The 2nd day of September 2010
so, here's where we left off the last diary.. my first go on a strung up double cut guitar, I really love the feel of the scalloped frets!
the control cavity is shielded
and the wiring components are installed
a sinple volume, tone and three way toggle with a push/push coil tap switch on the volume..
the jack plate is next to be made, out of a chunk of ebony.. of course we carve it to fit the outline of the guitar..
and a trip to Yandles to get some shellac for the paf blackburst and I become a little distracted by some stunning flamed purpleheart... mmm
back to work and the jackplate is in finished and oiled.. and really will be strong enough to deal with most anything you could throw at it as a player!
..after some wiring she is a complete guitar, and is also my favourite guitar of the year so far, if I could I would keep her for my own!!
tidy up..
re-organise a bit..
enter the camera...person..
and after half a day of setting up we get on with the next big project at Crimson Guitars, we will be doing a lot of filming this year and will be putting video's up all over the place.. MTV here we come!!
the first project is to build a complete custom guitar in 24 working hours.. and here we go!
after roughing out the padouk body I cut and bookmatch the bubinga top
which is jointed and glued..
next up the neck blank is marked out
and cut.. this is obviously a slight cheat in that we made this blank up a few weeks ago, it was a decision I made to avoid having to use the single piece neck..
anyway, after roughing out the blank the back is planed flat and we work everything from here
the body blank is routed out next
followed by the control cavity
and the tone-chambers.. we really are not cutting any corners here!
obviously being filmed has distracted me a little and I've missed a few photo's out.. the fretboard has been glued in place
and the body cut to fit around the neck.. a bit sacriligous but time is of the essence here amd a through neck design is simply easier to build.. it does tend to sound better as well though!
jointed and glued.. and left overnight..
the headstock wings are next up
and the fret slot positions are marked out..
clampage..
and while that dries I get on with cutting the fret slots.. the end result is that I hope to be able to work much more effectively on other guitars..
..a bit later and all the frets are in, 22 medium jumbo frets in a PRS scale length
after shaping the headstock and checking the string pull etc a wenge veneer is added
and while that dries I move on to adding the side dot inlays..
and the preperation of the glueing surface
the bubinga top has it's neck pocket roughed out
spooge!
and some clamptastic fun!
I et to the other end of things and cut the tuner holes and the truss rod access hole..
the logo is cut from some mother of pearl.. with an added '24'
looks nice on that wenge veneer!
here we are, two days in to the build and after only 10 hours and 25 minutes of work.. and it's all on tape, not to mention a second time-lapse video for your viewing pleasure!
All my best,
Ben
