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Martin Taylor’s guitar – ‘The Chet’ – Last Train to Hauteville
Dec 16th
Martin using the guitar to record his latest album Last Train to Hauteville
Recently I refurbished Martin Taylor’s guitar which was signed by Chet Atkins. This video shows him using it to record his latest album.
The guitar is also on two album covers:
Before I got my hands on it!
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- There it is on the cover!
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- …and again….
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- Also found this pic of Martin playing it
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- ….And this one…
I did a quick search to see if there were any pictures on the net of the guitar before I got hold of it and loads turned up. There are many videos of it being played pre-baileyfied and one of when he used it to record his latest album – Last Train to Hauteville. I will add some more pics when I can. What an honour to work on such an instrument – THANKS MARTIN!
This is the best pic I could find of the finished job
The Chet – Part 10/10 – Signed, sealed and delivered…
Dec 16th
Aug 11, 2009 @ 14:09
Before.......
Me and Carol delivered the guitar to Martin today. To be honest I was still not sure about the magnets holding on the truss rod cover and the knot-work panel on the side of the guitar. I had left this unglued because it was the only access to the inside if there was any problem with the electrics. I had thought that I would show him the guitar and he would say ‘hmm.. I like it but can you do this… or that to it’. I was expecting to take the guitar away with me for some last minute tweaks but he sat and played it for ages and didn’t seem to want to part with it again.
He did say he would rather have the side panel glued in and luckily I had brought some glue along because I thought that might be the case. So I glued the last piece in right there in his living room and left it with him.
Big THANKS to Martin and Liz for their hospitality and a great evening – and for giving me the Chet Project. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.
(Foolishly I forgot to take any pics of the finished article but I’ll post them as soon as I can get hold of some…….)
Martin Taylor’s guitar – The Chet – Part 9/10 – FireHorses and ‘Conyach’
Dec 3rd
….Putting it back together again….
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- Billy is about to polish the headstock
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- All the new ebony parts
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- Strapped into the jig for fret dressing
Jul 10, 2009 @ 13:58
Conyach: Martin introduced me to this word years ago at the Kirkmichael Guitar festival during a session in the pub. It means when who you are and what you are doing become one…..or to put it another way – you get totally lost in what you are doing. It is a old Scottish travellers word from the story telling tradition. If the teller has no ‘conyach’ then no one will listen.
To me it is like what I am making already exists. I am just kind of freeing it out of the wood…It’s the same when I am playing well – the music already exists – I’m just channelling it from somewhere. I’m sure every guitar player must have felt that at some point?…I wish I could get that every time I play…..It’s like when you throw a dart and you know before it has left your hand that it’s a ‘bullseye’.
I’d like to think that I get it when I’m engrossed in the workshop. I felt it when I was inlaying the Horse. While I was working I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to be on a horse riding like the wind and winning a race – I’m sure you would get the same feeling of total immersion and concentration. That’s why I decided that it was the name of the Fire Horse – ‘Conyach’ – It seemed natural to inlay the word on the headstock – I really hope Martin likes it…….
The whole inlay was in mother of pearl – I used a Celtic font for the lettering. Unfortunately as I was so engrossed in doing it that I neglected taking the pictures……I’ll find out if I can get any and put them here….for now I will stick in some pics after the inlay…….
Martin Taylor’s guitar – The Chet – part 8/10 – Visitors Rights…
Nov 18th
Martin Taylor pops in to check progress on ‘The Chet….’
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- Is that an idea forming in Martins mind?
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- The Celtic Knotwork for the f-hole
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- A combination of magnets and clamps hold it in place while the glue dries
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- F-hole Celtic Knotwork glued into place
Jul 20, 2009 @ 17:51
It was great to see Martin again – when he visits he usually picks up a guitar at some point and suddenly the workshop is filled with beautiful sounds. Its surreal – I really don’t know how he makes them sound like that but I will be signing up to his Guitar Academy to find out. This time however we spent all the time talking about the Chet.
He seemed to like the work I had done so far….especially the Celtic knotwork. In fact he decided he wanted the f-holes done as well!……In the first picture I’m probably thinking ‘OMG… how am I going to make a Celtic knot in the shape of an f-hole!’
After he had left I started on a design immediately and it just fell into place. I just made a very simple cross over in the middle and it looked great. I don’t know what I was worrying about……coff….
They did look a bit chunky until glued in place – I made them oversized so I could glue them on the inside, underneath the f-hole itself, which becomes the border around the edge. They had to be fixed accurately in the centre for this to work. I used magnets and a couple of clamps to do this. I LOVE magnets….I will definately write a post about ‘magnets in the workshop’ soon….
The f-hole knotwork was glued in unfinished so the glue would take (last picture), and brushed in afterwards with sealer and a coat of matt paint.
Click here to see Martin’s entry in his blog about the visit.
Martin Taylor’s guitar – ‘The Chet’ Part 7/10 – Removing the fretboard inlays
Nov 13th
…..Now you see them, now you don’t…..
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- A plug cutter is used to make some ebony dots
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- I drilled out the old ones by hand – that brought out a sweat I can tell you
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- Thankfully the first one came out great, so I stuck with it…..
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- The hole is filled with black super glue and the new ebony dots pressed in
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- The fretboard with all of the new dots gued in
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- The dots are installed so that they sit ‘proud’ and then trimmed flush with a chisel
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- A light sand with 320g finished them off
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- Look really close and you can see them – not bad at all
Jul 9, 2009 @ 11:48
Removing the mother of pearl inlays on Martin Taylors guitar ‘The Chet’
While I was waiting for a reply from Martin about whether or not he liked the inlay design I decided to crack on with the next bit, which was removing the old MOP dots and replacing them with ebony ones to make them ‘disappear’. Of course if you are Martin Taylor you can probably do alright without them! Most mortals need these fret position dots as markers to let us know where our fingers are but he just uses ‘The Force’……or ‘The Ears’ …as I like to call them…..The Ears are strong on this one….OB1.
I thought it would be easier and quicker to just drill them out by hand, but I did have to seriously brace myself for this one. I did the first one very carefully as the beads of sweat formed on my forehead. This one worked well so I went for it – It is best to forget at this point you are working on a virtually priceless irreplaceable instrument and just get on with it.
The drill makes a slighty tapered hole and the plug cutter does the same to the ebony dowels so they fit perfectly. The end result was pretty good – if you didn’t know they were there you wouldn’t see them. They will look even better after a coat of Lemon Oil. Success!….Now what’s next? Bring it on!…….
