Popular Woodworking 2007-06 № 162, страница 61

Clark's workshop, in a converted basement bedroom in his Nashville home, is decidedly low-tech - just as he likes it. A photograph of the late singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, a longtime friend of Clark's, hangs over a Delta band saw at the end of Clark's worktable.

Rasps, files, glue, chisels and carving tools make up the bulk of the equipment in Clark's small shop, all stored within easy reach of h is handmade workbench. In front are two of the 10 flamenco-style guitars Clark has made. A template awaits his next instrument at the far end of the bench.

came naturally to me and I love doing it." He went on to develop those early woodworking skills as a teenager when the family moved to the Gulf Coast. There, Clark had a summer j ob as a ship's carpenter where he helped to build 80' wooden fishing boats (an experience he drew on while writing "Boats to Build," the title track from a 1992 album). In the late 1960s, Clark moved to Los Angeles where he worked for a time as a luthier in the Dobro Manufacturing Co., alongside the Dopyera brothers, inventors of the resonator-style guitar.

After a few years of dealing with the Los Angeles lifestyle (listen to "L.A. Freeway" to discover his thoughts on the subject) he moved to Nashville in the 1970s with his wife Susanna, a visual artist who's painted album covers for, among others, Willie Nelson, Nancy Griffith and, of course, Clark himself. They've lived there ever since.

Clark learned to play on a $12 flamenco guitar - the first guitar he took apart and put back together (and then took apart again). Sometime in the mid 1960s, he doesn't recall exactly when, Clark started building classical guitars. He made seven or eight of them. "None are still in one piece today," he says.

Today, Clark builds 19th-century-style flamenco guitars. Why this style? Perhaps, he says, because that's what his father's law partner taught him to play on, and the first guitarist to whom he listened was the flamenco great Sabicas, whose blazing fingers revolutionized the genre and introduced it to the non-Spanish speaking world. He's also a big fan of the legendary Andres Segovia. And of course, growing up in West Texas exposed Clark to a lot of Spanish-influenced music, which is evident in many of his songs, as well as his guitars.

Signed in Blood

Clark always builds his guitars two at a time, experimenting with ways to achieve different sounds by tweaking the pieces for each. As he works on one, he lets the glue set up on the other. "That way, I'm always waiting for one to dry," he says.

The construction process starts with a cork-covered hardwood template. The front of the guitar is affixed to this template from beginning to end, as the rest of the guitar is built off the face. The sides are bent around

a steam pipe, ribs are added to the interior, the headstock is carved and the neck added to the guitar body before the back is put on. A lot of commercial companies build the neck and body separately, Clark says, "but there's something about the integral construction techniques that really fascinates me."

For tools, Clark relies on a set of old standards: good chisels, a Stanley fore plane - and a $10 Swedish beginner's carving tool. "It's

the best darn knife I've ever bought." He prefers Japanese pull saws to western push saws, and doesn't like power tools much. First of all, they're simply too technological for a guy who likes to work with his hands directly on the wood. But Clark's primary objection is that they're simply too loud. In fact, he rarely even listens to music when he's building, despite hundreds of tapes from which to choose but an arm's-length away. "I like the silence, the

popularwoodworking.com

23