click photo to enlarge

click photo to enlarge

Saturday, June 12, 2010

VALENCIO, EDSON -LUTHIER LABEL-













Label of the luthier showing the type of guitar, month and year of construction.

smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-











Smallman type guitar, Hand-made by the Brazilian luthier Valencio, Edson.

Use the best quality of Brazilian woods, African Ebony and Canadian cedar.

 Very good playability, with power and sound projection.

Features:
-Sound-board, Canadian cedar, lattice bracing balsa/carbon/epoxi.
-Back (arched) and sides, Brazilian Jacaranda-Rio, sides up to 10 mm.
-Arm-rest, Ebony or Brazilian rosewood.
-Hard-frame, 1º quality naval Plywood.
-Adjustable neck, Brazilian rose cedar, with carbon fiber reinforce.
-Fret board, Ebony.
-Bridge, Ebone or Brazilian-rosewod.
-52 mm at nut.
-Strings, 650 mm.
-Tuners, Schaller.

Ease playability with power and sound projection.

smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson- back/sides-


















The Back and Sides of the Valencio's Smallman type guitar, is made with Brazilian Jacaranda-Santos.

With a noble look, amazing dark brown and figures in black color.

Very rare Jacaranda-Rio, special for guitars back/sides, with great sound.

Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson- Bridge-































The bridge, made of Jacaranda-da-Bahia or Ebony, the best woods to transmit the sounds, from the strings, to the sound-board.

The bridge of the Smallman type guitars are very low, like a flamenco guitar, less than 3/8''.

For sandal, I like to use bone, produces a natural sound.

Epoxi glue.

Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-Arm-rest and Bridge



Arm-rest, made with Jacaranda-da-Bahia or Ebony.

It is very important, to keep the arm, of the player, far from the edge of the sound-board, important part of the top, responsible for the quality of the sustain.

The curves, and natural touch of the fine woods, makes it very confortable.

Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-Arched back







The Arched back, is made from a cold-molded plywood.

I made it from 2 layers of Jacaranda Santos (inside/outside), and 3 layers of best Brazilian rose cedar(in the middle).

The system, I use to make the plywood is the W.E.S.T. System (wood epoxi saturation technic).

It is a very strong, self-structured board, don't have to use any internal structure, in the guitar, to support it, providing more volume and sound projection.

Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-hard frame

































Hard frame, this structure, made of plywood (good quality),  supports all the preassure in the body of the guitar, allowing the sound board free to VIBRATE.

All the structure are very light (10 gr) and flexible.

The sound board is 1mm to 0.7mm tick.

Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-lattice bracing

Lattice bracing, is a structure inside the soundboard, made with balsa wood and reinforced with carbon/epoxi.

This structure is very light (10 gr.) and flexible.

The soundboard is very thin 1mm in the center to 0.7mm, this is one of the secrets   of the great volume and clarity of the Smallman design.

Friday, June 11, 2010

smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-Adjustable neck-










































-Adjustable neck, this is a very useful feature in this kind of guitar, because, you can adjust the height between the strings/frets, without having to loosen the strings, or change the saddle in the bridge, simply using a Allen screwdriver, in the screw (top of the finger board) at the 17fret.

This is not a invention of Greg Smallman, many Austrian, German and Bohemian guitar builders used this method along the 19th century, but Smallman was the first one to use it in the contemporary way.

This system, can only be used in this type of guitar, because it has the "hard-frame" inside the body that supports most of the pressure.

You can adjust the exact tension(strings), your technique requires, extracting the maximum volume with quality that the strings can give.




Smallman type guitar-luthier Valencio, Edson-Peg-head/tuners-



















The design of the head are based in the Smallman guitars, with a suit modification on the curves.
In the top of the head, I use the same wood of the back/sides, Brazilian Santos Jacaranda, with figures in black and dark brown, what makes a beautiful contrast with the bright gold or silver color of the tuners machine.

-Nut (52 mm), natural bone, the traditional choice to transmit the vibrations of the strings to the wood.

-Tuners, Schaller 18/1 . This tuners machines are very precise and durable.