of the
instrument. It is a piece of self adheasive plactic glued on to the
varish of the front, wich is of course french polished.
Traditional flamenco guitars have a rosewood golpeador, which is
unvarnished. The front is french polised. My question is, is the front
varnished under the golpeador, or is the golpeador glued on to the bare
wood of the front?
Kind regards,
Njaal Bendixen
--
Njål Bendixen nj...@operamail.com
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