An Adventure in Lutherie by Ciaran McNally | Parlor Build

An adventure in lutherie by Ciaran McNally | Parlor Build

Ciaran McNally is a lutherie student orginally from Armagh, N.Ireland. He started playing guitar at the age of 13 and began to look into lutherie around the age of 15/16, first through electric guitar kits, then moving on to acoustic kits. At 17 he enrolled in an evening course in Belfast with Sam Irwin, where he began making guitars from scratch. After a year of the course in Belfast, and having just finished school, he decided to attend university in London where the only instrument making degreee in Europe runs. He is now 20 years old, reading a BSC Musical Instruments at London Metrolpolitan University. where he spends most of the time either in the workshop or teaching guitar. Apart from required projects, he makes 2/3 other instruments per year. After the degree finishes in 2012, he is hoping to work for another Luthier for a few years to hone his skills and develop personal designs before starting his own brand!

Here is a photo update on the Parlor Guitar (After Washburn) that I’m currently making as part of my Degree in Musical Instruments.

Specifications:

  • Top – Spruce
  • Back and Sides – African Mahongany
  • Neck – Sapele
  • Headplate – Ebony/maple veneer with MOP logo inlay.
  • Fingerboard – Ebony
  • Machineheads – Gotoh slotted classical

To Follow:

  • Bridge – Rosewood
  • Bindings – Curly Maple (ebony purflings)
  • End pin Inlay – Ebony
Points to note-
The guitars decorative appointments are simple…or ‘subtle’ as a I like to put it. This is my own preference: I strongly prefer guitars that are not over decorated, but instead have a clean simplicity, relying mostly on the aesthetics of the wood itself.
I’ve changed the intended stringing for this guitar to nylon, as I didn’t believe the original bracing pattern was substantial enough to cope with steel. .
I also don’t particularly like the hardwood strip (mahogany in this case) underneath the bridge position, that runs form edge to edge. I have thinned this greatly away in each direction from bridge, but I may even remove some further material on the bass side.
Next steps -
  • Gluing in the top block
  • Profiling the sides
  • Kerf lingins
  • Side support strips
  • Soundboxing etc…..
I’m also going to be repairing a Yamaha with a cracked soundboard over the next couple of weeks and will bring you details and photos of how I do this in following posts!




Ciaran McNally
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