BBC The Repair Shop-Portuguese guitar restoration

Flame_Guitars · August 2019

For any fans out there of The Repair Shop have a look at last Wednesdays episode in which I restore a 120 year old Portuguese guitar. 3 days work compressed down to 10 mins of viewing is bound to leave out quite a lot of detail. For instance, the bridge was missing on this instrument. But I was able to track down an image of a very similar guitar, made by the same maker in Porto, and copy the bridge shown on that instrument. So I was pretty confident that the replacement bridge was very similar to the original. That little story didn't make it into the final edit. But that would be true for many of the repair shown on the programme. Here's a link if you are interested.
The Repair Shop

brucegill · August 2019

Thanks for putting the info here! Will watch that later

EricTheWeary · August 2019

I watched it on Wednesday. Really interesting, nice back story. What tuning is that thing in? I'm guessing a bit like a 12 string mandolin?

The guy who found his adoption papers in the loft was quite a story too.

Flame_Guitars · August 2019

EricTheWeary said:

I watched it on Wednesday. Really interesting, nice back story. What tuning is that thing in? I'm guessing a bit like a 12 string mandolin?

The guy who found his adoption papers in the loft was quite a story too.

To be honest I can't remember what the tuning is for this instrument. Its not the same as a 12 string acoustic. But I do remember how fiddly it is to string up. Loops at both ends, and only one end of the string comes with a loop ready made. And it hadn't been restrung for maybe 50 years. Really struggled to get it in tune. I think there is a reason why this style of tuners is only found on a Portuguese guitar!

GTC · August 2019

I'm a big fan of this programme and saw it on Wednesday. A very nice job indeed. It would be lovely to work in a place like this, if it actually exists and isn't just a set for the programme.

rustneversleeps · August 2019

I watched the programme.All I can say very impressed by your skill and detail well done!!!

notanon · August 2019

A truly awesome job!! Thanks for posting.

TheOtherDennis · August 2019

They repeated your work on the Hot Chocolate bassist's Fender tonight, btw.

You were wondering why the logo got taken off - I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with licensing/support of the band from another manufacturer. I've seen lots of musicians tape the maker's name over before (there was a Christy Moore concert on a couple of months where he'd taped over the Takemine logo on his guitars) and I reckon that's probably it. You get it with sports people all the time, when they're sponsored by one manufacturer and the team has another.

Just a thought.

Flame_Guitars · August 2019

TheOtherDennis said:

They repeated your work on the Hot Chocolate bassist's Fender tonight, btw.

You were wondering why the logo got taken off - I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with licensing/support of the band from another manufacturer. I've seen lots of musicians tape the maker's name over before (there was a Christy Moore concert on a couple of months where he'd taped over the Takemine logo on his guitars) and I reckon that's probably it. You get it with sports people all the time, when they're sponsored by one manufacturer and the team has another.

Just a thought.

Yes, I had considered that and I think you may be right. The BBC may have been more concerned about brand logos on Top of The Pops in the 70s. Don't know enough about this. Coincidentally I have just completed a total refurb on a mid 60s Jaguar which was also missing the original logo.

brooom · August 2019

Thanks for sharing. The portuguese guitar, has two major variants... coimbra or lisboa. They're usually different in shape and tuning, but essentially very similar instruments. Carlos Paredes is probably one of the widest known musicians of this instrument, definitely my favourite. Being portuguese this sound strikes a big chord with me.

mudslide73 · August 2019

Thanks for posting this. I'm a big fan of the show generally and I like how it's moved onto basically getting the BBC to pay for BER restorations. Some lovely stories along the way too. I very much enjoyed both of these segments.

Flame_Guitars · August 2019

brooom said:

Thanks for sharing. The portuguese guitar, has two major variants... coimbra or lisboa. They're usually different in shape and tuning, but essentially very similar instruments. Carlos Paredes is probably one of the widest known musicians of this instrument, definitely my favourite. Being portuguese this sound strikes a big chord with me.

Yes, I enjoyed learning more about the Portuguese guitar when doing some research ahead of the restoration. I am going to Porto in a few weeks and then cycling from the top to bottom of Portugal. I hope to hear some Fado music when I am in Porto.

brooom · August 2019

Hope you have a good time.

jmcustomguitars · September 2019

Iv tried to see the video but it says is not aviable.
i love this guitars and i have build a few wen i was in Portugal, now here in UK theres no ppl playing or i dont know any

theres 3 tipes, coimbra is probably the most played at the moment, but we have lisboa and porto as well. The porto stile is very similar as the coimbra exept in the head.
wen i said very similar is not equal .
lisboa is a bigger guitar, and has some extra difilculties in building, the heel in the back is very thight and the aplication of the biding requires some extra things that are not easy to explain, but i can tell that if we cut the biding straight like for acoustics then will be really dificult to glue them in the “slot”

i hope that im not wrong but i believe that at this days you can study portuguese guitar in one university in Portugal, you can have a degree

artiebear · September 2019

Really enjoyed that restoration and was totally intrigued. I notice that Stefan Sobell of sobellguitars.com ( absolutely legendary acoustic builder of these shores ) has a retrospective thing going on within his news page. He has a photo up of him playing a Portuguese guitar while his wife Liz plays dulcimer in a folk club way back in 1970. Knowing Stefan, I would not be surprised if he took it apart to figure out all that was going on. He does say that he used some attributes to go forward into his future work.

