211009

Wednesday 21st October 2009

well.. back in the saddle and the injury to my finger has all but healed.. meaning I can finally type again!!

We start off sanding Archies RF Hollow through the grits..

the pearwood back looking a little bland here..

next up.. here is the result of an abortive attempt at making perspex control knobs without a lathe..

I now have a lathe and therefore a new chunk is cut to size

and the shavings fly..

I’m going for something slightly different..

in the meantime the new bench mounted pillar drill arrives and is installed.. if I had been using something like this last week I wouldn’t have punched a jaggedly snapped of drill bit into my finger!! .. it’s all about having the correct tools!!

what do you think?

and just for kicks a view including the custom clear-cast pickups built by Wizard Pickups..

Charlie Jones’ (Goldfrapp etc) bass needs a good clean and reoil

and I return to the job that banged up my finger.. the final prototype of the first ball-bearing trem

the ball-bearing cavities are milled as a start

while Igor oils various guitars..

the bulk of the plate is milled away

as the excess oil is buffed off and the paf hollowbody lefty left to cure..

various bits of shaping are performed by hand

..and machine

a break from the metalwork is needed and this lusty bit of guitar needs a bit of a clean and a setup..

well played.. and a bit of a dry fretboard at that..

the crud is removed with lighter fluid and then she is reoiled and re strung up.. I love nylon electrics!!

a bit more turning and the trem arm placement bit is machined

..after all the binding is scraped down on Archies guitar

the first coats of her oil are applied!!  Beautious indeed.. I just love that Elm top!

and the one-piece flamed pearwood back is pretty damn nice too!

now.. roughly there…

She is polished through the grits and buffed to a shine.. though not anodised yet she’s starting to look the part..

there is a little play in the saddles to allow for different fretboard widths..

and at the moment we’re using Wilkinson type saddles.. this first one will have piezo loaded graph tech saddles!

with custom saddles at a later date we’ll be able to adjust each trem to allow for fanned fretboards etc.. and obviously eight or ten string trem models can and will be built whenever needed!

All my best to you and yours!
Ben