Tuners available

I have nice tuning machines available for replacement and custom orders. Here some pictures, the first is Perona Grape with Ivoroid Bottons and the second Schaller Grandtune with snakewood bottons. Both with bearring rollers.

Lattice braced model

 My lattice model is a Byers style Lattice with an all wood lattice bracing. Basically it consists in two 7 strut fans crossed ( one fan in spruce the other in  cedar) which results in a top with progressive stiffness, stiffer in the center and more flexible at the edges.The result is a very good sound projection and good definition with very good trebles and good sound balance over the whole scale. The sound is a bit dryer than my traditional model or my double-top model. On the other hand it has very good sustain and good tone separation and the instrument has a penetrating sound with a lot of harmonics. I build this model with either spruce or cedar top and I have it in spruce top / Indian Rosewood back and sides available.

I do build on order and the normal waiting time is 4-5 month

The non CITES woods I can offer you for backs and sides are:

Padouk, Mexican Grenadill, Pau Ferro, Wenge, Canarywood, Black Walnut, Tigerwood, African Mahogony and Maple. I have also East Indian Rosewood, African Ebony and Amazone Rosewood.

Tuners I can offer are :Schaller Grandtune with oval Snakewood or Ivoroid handles, or Gotoh 1800 with Ivoroid Handles, and Van Gent Deluxe with Ivoroid handles, or Perona on request.

These are a few recording of my lattice model in red cedar, the same build as described above in the following links

Acalento Evandro Meneses

Canço de Lladre

Tango en Skai

Nomex sandwich-top model

The german luthiers Gernot Wagner and Matthias Dammann did in the early 90ties experiments with new materials and top designs and lamination techniques. The conclusion was that top response can be significantly increased by making it lighter and also a bit more flexible. To allow the top to maintain its structural integrity they started to use a material witch has its provenience in aeronautics – it is a honeycomb grid made of aramid called Nomex, a kind of nylon fiber. Meanwhile a lot of builder started to get familiar with the procedure and made their own top design based on it.

It was Gernot Wagner who became aware of the Nomex honey-comb grid and had the idea to use it for instrument building, this was in fact a mayor break through and did open new possibilities. I had the honor of Gernot’s visit in my workshop in 2014, when he was on a holiday in Lisbon and was able to show him my work and exchange different perspectives about his technology. I had also the generous help of the Canadian luthier Marcus Dominelli who gave me very precious information about the procedure and the details and encouraged me to develop my own top design and I am very grate full to both of them.

Today double-top building has become very popular and most builder do forget that this was only possible because of the innovation and investigation for new methods, which once had to be carried out by someone. Beside other vantages, the nomex sandwich top guitars have a more uniform tonal characteristic between instruments from the same builder, which were built in the same way, because the overall characteristics of the top like weight, flexibility and directional stiffness do depend much more of the quality of the sandwich and the bracing, in opposition to a traditional guitar where the specific characteristic of a piece of wood has a mayor influence of the outcome. Even like that the quality of the wood is still important and tops made from spruce or cedar do not sound the same

Since 2013 I build successfully a nomex sandwich-top model of my own design. The vantage of this procedure (nomex laminated between 2 thin layers of wood), is to have a top which is more responsive and has a somewhat lower top resonance frequency than a traditional build, which gives the instrument a special sound characteristic – generally the sound is warmer and fuller, with more fundamental content and some more volume with very good sustain.

My sandwich-top model has beautiful and rich timber with good balance over the hole scale. The sandwich-top is my top model and I have it regularly in stock for demonstration and sale either in spruce or red cedar. If you are looking for a high quality instrument at an affordable price this is a very good choice, and you shouldn’t hesitate to visit my workshop when ever you are in Lisbon, if you are looking for an instrument of course.  soundcloud   or  for more recordings click here

I have the double top model available in spruce and cedar with Indian rosewood back and sides.

I also do build on order and the normal waiting time is 4-5 month

The non CITES woods I can offer you for backs and sides are:

Padouk, Mexican Grenadill, Pau Ferro, Wenge, Canarywood, Black Walnut, Tigerwood, African Mahogony and Maple. I have also East Indian Rosewood, African Ebony and Amazone Rosewood.

The tuners I do offer are :Schaller Grandtune with oval Snakewood or Ivoroid handles, Gotoh 1800 with Ivoroid Handles, and Van Gent Deluxe with Ivoroid handles, Rubner Hauser  special with ebony handles or Perona on request.