Archive for June, 2011

…Only two more days to go! Can you see what it is yet?

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Day 5

10am till 8pm

Yesterday was a well earned day off. We all get tired and I find that’s when people make avoidable mistakes, which can set us back hours. I have often wished I had stopped half an hour earlier, just after I do something stupid. This is why we schedule in a day off in the middle of the custom build course, everyone agreed it was a good idea and we were all raring to get going again today.

Back down to three again as none of the long term builders could get in, so it was a little more sedate than usual until Kevin got the router out!

Kevin put the side dots and the frets by first break, and by dinner time he had made a good start on the body. He routed both pick ups and the control cavity, drilled the control holes and then took a break. After dinner he cut out his body shape – the cap was already cut from yesterday so we could use that as a pattern to copy the shape into the back of the body with a router after first roughly cutting it out with the band saw. He also routed the f-hole and spent some time cleaning up the edges with sandpaper. Things must be going well because he has plumped for a gloss finish- either wine red or deep blue, he is yet to decide. That means, like Dave he will leave it with us for spraying- you will be able to follow this on the blog.

Dave carved his neck before lunch and then started work on his crown inlays…You can’t rush a good job, these are going to be spectacular! He temporarily glued them in place for marking out with a sharp scribe. After carefully removing them a mini router was used to make holes for the inlays fit into. He spent the whole rest of the day working on these and got over half way so he will have to get a move on tomorrow or he may have to come back for another day. Dave is a little behind but as he is having a gloss finish he effectively has an extra day while the others are assembling their guitars so it should be OK. It is just as well because he has more plans for inlays on the headstock!

Nicks inlays have caused a bit of a stir this course- he has his own method of making them which is not the normal procedure so I had warned him that it may not work and when Nick was rubbing them flat after gluing them into his fretboard yesterday he sanded through one of them. It’s a real shame because the rest of them look fantastic, in fact they are worth a post of their own so I will get round to that in a few days and leave it at that, except to say that today an emergency repair job left him with a ‘world’ instead of a ‘sun’ on the first fret. Nick then spent the afternoon putting in his side dots and frets before starting the laborious sanding process. Billy helped out with the final sanding as he will be spraying it for Nick tonight while I write this and we are all meeting later in the pub! It is Acoustic Bliss tonight so Nick better not drink too much as he has to get his neck and bridge glued on tomorrow so he can string it up and play it on Saturday!

…Late finish but still on schedule…

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Day 4

10am till 9pm

Kevin has to get his fretboard sprayed and Dave and nick must have theirs glued on to have any chance of finishing on time.

Stevie (bass) stepped in to carry on with his 5 string fretless archtop bass. Last time we tried to bend his sides which was a bit of a trial as the wood is so highly figured it started to fracture, so this morning I  showed him how to make a mould. While the glue was drying he returned to carving his back plate which is now starting to look really nice. After dinner he used his new mould to complete the side bending. We used a heat lamp to warm up the dampened sides until they were steaming, then clamped them into the mould to perfect the shape.

Dave (set neck) has been working on his headstock veneer with custom binding. We used a test piece to practice on to make sure we had everything right before cutting the channel around the headstock. The black/white/black strip had to be bent, mitred and glued first, with pins to hold it in place. Afterwards the outside strip of rosewood was glued and held in place by clear tape. This procedure took over half a day and is not for the faint hearted but the results will be spectacular. Dave’s last job today was to glue on his fretboard.

Kevin (bolt on) got his inlays in before first break and also cut his nut slot so his fret board could be sprayed. He then spent the rest of the day working on the body. Kevin spent a while making a pattern for the sound chambers which had to be routed into the body. After that he cut the shape into the cap before it gluing it on last thing.

Nick (acoustic) completed his neck angle and then made and installed a truss rod before cleaning the inlays from yesterday and gluing on his fretboard. Any spare time he had was taken up scraping and sanding the binding on the body that he glued yesterday.

Tomorrow we have a well earned day off…what does a guitar maker do on his day off? Make more guitars of course! I have some custom acoustics to be getting on with but I will be in the workshop on my own, the guys will be back for day 5 on Thursday- see you then….

Today we will mostly be making necks…

Day 2 of 7

10am – 7pm

Back to Day 1

For Dave and Kevin, our new starters, yesterday was all about fixing their designs and choosing wood etc, so today we could get stuck into building. We had also managed to make fret boards which gave us a bit of head start today. An interesting day- 3 different truss rod designs kept me on my toes…Duncan who has already fitted his, joined Nick to continue working on their acoustics.

Duncan (acoustic)

Duncan got his fretboard glued on early so he could begin carving his neck in the afternoon. While it was drying he started to make an ebony bridge. He got the pin holes and saddle slot cut which are the tricky bits. Before he left he fitted his newly carved neck back on to check the feel. Next time he comes he will be mostly inlaying gold mother of pearl crown inlays into his fretboard.

Nick (acoustic)

Nick will make his own truss rod which fits into a straight slot but he will use a round bottomed cutter. After he routed his truss rod slot he cut the headstock angle into his neck blank before gluing on the heel block as it is easier to work with a square lump of wood. He was ready to rough out his neck in the afternoon and it will now settle overnight before gluing on the fretboard tomorrow. The rest of the day was spend cutting the channels for the binding around the edges of his body. He managed to get the first pieces glued in place before we packed up for the day and will finish the rest in the morning.

Dave (set neck)

Dave’s set neck design has an angled back headstock which requires a thicker piece of wood than a bolt on, parallel headstock design like Kevins (below). His truss rod is fitted under the fretboard into a simple straight slot. He roughed out his neck on the band-saw and then cut the binding strips from the sheet he glued yesterday. They came out looking great so we glued them on. Tomorrow the fret slots will need to be re-cut through the ‘black white black’ before the outside strips of rosewood can be glued into place, then he can get his fretboard glued on.

Kevin (bolt on)

Kevin has a more difficult task as the truss rod goes into the back of the neck and will be hidden with a fillet of wood or ‘skunk stripe’. He has band-sawn his neck out, drilled his tuner holes, glued his fretboard on and routed his truss rod slot.  He also took a tracing from his drawing to use for marking out the body. Tomorrow he will finish installing his truss rod, carve the neck and possibly make a start on the body.

That is a pretty good day all round I reckon…hope you are enjoying reading about the course and watching these guitars take shape over the next week….more tomorrow!