Return of the Guitar Building!
I've been busy. Still am, really. Internships, translation, more internships, getting properly settled in a new house, internships...you get the picture. Part of the 'getting settled' was moving a whole bunch of wood, tools, books and DVDs from a tiny room in Amsterdam (which clearly had some sort of quantum properties, given the amount of stuff that came out of it!) to much more space in Purmerend (town outside Amsterdam, 20 minutes from central station by bus).
Upside: I've actually managed to get giant scary power tools up and running (Bandsaws = best thing ever. EVER. Totally. How I ever got along without one shall forever remain shrouded in mystery), slowly building the jigs I need to finish up Tags' long-suffering Baritone (sorry dude...), hopefully have that one ready for a finish in late September as well, along with the other three guitars that are currently being built (seeing as so far, they do not require jigs I haven't made yet)
Tags's baritone, as you may or may not remember, essentially requires binding, sanding, some frets, some neck refining, my logo in mother of pearl, and then a finish. And a prayer that the giant-ass baritone strings don't explode the top (unlikely, but it's this fear I always have when stringing up acoustics, irrational though it may seem/be). Hoping to get around to building the binding jig doodad soon-ish, although I need to clear the workbench of a trio of bending molds/forms first.
Basically, the extra added space means I can actually build guitars without having to, y'know, wait for it to stop raining, and dig out tools from under piles of stuff. I went from tiny-ass room with everything in it (bed, shop, tv, pc, kitchen, books, etc.) to a bona-fide shed with space for a bandsaw (only just) and a very large, tall bench, with wood on shelves, well, everywhere. Pictures (stuff on the benches = side benders for new body shapes):
Saw+dust collector:
Then there's the 'clean' area inside (which, sadly, is already far messier than this), where there's some space for storing under construction projects, plans, fine tools, hardware, tuning machines...non-dusty things and expensive small things:
Opposite this attic shoplet there live large built-in cupboard things full of fine tonewood, ie all my pre-cut acoustic sets plus a few odd figured billets. Anything not in large board form. Did a little inventory, and I have too few fingerboards. ...by which I mean I have 70-odd sets of back/sides/tops for acoustics, who knows how many electric blanks, and only 45 fingerboards. clearly too few. Right?
So, what's currently being constructed? Three things. First, Ban's acoustic, which is taking form slowly, of which I have very few pictures (neck is largley complete, fingerboard slotted but not yet bound, and I'm doing some funky things with adjustable neck joints and floating fingerboard extensions which require a little bit of thinking). Only thing to see right now is the back set, Black Walnut, currently joined and awaiting further processing. I think I may just go to a cabinet shop and have it thickness sanded for me, because I don't see myself having the time to finish building my sander any time soon:
Next, a left-handed pointy thing for Rachel's brother, will be finished in trans red-black burst with barbe wire inlay done in silver. Currently waiting for me to work out the neck angle so I can glue in the neck, finish carving, do the inlay, glue the fingerboard, and start finishing:
Hopefully I should get around to doing the rear cavity covers this weekend (to be attached with magnets, made of wood offcuts from the back), drilling holes for the controls (volume, a switch, an output jack), and setting the neck.
Finally, an arched carved top semi hollow guitar, hybrid between a real archtop and a chambered electric (braced, graduated spruce top over chambered solid mahogany body). Can't recall if I posted any pics of this before, but screw it, here we go again:
More recently, I carved the top and added some F-holes. Have three things to fix here: two pesky hidden pitch pockets that appeared while carving, and a few minor blemishes caused by my own idiocy with a jigsaw while cutting out the treble-side F-hole:
Right. Thought someone might be vaguely interested.
Or not. Whatever. At least there's pictures of pretty wood.
Upside: I've actually managed to get giant scary power tools up and running (Bandsaws = best thing ever. EVER. Totally. How I ever got along without one shall forever remain shrouded in mystery), slowly building the jigs I need to finish up Tags' long-suffering Baritone (sorry dude...), hopefully have that one ready for a finish in late September as well, along with the other three guitars that are currently being built (seeing as so far, they do not require jigs I haven't made yet)
Tags's baritone, as you may or may not remember, essentially requires binding, sanding, some frets, some neck refining, my logo in mother of pearl, and then a finish. And a prayer that the giant-ass baritone strings don't explode the top (unlikely, but it's this fear I always have when stringing up acoustics, irrational though it may seem/be). Hoping to get around to building the binding jig doodad soon-ish, although I need to clear the workbench of a trio of bending molds/forms first.
Basically, the extra added space means I can actually build guitars without having to, y'know, wait for it to stop raining, and dig out tools from under piles of stuff. I went from tiny-ass room with everything in it (bed, shop, tv, pc, kitchen, books, etc.) to a bona-fide shed with space for a bandsaw (only just) and a very large, tall bench, with wood on shelves, well, everywhere. Pictures (stuff on the benches = side benders for new body shapes):
Saw+dust collector:
Then there's the 'clean' area inside (which, sadly, is already far messier than this), where there's some space for storing under construction projects, plans, fine tools, hardware, tuning machines...non-dusty things and expensive small things:
Opposite this attic shoplet there live large built-in cupboard things full of fine tonewood, ie all my pre-cut acoustic sets plus a few odd figured billets. Anything not in large board form. Did a little inventory, and I have too few fingerboards. ...by which I mean I have 70-odd sets of back/sides/tops for acoustics, who knows how many electric blanks, and only 45 fingerboards. clearly too few. Right?
So, what's currently being constructed? Three things. First, Ban's acoustic, which is taking form slowly, of which I have very few pictures (neck is largley complete, fingerboard slotted but not yet bound, and I'm doing some funky things with adjustable neck joints and floating fingerboard extensions which require a little bit of thinking). Only thing to see right now is the back set, Black Walnut, currently joined and awaiting further processing. I think I may just go to a cabinet shop and have it thickness sanded for me, because I don't see myself having the time to finish building my sander any time soon:
Next, a left-handed pointy thing for Rachel's brother, will be finished in trans red-black burst with barbe wire inlay done in silver. Currently waiting for me to work out the neck angle so I can glue in the neck, finish carving, do the inlay, glue the fingerboard, and start finishing:
Hopefully I should get around to doing the rear cavity covers this weekend (to be attached with magnets, made of wood offcuts from the back), drilling holes for the controls (volume, a switch, an output jack), and setting the neck.
Finally, an arched carved top semi hollow guitar, hybrid between a real archtop and a chambered electric (braced, graduated spruce top over chambered solid mahogany body). Can't recall if I posted any pics of this before, but screw it, here we go again:
More recently, I carved the top and added some F-holes. Have three things to fix here: two pesky hidden pitch pockets that appeared while carving, and a few minor blemishes caused by my own idiocy with a jigsaw while cutting out the treble-side F-hole:
Right. Thought someone might be vaguely interested.
Or not. Whatever. At least there's pictures of pretty wood.