160210

16th February 2010

the 45rpm is ready for final sanding.. the new headstock inlay is particularly pleasing!

The excess filler from the moonshines inlay is scraped away..

The letters are engraved and the cavities filled with pearwood and glue and in the end we can see everything more clearly

The recessed truss rod cover that was cut from the headstock veneer is shaped..

And the truss rod cover looks perfect here, a reverse headstock will help give better bass response on the low strings!

The control knob positions are marked out

And they are drilled, pretty..

The rear headstock veneer has her edges rasped down to match the headstock..

And we’re back to making the last piece of steiners headless system..

Now, the dust will fly.. The moonshine currently looks a little too rectangular for my tastes!

I love the rear headstock veneer here, it looks very ‘custom’.. The neck is carefully measured!

Half the body is carved and the backplate is matched up to that carving..

Must say having Blind Melon on the mp3 is making this a very enjoyable carving process.. Nice guitar too!

The figured pearwood top is halfway there..

Mmm.. And she’s currently weighing in at only six and a half pounds!

The snow really has come down.. It sure caught the ponys by surprise!

The interior of the control cavity is routed to match the front carve.. Taking away even more weight..

A gouge comes out and some of the carving is tidied up by hand.

A small thumb plane comes to bear and more carving is defined..

Six of the eight saddles are a success for the headless system, this is the way forward!

I really do love the rear headstock veneer..

A good, if dusty, end to the day.. The moonshine guitar is now ready for final sanding..

Igor is back at work on making some more custom hardware sections.. the headless tuning system needs it!

As promised on the forum here’s my favourite fret profiling file.. The edges are rounded and smooth!

And here are some other files used in fret and nutwork.. Some bought some customised..

The blank has had another eight saddles machined into it..

This gorgeous chunk of quilt maple is destined for 05rics new signature extended range bass..

The switch cavity and recessed plate cavity on the 45rpm are routed out..

A piece of mahogany is prepared for the recessed plate..

The disk sander is used to fine-tune the shape of the plate.. after it was roughed out using the fretsaw..

use my lovely little number three plane to flatten the plate and bring her to the same height as the back..

Good Igor, the headless sytem is looking rather succesful!

The plate has her screw holes drilled and countersunk.. And she’s ready to go.. Again…

Now, after a bit of a tidy up we move on.. This pair of sister guitars really need building!

The saddles are now in place and everything is working quite well..

The headstock blanks of the twins need to be a little wider still, I mark out the excess to be removed..

The excess bits are removed, and they’re starting to look more uniform..

The joint is planed flat.. Carefully..

The maple pinstripe veneers are prepared..

Finally the headstock extensions are glued in place.. They obviously match the rest of the neck timbers..

clamps are removed from the headstock’s and excess glue removed..

A slight adjustment to the headstock design, the one on the left is more pleasing to the eye now, it’s amazing what a few millimeters can do in a design!

Now, I need some sharp tools.. So the blades are removed from a few of my hand planes..

I take the opportunity to start teaching Igor how to sharpen.. First thing he does is cut his finger!

Well, that took some effort.. We now have a load of razor sharp chisels, knives and planes, finally!!

So, my little no 3 plane is used to plane the headstock extensions flat.. Pretty shavings!

A new blade on the bandsaw and the template is roughed out..

Files and rasps are used to finalise the shape.. Everything has to be perfectly square!

The headstocks are roughed out on the bandsaw..

Good morning, the hole is drilled in the twins headstocks.. Carefully..

I’m not in the right headspace for routing so I move on to Steiner’s 8 string headless tuning system..

Now, a chunk of padouk is drilled out and some threaded inserts are.. Um, inserted..

And the first test is a success! you need much less adjustment than I’d thought to bring it up to pitch..

Adding a ball bearing behind the knurled knob turns it into a supurb feeling linear tuner! :) very happy!

Next up I take a small section out of a chunk of rather lovely rosewood..

Everything is marked out and theory modified as we go..

The milling machine is used, on the rosewood this time, and we’re on the way to a pretty tuning system..

Fitted, and ready for shaping etc.. I, however, have to go up and find out why the computer is dead.. Mmm

Igor is sanding the moonshine now..

Some shaping of the rosewood piece.. We must have some curves here!

kirk’s moonshine is looking fantastic! I’m glad I put those maple stringers on the outside of the through-neck

Finally we see the completion of our vision for this tuning system.. Without the ball bearings though and the bolts need reccessing a bit more

An aluminium rod is thicknessed.. I don’t know how any workshop gets by without an engineering lathe!

We end up with two sizes of pin.. And she turns into a proper pin router..

Finally the pin is set up directly underneath the matching diameter router bit..

And so the router follows the pin which follows the template.. Spot on…

Back to the old way though, with a hand held router I have much more control over the depth of cut..

And here she is, a pretty headstock with some lovely and pointy pointy bits.. Result!

All my best, Ben
Crimson Guitars HQ

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