Flame_Guitars · September 2019

jmcustomguitars said:

Iv tried to see the video but it says is not aviable.
i love this guitars and i have build a few wen i was in Portugal, now here in UK theres no ppl playing or i dont know any
theres 3 tipes, coimbra is probably the most played at the moment, but we have lisboa and porto as well. The porto stile is very similar as the coimbra exept in the head.
wen i said very similar is not equal .
lisboa is a bigger guitar, and has some extra difilculties in building, the heel in the back is very thight and the aplication of the biding requires some extra things that are not easy to explain, but i can tell that if we cut the biding straight like for acoustics then will be really dificult to glue them in the “slot”

i hope that im not wrong but i believe that at this days you can study portuguese guitar in one university in Portugal, you can have a degree

I'm afraid the episode is only available on BBC IPlayer for a limited period of time. When I worked on the instrument I enjoyed doing some research into the history and various version of the Portuguese guitar.

EricTheWeary · September 2019

I keep meaning to look up to see if I can apply to go on with my mother’s 1930s children’s tea set. Although I think it’s probably more that I fancy seeing myself on telly more than my mother would want to see it fixed.

prowla · September 2019

I have to say that I lost interest in the show a bit, after the bass restoration one.

boogieman · September 2019

Saw both the Portuguese guitar and the HC bass episodes recently. Both lovely jobs @Flame_Guitars ;. Good old Steve Fletcher sorting out the missing tuning mechanism on the guitar must’ve helped a fair bit, the guy is really clever.

boogieman · September 2019

EricTheWeary said:

I keep meaning to look up to see if I can apply to go on with my mother’s 1930s children’s tea set. Although I think it’s probably more that I fancy seeing myself on telly more than my mother would want to see it fixed.

I do wonder about some of the people and their stories on there. “It’s been a treasured family object”, but not treasured enough to get out of the loft for fifty years and paid for to be fixed apparently. I’m assuming the repairs on the program are done FOC? It does all make good tv obviously.

EricTheWeary · September 2019

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

I keep meaning to look up to see if I can apply to go on with my mother’s 1930s children’s tea set. Although I think it’s probably more that I fancy seeing myself on telly more than my mother would want to see it fixed.

I do wonder about some of the people and their stories on there. “It’s been a treasured family object”, but not treasured enough to get out of the loft for fifty years and paid for to be fixed apparently. I’m assuming the repairs on the program are done FOC? It does all make good tv obviously.

Well, yes, I shoved this treasured object in the loft twenty years ago and now want it fixed for free. I guess whithout the back story it would just be 30 minutes of people gluing stuff.
Yet I do find it oddly addictive, although you never really see anything go badly wrong. This was your grandmother's finest China that she treasured since 1898 that sadly got chipped by a careless child in 1953 and put away for safe keeping since. Well, we dropped it on the floor and smashed it to bits. What do you want for free? Next...

boogieman · September 2019

EricTheWeary said:

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

I keep meaning to look up to see if I can apply to go on with my mother’s 1930s children’s tea set. Although I think it’s probably more that I fancy seeing myself on telly more than my mother would want to see it fixed.

I do wonder about some of the people and their stories on there. “It’s been a treasured family object”, but not treasured enough to get out of the loft for fifty years and paid for to be fixed apparently. I’m assuming the repairs on the program are done FOC? It does all make good tv obviously.

Well, yes, I shoved this treasured object in the loft twenty years ago and now want it fixed for free. I guess whithout the back story it would just be 30 minutes of people gluing stuff.
Yet I do find it oddly addictive, although you never really see anything go badly wrong. This was your grandmother's finest China that she treasured since 1898 that sadly got chipped by a careless child in 1953 and put away for safe keeping since. Well, we dropped it on the floor and smashed it to bits. What do you want for free? Next...

That’s a good point, I’ve never seen anything go wrong either. It’s a good watch, the Beeb has obviously realised this and shifted it to an evening slot. The only bit I’m not keen on is Jay Blades (and his immaculate leather apron that has never seen any work action) and the way he gets thanked, despite the fact he’s had no input to the jobs.

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