Ervin Somogyi Apprenticeship – Silverman Guitars OM Build
 

I’m here at Ervin Somogyi’s workshop, four weeks into a two year apprenticeship. It’s been pretty full on so far, working regular hours for Ervin, and finding some time in the mornings, evenings, and weekends to work on my own projects. I’ve started an OM build, which I’d like to share with you guys. So far I’ve managed to do the rosette, and a few other bits and pieces.

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I’ll be filming this entire build, and taking a lot of photos, which I’ll share here.

If anyone is interested in my experience as a Somogyi apprentice, I’ve been doing a blog on my website to document it. There's also some info on there about me. If there's anything you want to know about the apprenticeship, or anything else, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

https://www.silvermanguitars.com

Hope you guys enjoy following the process!

Thanks

Jeff Silverman

Jeff, thanks for introducing yourself and your adventure. I can assure you that there will be great interest on AGF in your experience, and no small amount of envy by some....

I wish you well with your extraordinary journey and will look forward to updates, and to your blog reports.

David

Thank you, Jeff! This is awesome stuff and you'll have a lot of followers, I believe, here on AGF. Many of us know of Ervin, and may have dealt with apprentice builders who worked under him, or who have attended his workshops, but learning the behind the scenes experience will be incredibly interesting and informative. Thank you so much for providing a glimpse!
Oh yeah,
Welcome!!! ;)
Best wishes,
Fred

Beautiful work and welcome to the forum.

Looking forward to your posts. Good luck in your next two years. That would be so cool to be part of his process and learn from Ervin!

Welcome to the forum, Jeff! I look forward to following along.

Welcome Jeff! Excited for you, and for us as you let us "tag along" on your journey!

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I’ll be interested to hear how it all goes.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I haven't had time to put together another blog post, and not much new to show on my build, but here's some miscellaneous photos from around the shop this week.

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This guy from 1983 came in for a re-finish, had a fun time stripping and sanding it. Now it's in Ervin's room for some re-voicing work, then off to get French polished.

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Another in the "Espalda" series.

And below some interesting jigs. They are not pretty but they mostly work pretty well.

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For cutting the end wedge channel.

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Tenon routing jig.

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Fret slotting jig. This thing is a bit over engineered.

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For making latices. The instructions written on here are a bit hard to decipher, but once you figure out how to work it, it works great.

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X brace notching jig.

Here's a blog post talking about the rosette process in a bit more detail.

https://www.silvermanguitars.com/my-...ning-a-rosette

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Beautiful work, Jeff! I was wondering how you pulled that off! That was no small project, for sure. I really like the concept of looking at everything but guitars to get inspiration. That’s gonna stick with me! Well done!

Thank you for pointing us to your blog post. The rosette is unique and flawlessly done. This window into your apprenticeship is really interesting.

Jeff, seeing your images, with shop guitars in the midst of production, is like peeking behind the curtain to see where the magic happens. Turns out, the "magic" is actually the product of an exceptional level of craftsmanship (and, of course, Ervin's voicing alchemy). Oh, yes, and an incredibly steady hand.
I am looking forward to your future posts.

David

Jeff, thank you for sharing all these incredible progresspictures. Warm welcomeand wish you have a wonderful journey with Ervin. Just curious, if you do not mind sharing, are those wood strips inlay glued to the sides prior to side-bending or the inlay channels are routed after the sides are bent? Thank you.

Cory, the inlay strips were installed before the sides were bent.