Friday 10th April ’09

Firstly just a note to say that I will be out of the workshop until Monday the 20th.. your emails will be answered as soon after I get back as possible!

this has been a long term project.. so long term that my tastes have changed and I’m not that fond of her..

nonetheless she will be finished soon.. the locking sperzel’s are installed.. these are amazing stable light weight locking tuners.. basically they can’t be beat!!

a bone nut blank is filed to fit the slot before shaping etc..

and the tremolo is installed..

then, finally, the beast comes to life.. she is a very light weight and resonant guitar with bags of natural sustain!

it at this point the pickup surounds are straightened out and screwed in place..

the backplates are all insulated

and installed..

leaving two new guitars ready for wiring.. Wizard are currently working on a new wiring diagram for these beauties.. hopefully it will be a little more intuitive..

..a resigned horse losing it’s winter coat..

and a few degrees cooler and much happier!!

halfway through replacing the broken switch on the bandsaw.. finally!!

and then the boss calls.. in a loud 5 month old voice!!

the new bespoke high chair begins..

I’m a sucker for punishment and just couldn’t design something normal..

the chair slats are prepared.. and more than once I regretted not using real wood for the whole thing…

and here I learn that curves are rather difficult to clamp up..

but with the addition of an ash table

I’m rather impressed with myself… anyone want one it’ll be a weekends work.. so a very very expensive bit of furniture!!

back to real wood.. a flamed birdseye maple plank is marked..

and turned into 12 fretboards.. this way I can choose the best two for Gary and Jason’s bespoke guitars..

the truss rod chanel is routed in Jason’s 3 piece birdseye maple neck using a new small router I picked up in a local pawn shop for a few quid.. I just love my tools!!

and the daddy of machines is used to bring Jason’s neck to life..

the final dimensions are planed in..

and the fretboard blank is glued in place

using a different technique on this one.. she’s going to have fibre optics installed so everything needs to be done before glueing her in place.. the sizes are marke out taking into account the size of the binding..

and she is planed to size..

slotted for frets.. after planing the compound radius of course..

and then the triangular abalone inlays are cut out..

the recesses are chiseled

and everything glued in place..

next up Joshua’s fretboard begins begining.. the padouk is shaped and profiled

before the fret slots are cut and the custom 12th fret inlay is prepared

and again here we leave her..

once again woken up at 4am by a screaming baby (also the reason the phone is not often answered first thing in the morning…) anyway.. I had an idea for the circular inlay on Gary’s neck.. basically the cut outs represent each note of the scale…

but I’m not too sure if I was thinking straight?.. anyway

we’ll let Gary decide before making it permanent..

and the final job before my holiday is planing up Jason’s birdeye neck.. I just had to see how pretty the wood actually is… anyway, Have a great weekend!!!

All my best,

Ben

CrimsonGuitars HQ