Friday 30th May ’08

Breaking News

As I mentioned in the diary below, part of the weekend was spent presiding over a friends stag do.. I wasn’t injured by an errant paintball.. I did, however, fracture my heel trying to avoid getting splatted!! .. it is now all casted up (not plaster.. a very cool plastic type material which I will soon be building a guitar out of!!!) and I should be back on my feet next week.. the next diary update will be Wednesday next week, I’ll be wiring a few guitars and maybe polishing some lacquered beasties.. until then I apologise profusely for my stupidity in injuring myself and wish you all a more stimulating week than I will be having!!

All my best, Ben

For the last time a coat of finish is applied to Tim’s Robert Fripp Slimline.. if all goes well (and I’m not maimed by a paintball over the weekends stag do) she will become a complete guitar next week..

on to this particualarly beautiful piece of maple.. she is earmarked for Dave’s custom guitar order..

which I’m thinking will look something like this.. PRS ish shape with 24 frets and a kahler trem system.. complete access to the frets and an ultra low action were also mentioned somewhere.. this should be fun!!

now.. the bag of shavings has been extracted from the planer/thicknesser and the bandsaw over a month or so..

and, in the interests of thrift and of being a Green luthier, it is added to my compost heap.. over a year it will break down in to a lovely mulch!! .. pieces of the rainforest adding nutrition to my soil!!

.. and speaking of the rainforest.. we have here the componant parts of a  purpleheart and wenge multi-laminate guitar neck…

the purple heart is cut to size and plit in half on my wonderful bandsaw..

and everything is planed through on the planer/thicknesser.. the yellowness in the wenge will disappear over the next few months..

after planing them by hand the bit are glued together…

and left clamped up for at least a day in this case..

now, it’s on to Charlie Jones’ signature bass… again.. this time we’re taking the first prototype and turning her into a bolt on instrument..

the perspex headstock is thinned to size at the same time as carving the very slim neck profile..

which is finalised with the help of my Japanese saw file..

the headstock is carved.. no boring and ordinary slab shapes here!!

and polished through the grits.. (the water in the sprayer in from the rain-water but out front of the workshop!!)

and she is then roughly polished.. at this stage we’re not after the sparkle of a jewel, I just need to see what’s happeing inside the beast..

on to the body… the original bridge and external wiring channels were very early mistakes.. and need to be got rid of..

poor boys.. stiches out on Monday…

and the best way to get rid of mistakes is to obliterate them with a total re-carve.. time consuming and messy but we’ll end up with a stunning bass guitar!!

..the essesnce of drug induced paranoia.. he’s sitting in a wheelbarrow mostly full of catmint!!

the newly re-carved bass body is also roughly sanded through the grits.. though not anywhere near enough..

and is roughly polished, just enough that I can see hoe deep the cavities need to be re-routed

the neck pocket template is cut and filed to size

and she is routed out..

while the neck is planed perfectly flat and to the right depth..

before being bolted in place.. since this bass was originally designed to be a through-eck instrument the area of the joint is heavily carved away.. hence the slightly longer pocket and extra screw..

still.. she’s looking like she has potential!!

… a lot of it!! with a few days polising and some custom perspex hardware she will look truly amazing!!

Have a great weekend! Ben.

Crimson bespoke Guitars UK