Monday 29th June ’09

while I face a massive binding job..

I’ve finaly got the order in which this should  be done down pat.. or do I?

anyway, I get covered in glue through the day..

mmm.. a sense of achievement..

this is Fred’s baby..

and she has to be stripped down to her knickers.. the bridge doesn’t have enough travel and we need to recess her a bit.. (she was originally designed with something else in mind..)

I’ve decided the order actually is wrong..  we get better every day!

portentious? It is coming up to Glastonbury weekend here..

the mother or pearl inlay is cut out with a jewelers saw

..and the rain came down.. including a rather spectacular bout of thunder and lightning!

the inlay is marked around with a scalpel before being recessed

and then everything is glued in..

finally the back plates are marked out.. obviously matching the flamed cap.. there’s no substiture for the small things.. plastic my arse!!

the disk sander comes into play.. gently..

and in the end the fit is perfect… too perfect in fact, I can’t get the buggers out!!

anyway, each back-plate is carved to match the comfort carves..

and we get to the smallest details.. the all-access neck joint is carefully shaped before sanding the awkward-to-get-to bits..

violin-makers planes are brought out to tidy up the carving around the edge of the guitar

and the sanding begins..

once I’m sure the top is accurately profiled the pillar drill is used, with the depth stop set, to mark out how deep to carve the interior of the control cavity..

but hand at this point.. (we’re working on building a jig to do it quicker..)

the wiring is worked out.. we’re using the sustainer as well as Graph Tech piezo and MIDI capabitilies

the sanding is finished.. we go through 5 different grits and a good few hours to get the perfect finish!

finally the binding is scraped clean and polisged with wet and dry paper..

before applying the first stages of finish.. a blue candy colour stain

the binding is scraped off again

and she’s got some pretty good looks!  I just love multi-ply binding!!

but my working area is a state!!!  All my best, Ben

Crimson Guitars HQ