050609

Friday 5th June ’09

finally these two are ready to come together.. the dual action truss rod is installed in the zebrano and figured purpleheart neck and covered in a strip of masking tape..

and the two become one..

here’s the solid yew strat alike..

recieving her finish.. over the week three coats a day are applied.. and rubbed off

after a night to cure the clamps come off and Gary’s neck is stripped of excess wood

along with this soon-to-be hollowbody model for Joshua.. the plane comes out and the neck/body joint is prepare

now, I constantly evolve the build methods..

and this time the neck section is shaped before the body.. should save half an hour or so..

the figured pearwood body wings are prepared, carefully..

and she becomes a proto-guitar..

back to the original hollowbody PAF.. yet more coats of oil are applied

alongside the PAF bass.. a surprisingly time consuming process in the long run..

we’ve reached the end of the road with this beast.. she is to be set up with heavy guage strings

and the process of changing them reminded me to cut the slots in the back-plate!! doh!

but she is set up and ready to go!

on to the fan fret 8 string guitar..

the lightweight nylon tuners are plaxced on the headstock, just to confirm the shape works prior to any drastic bandsawing..

and I also have to make a new template for the new and improved Wizard pickups

everything is marked out on the guitar

and the machining starts up again..

now.. the postman arrives with some stainless steel tubes for various hardware experiments..

not realising he carrried a wormhole in one!!!!

the headstock shape is finalised on the bobbin sander

the template completed

and, after roughing out the pickup and control cavities on the pillar drill

the routing is performed!

she is now ready for final carving etc etc..

on to Jason’s 45rpm.. the headstock is marked out

shaped etc etc..

and the figured maple headstock cap with the recessed truss rod cover is cut out

and, alongside the 8 string, glued in place..

the excess timber from the end of this neck blank is split down the middle and turned into the headstock wings..

on Joshua’s custom guitar.. the padouk fretboard looks really good.. it has a similar feel and sound to ebony.. and isn’t endangered!!!

back to Gary’s neck.. she is planed down

and fretted

the frets are glued in and need to sit for a day to cure before removing the scary looking fret ends!

and inlaying.. another chamge of pace, more padouk is brought out for Jason’s Crimson logo

the recess is cut with the baby router..

and left to cure

while the back plates are cut out of more figured maple..

my new toy comes to bear here and the process is sped up a good deal (a neccessary thing.. I really didn’t think that a baby could take up so much time!!!)

the logo is chiseled flush with the headstock veneer

and the final job of the day is the last coat of oil.. and a bit of preliminary polish.. she, along with the hollowbody PAF will get some hardware next week!

Have a great weekend! Ben.

Crimson Guitars HQ