Check this magnificent new entrance, Mike in the background playing my guitar.

And a closer picture after stepping through the door.

Good to see the maker looking satisfied with his craftsmanship; it was a pleasure hearing him playing it.

Anyway, I took some shots of work in progress for Mike, this is a pair of necks for classical instruments in early gluing.

Mike preparing his plane blade for book-matching and gluing some tables. This was the process that Mike thought would interest me, done in the traditional way.

Mike takes blade sharpness really seriously.

Mike beginning to prepare the edges for sticking together.

And here Mike is checking that the two edges meet perfectly and mate properly along the whole length.

This bit is so interesting, Mike uses traditional animal glue, which needs to be warmed briefly to ensure good penetration. After using traditional string and wedges to bring the two faces together, Mike plays a torch over the joint to help the glue to do it’s job.

Mike was keen for me to photograph the process, but I wanted to photograph Mike; I love this close-up of Mike while he focuses on the new joint. I have said this in previous posts, but what a striking man Mike is.

I couldn’t resist these sound-hole inlays, all handmade by Mike; I love these and wish I could have a guitar to go with each of these!

Finally, a workshop detail for fun.

This set of pictures was all taken with my Canon 5dMk2 and my Sigma 24-70 f2.8. Mike was working really quickly and so I wanted to frame him working while staying safely out of his way. I bought this lens for my recent wedding shoot and have been really happy with it. It takes great portraits and delivers that look of gorgeous bokeh that I am addicted to. I hadn’t expected to like it this much, being a prime lens addict, but it is really special and will be heavily used in wedding shoots.

And again, just giving a sense of setting. Somehow Mike just fits these surroundings, he doesn’t just work with wood, he is utterly passionate about it; where else could he be but here.

A closer picture of Mike here, but critically folks, just for a change ignore the relaxed expression with the nice graduated light across the face, that’s the headstock of my new guitar.

And here it is, Indian Rosewood, Sitka Spruce and Mahogany, all assembled by Mike’s expert paws. I’m so excited!

Mike isn’t just a learn it and get in a rut luthier. He has made it his business to spend time in Spain studying with the spanish and flamenco guitar builders, and he has adapted many of their traditional techniques for use here in Scotland. Note the use of string and wedges where many might expect metal clamps. It’s a joy to watch this work happening.

And finally a detail of one of Mike’s near complete Classical instruments. Look at the hand finished detail round the soundhole. This is a pre-polished and finished guitar. Some lucky person will own this soon.

Mike’s workshop is pretty dark and presents a difficult photographic environment. I used a little offboard flash on occasion, and a couple with natural light only. The picture of mike holding my guitar neck was ISO 2000, and the picture of my guitar nearing completion was ISO 2500. No noise reduction was applied in Lightroom 3. You couldn’t say the Canon 7d has no noise, it has plenty at these settings, but it is surprisingly unobtrusive in real use.

There will be more pictures of Mike’s band posted soon, once I can process the next batch of challenging, low light pictures I took.

This is Mike Ritchie. Mike is a Luthier (guitar maker if you must). This was taken yesterday in his workshop. Mike made my acoustic guitar 6 years ago and it is the most wonderful sounding guitar I have ever owned. Mike puts real passion and love into his guitars, and the results are really special. He does everything by hand and has incorporated new methods into his building process as he has learned from other builders. (He recently had 2 years in Spain learning from their builders). It is a total pleasure to chat with Mike and watch him at work. He just happens to be a really likeable man who is a pleasure to chat with as well. I ‘m grateful that he was happy to let me do a portrait and I look forward to more in the near future.

Mike’s Website

Technically the light was low in the workshop, so I bumped up to ISO 200. The side lighting was coming from the window behind Mike, but it was too much of a range at certain angles so it took a few positions to prevent the near side of Mike’s face being too dark. Of course with my desire to include a little of Mike’s working environment it just had to be my beloved Sigma 28 1.8