Recent work and upcoming events
Pictures of two completed classical guitars in contrasting styles. One is a matte finished guitar with simple ornamentation and Gilbert tuning machines and the other is french polished with more ornate purfling and binding with black chrome Gotoh tuners.
Pictures of two finished classical guitars that were constructed by Maxwell Sipe. One is a ziricote wood back and sides instrument with nickel plated Gotoh machines with black mother of pearl buttons and the other is an east indian rosewood guitar with a figured european spruce top.
Luthiery work in progress including some repair work on a vintage martin guitar with a broken headstock and pictures of two classical guitars under construction.
Pictures of rosette construction for classical guitar with dyed woods and pearwood used to make said rosette by Maxwell Sipe
Pictures of a guitar repair. or augmentation added to a romantic era guitar - a fingerboard extension to be exact by Max Sipe
These are some pics of the tops I'm currently working on...
Three different clients means three different designs. I really try to spend the time to figure out what each person is looking for. I know my guitars have a certain sound in general but playing with elements can shift it in different directions.
First, and probably most important in the final sound is choosing the top. Density and stiffness are what we're talking about. I've got two spruce tops in these photos but they are completely different. One is 40% denser while still basically the same stiffness.
Changing the fan splay ( the angle in which the fans line up with the grain direction of the top) is a big way to shape sound. What seems like a subtle shift really can change a guitar from what some think of as a "hauser" feel to something more "granada school".
Everything gets weighed, flexed, and tapped until completion; always keeping in mind what I think the customer is looking for. Carving three tops makes tons of shavings... I should have got a wood stove to heat the shop or a maybe a pet hamster.
carving spruce kinda looks like baroque or renaissance ornament.
Laying out the bracing stock chosen for the given top. The bridge patch and a style soundboard supports have already been glued.
Using the go-bar type deck to glue the fans
The fans get carved to a baseline before the harmonic bars are glued on. I leave room to carve them down and tune the top at the end.
This top has an open harmonic bar design
This one is just lacking the shaping of the harmonic bars.
Gluing bracing with the go bars. I tend to use a ton of go bars to apply pressure as evenly as possible.
Three different designs for three clients.
This guitar is truly made to fit for this customer. We chose larger dimensions for neck thickness, neck width, string spacing and scale length all in an effort to create better ergonomics.
