Wednesday 6th May ’09

Nick’s bespoke 4 string bass guitar is the project of the moment.. the aluminium inlays with abalone centers have cured now and the excess glue is filed away..

the bridge is brought out and I start working out the neck break angles etc

which are subsequently recessed into the neck blank.. 

some more bespoke pickups arrive from Andrew and Jeff (Geoff??.. single f?..?) at Wizard pickups..

Andrew’s eight string guitar.. the template is brought out and the neccessarys marked onto the neck.. including the break angles etc.. she then goes through the same processes as the PAF bass..

the spalted beech body timber is marked out for the bass.. this is the first time I’ve seen the red spalting to this extent!

the fretboard is polished up and coats of lemon oil applied.. which both cleans and lubricates!!

the body timber is prepared..

here is the mahogany being prepped for Andrews eight string guitar..

and glued..

the spalted beech body is carefully planed 

and she too becomes an almost guitar..

the birdseye maple headstock extensions and veneers are glued in place on Jason’s custom guitar

on to Steinar’s custom Extended Range Bass.. the body shape (arrived at through very careful design and liberal useage of the international postal service..) is marked out..

we start off by removing the headstock.. and she officially becomes my first headless instrument..

the body is then rough cut

and the rear mounted pickup cavity is routed.. carefully, there has to be a very thin amount of top on the …top.. so that the pickup works..

and here she is for now..

 

some more veneer is stained blue

 

and the basses headstock becomes..

 

a short change of pace and the fret ends on Joshua’s neck are snipped and profiled.. which is no easy job with stainless steel frets..

 

and then more lemon oil is applied..

 

the excess neck timber is planed flush with the body

 

and the end of the neck profiled

 

and we’re on to preparing the hand selected flamed pearwood top.. she is prepared on the planer thicknesser (a 40 year old machine that is still amazingly.. um.. amazing!)

 

the cap is then split.. creating a bookmatch

 

the edges are planed flat by hand

 

and jointed in its turn

 

and finally the body is bandsawed into the shaoe of our PAF guitar.. 

 

like so.. she is now ready for a bit of routing and then her cap!

All my best to you and yours!!  Ben

ben@crimsonguitars.com