Friday 18th April

more binding.. by the end of these two projects I will have done enough binding to do me for a while! .. the main issue is that it is such a messy job!.. still the shavings are pretty

the final sections here are glued in place..

while on the left-handed guitar I glue the headstock cap on prior to binding it… I’m experimenting with two methods of binding the headstock that I haven’t used before.. hopefully one of the methods will prove to be better than the way I’ve been doing it ’till now..

more trimming on this cap.. more fiddly and time consuming than doing it on the guitar..

here the boys are grinning.. every now and then I’ll kick the ball out of the door.. lovely day today!

this, now bound, cap is glued in place on Tim’s Slimline

once dry the excess maple of this cap is bandsawed off

and the headstock bobbin-sanded to within a mm of where the binding will come to.. another time comsuming process…

and from here it’s just the same as the normal method.. which is the one I choose to use again.. neither of the experiments really worked out for me.. you live and learn!

new logotype… coming together now.. a template is cut out of some black plastic to help marking it out on the materials to be used..

‘…they’re behind me….’

more inlay work.. this one will be cut by hand..

and glued in with minimal filler..

back to the MOP birds on the classical.. the excess material is filed off and the fingerboard sanded through the grits

these drill marks are used to keep the truss rod access cavity regular

now with this inlay I cut the recess with my lovely little Proton router.. and it does the job like a dream!!

….um..

the inertial damper… (so cool!!) is held under the fretboard in the guitar to take the pressure of each hammer blow and protect the top

and the last two little bits are not hammered in, pressure from a small clamp does the job

the top carving on the leftie is marked out and the control layout drilled..

followed swiftly by routing out the control cavity..

the big job of Friday will be the carving.. a solid rosewood through-neck might create a lovely noise but the wood is very very solid!!!

several hours in and the rough belly-carve is complete and the neck is very comfortable..

the hard lines here will be rounded off during the final sanding processes.. though there is still rather a lot of inlay to get on with.. namely a few more 7 pointed stars etc etc..

the top is carved and rough-sanded..  this maple top has been in my private stock since a few weeks after I started building my first guitar!!! .. finally I found an instrument worthy of it!!

and here she is..

after a little wetness is applied we start to see her as she will be in the end!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the eco credentials of Crimson Guitars and since I truly believe in being planet friendly (to the extent of trying to grow my own food and not driving to work) I’ve come up with several initiatives that will be introduced over the coming months.. one will be the use of as much recycled or ecologically farmed timber as possible, we’ll be steering clear of sprayed laquer finishes (where high gloss is absolutely required it can be done by hand with a vast reduction in fumes and pollution).. if any of you have a good idea or two (or want to donate a couple of solar panels) just drop us a line!

’till Wednesdays update.. happy guitaring!

Ben

Crimson Custom Guitars HQ