Thursday 20th March ’08

Thursday begins with the removal of excess wood from Tim’s custom guitar..

the bookmatched maple cap is prepared

and the fingerboard cutout is carefully cut and filed to size.

the top of the body is planed perfectly flat

and glue is added.. this pic is just to show what this beast will look like with finish on.. from the back at least..

and then most of my clamps are used when the cap is glued in place..

a new template needs to be made for the left-handed bespoke beauty being built for Jonathan

the original is used to make the new, thicker, template

with then helps mark out the body shape prior to roughing her out on the bandsaw

I’ve been having almost daily migrains.. complete with tunnel vision and extreme nausea.. for about a week and the doc says that the dust and fumes in the ‘shop could be to blame.. this very powerful extraction fan is to be put in on the bench.. unfortunately it meant taking down the tool rack, not a small job!

but in the end it should be worth it.. this can clear the room of dust in about 30 seconds!

the router is run round the new template and the flamed walnut body is shaped..

then a piece of excess walnut from the body is bookmatched and glued on as the headstock wings..

Chris’ PAF has a spalted beech body

another new template is made and used to mark out the PAF’s sexy sexy curves (this is one of my favourite designs!!!)

the outline is then routed out.. pretty..

and here’s the dainty, sexy look.. much narrower waist than the standard LP type..

the beech headstock wings are planed

and glued in.. so here is where we leave these projects for the day.. it’s at this stage that my wonderful wife reminds me that this is a bank holiday weekend and I will be in serious trouble if i don’t get around to planting out the potatoes and onions..

still, Friday and I do do a little work.. Tim’s headstock is marked out

the excess maple from the cap is bandsawed off

and the flame walnut body prepared for it’s cap..

and here we are.. till Tuesday..

now.. my not-so-new hobby is making handles for my tools.. and using old bullet caseings for the ferrules is just extra fun..

the zebrano is cut to size on the bandsaw

and the tool is installed, ferruled etc..

and here are two.. the reason for this is that I believe in ergonomics (it’s practically a religion!) and most chisels just are not comfortable to use.. Anyway.. I hope you all have a chocolatey bank holiday weekend!

VB, Ben

Crimson Custom Guitar Workshop