220509

Friday 22nd May ’09

I begin with the custom eight string through neck guitar..

a beautiful chunk of flamed maple is brought out and the body shape is marked in place..

it is then bookmatched on the bandsaw.. a thing of beauty!!

the glueing surface is planed to very exacting standards..

and clamped up..

I love the op amp symbol in abalone.. very cool.. the first two strips of binding are glued in place and then cut through with the saws

and then the final layer is glued in place

and the fretboard is polished through the grits and is ready for fretting..

here is Gary’s fretboard, the side dots are cubic zirconia’s.. once polished they’ll look quite striking!

in the worst days of my illness I potter around tidying the workshop..

and get the wiring area set up..

finally I’m ready to implement the new wiring schematic for the Robert Fripp guitars.. including kill switch!!

she starts out with a bunch of wires and a faraday cage..

in the end she has both MIDI and Sustainer circuitry..

my comfortable little wiring corner, complete with a laptop loaded with every single tune I own! album of the day is the new one from Gavin Harrison and 05Ric.. inspired!!

the final bit of cutting is performed

and she is now ready to go.. a setup next week and we’re there!

the original moonshine guitar came back in, the pickups and wiring just wasn’t working.. it turns out that the sustainer circuitry seriously limits what you can do with the rest of the pickups..

anyway, the pickups are re-wound to get the correct sound and re-installed..

before stringing her up again..

and, again, we make use of the new wiring diagram.. this time though we add in a phase reversal switch on the neck humbucker and anoth kill switch..

spring is sprung and the buttercups are out!!

back to the eight string.. the excess timber from the through neck is planed away..

and then the final outline is roughed out on the bandsaw..

a new template is made and then the final outline of the beast is routed in place..

and she is ready for her new top..

it’s amazing what you can waste £600 on these days..

this beast is here to have a new Kahler trem fitted.. no routing neccessary, it seems to have been built from balsa!!

the string guide is cut to shape

and she is set up and ready to go..

and now we are on to the real deal, this is a guitar built in the Gary Kramer custom shop but had a shite finish.. so the owner sent her to Jim at Jim Fogarty graphics..

she is now here to be put back together and set up

unfortunately these photo’s just don’t do her justice.. though as a part of the new direction the website is taking I filmed the entire process.. when that is edited I’ll let you know where to find it..

the back-plate (and gilded screws!!!!) are removed and the floyd rose tremolo fitted..

and, very slowly due to the vagaries of the system, she is set up..

pretty headstock.. though I’m dissapointed bt the lack of straight string pull.. and the pickups end up sounding a bit weedy, they have only a fraction of the volume of a standard bespoke handwound pup from Wizard..