Flat-back 5-course guitar (SL 66cm)

Rosewood sides, two-piece cypress back; rosewood and holly stripes neck and peg head (on the rear) veneer; ebony fingerboard and peg head veneer (on the front), ebony half-edge soundboard edging and 'mustachios'.

This guitar is closely based on an unlabelled instrument (c. mid-late 17th century, France or Northern Italy) form the St-Petersburg museum of musical instruments. It features all the constructional features and proportions of the original as well as dimensions and thickness parameters for the soundboard, back and sides. It differs only in the choice of materials ( rosewood instead of ebony for the sides, for example) and more modest decorations around the sound hole and soundboard edge. The rose in the original guitar is missing and my is based on the rose found in the guitar attributed to Christoph Koch c.1640 (collection of the Cité de la Musique, Paris). As the original rose, it consists of two wooden layers (in my rose, pear for the upper and cypress for the bottom one) each of which is re-enforced with parchment.

 

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