Friday 15th January 2009
Aki begins the week well, by slogging through the continueing white stuff.. good man!
he begins work on Gary's paf blackburst.. she needs a new backplate for the variax bits..
once it's perfectly fitting, thanks to Igor's pedantic skills, I carve her to match the rest of the ergonomic contours of the back.. obviously being very careful not to marr the rest of the back!
like so.. after a bit more sanding of course! and she's ready for oiling..
now, I get to playing at organising some capacitors! Yay, geeky fun!
back into the quixotic innards of this RF Slim..
so, the carved backplate needs a battery box.. Igor makes a plastic template for this..
more capacitor fun.. organisation is the name of the game!
an Igor-powered battery shaped hole appears in the backplate.. I always leave this to last to allow for developements in the wiring cavity..
now.. more geekyness.. (good word..) each one of about 30 pots is measured.. they are all 500k cts pots.. ostensably.. in reality they measure from 433k to 540k!!! And these are made by one of the top two companies out there!!
Anyway, the point of the process is to create matched sets.. we get three sets of two out of all of these!
the plastic battery box is installed.. I really want to work on building a custom metal replacement! .. one day!
now, the mini vlume and tone pots are removed.. and replaced with a matched pair..
next up I solder a pair of clips to the volume and tone pots.. then each one of these caps is tested for sound.. and we choose the best one!!
the backplate is shielded and the battery clips installed..
and she is put together.. with absolutely everything in place for the first time!
fun fun fun!
pretty.. but it is still snowing!
so we fit some new heaters in the shop.. 
Nick's 45rpm.. still rough carved
and in need of a new headstock shape.. and not a stock one for a change!
some templates are made..
strike one.. more shapes on the way..
Andrews eight string is prepared for her final foray into a spray booth!
and a Korg Kaoss pad arrives.. and is tested.. I'm not very impressed but we'll see what can be done.. it will end up in a guitar one day!
the paf has her 20th coat of oil applied!
and she really is starting to look the job!
strike two.. Gretsche-ish but not Gretsche-enough
Mikes slim is plugged into an Axon MIDIbox thingy and two practice amps..
she's looking good now!
a new set of Rotosound strings is installed
and she has a final setup.. truss rod adjusted, nut height changed etc etc..
now.. this stock eight string has been in limbo for what feels like a year! I must get her ready for someone to love!?
after each fret is polished to a very slippery high gloss the fretboard is oiled.. several times
now, we turn to snakewood.. a very hard and oily wood which should be perfect as a nut.. slippery and resonant!
oh, and pretty!
a set of lightweight Nylon tuners is installed
and I start thinking about a new custom bridge.. 
you think, and then do.. an aluminium blank is cut to shape
very roughly.. I've got a new file on order for working with aluminium.. this will wait til that arrives.. Have a great great weekend!
All my best,
Ben
Crimson Guitars HQ