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Friday the 28th day of May 2010

first things first, summer is here (all three days of it!!) and we have to put some greenhouse shade cloth up.. it reached upwards of 45 degrees in here the day before!

this Beaudeaux acoustic guitar has had a nasty knock.. this shows just how thick the back is!

it turns out that the best way to clamp her up is with masking tape.. it’s glueing in the triangular patches under the crack that takes the time though!

one last batch of primer and we’ll see where these guitars are going..

I bevel the edges of this custom scratchplate..

and rub down the 45rpm’s mahogany backplates

Caroline in the meantime is getting some time in on her bubinga bodied paf.. it seemed like a good place for her to start guitar building..

the scratchplate, based on a Gretsche Penguin, is installed on the 45rpm.. looks a bit good hey?

and then the backplates too..

another small bit of plastic.. the truss rod cover is made

while treakle sleeps on a bag of wood dust

she’s looking more complete as the day progresses!

finally I put four rosewood control knobs on

and then she has a setup.. fairly high, more vintage feel, this time at least..

this eight string has been going through the lacquering process.. here I rub her down

and mask off the fretboard, she’s ready for her final coats of lacquer!

the igor is back at work, finally with a new bike!! He’s oiling Thomas’ Robert Fripp Elm top..

Kirk’s moonshine is also rubbed down

and the frets have the lacquer stripped off.. carefully!

the igor getting back into the swing of things with some hardware manufacture

and the eight string and Moonshine recieve one last coat of lacquer..

on to Nevio’s slimline.. she has a Kahler tremolo fitted but pretty much nothing else

I start by reaming out the tuner holes to remove excess lacquer…

and then the process of installing the locking Sperzel tuners begins… I do love these tuners!

and they look rather good indeed!

the custom scalloped bone nut is made..

and then it is time for the pickups..

I re-thread them all so that I can use allen headed bolts of my choosing..

custom bridge humbucker, single coil-sized humbucker next to the sustainer driver at the neck..

the control cavities are shielded

now, the wiring bench is moved to my spare bench, it’s old position was behind Caroline’s bench and access is limited with two people trying to occupy the same space..

the componants are installed in the rf slim.. this tool makes installing the knurled nut of the three-way toggle switch a doddle!

the igor is done with this batch of saddles for Kirk’s moonshine..

the wiring begins..

master volume and tone, sustainer intensity, neck humbucker on/off mini toggle and volume, sustainer on/off toggle and mode switch and finally a kill switch so the battery isn’t drained whenever you forget to take the jack plug out!

the igor prepares the wings for his baritone guitar

and I start buffing up the hardware.. ball bearing trem in this case

clamping time for igor!

the carved sycamour back plates have been lacquered but not rubbed down or buffed up yet.. that changes now.. rubbed down to 1200 grit..

here are some very shiny bits and pieces!

shiny here too..

more shielding.. you can never have too much, though with humbuckers all round it really is a bit unneccesary

backplates in place..

and the igor prepares for anodising..

like so.. he’s happy with the amount of bubbles he got this time.., it’s the little things that please us!

a padouk truss rod cover for the slimline.. it matches the padouk ‘Crimson’ inlay..

now, stock eight string..

the fretboard needs a few coats of oil.. and I need to order some saddles for her!

so on to the next thing.. this blue left-handed paf hollowbody is ready for completion

the fretboard, padouk, is masked off carefully

here are the bit’s of hardware after anodising, the discolouration is from the heat in the boiling water used to seal them.. I need a bigger pot!

after leveling and profiling the frets they are each polished highly using jewelers rouge and a mini buffing wheel..

the locking tuners are installed

and next up I start thinking about the new tremolo design..

Have a great weekend all!

Ben

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