Monday 3rd September '07

 So, back to work with a vengeance.. I'm loving it.. I've been giving a lot of thought recently to methods of improving my productivity throughout the day.. one of them will be getting up much earlier in order to complete each segment of this worthy tome.. which will be difficult as I am still a musician at heart and don't believe that the hours between 3 and 8 in the morning exist!!  Also I will not be answering phone calls after 12noon.. I seem to spend more time talking on the phone than building guitars, this can only end up meaning that I will end up with more work and less time and many rather annoyed customers..  I will however be checking messages regularly and will return any calls as and when I can.. this will be a hard habit to kill, I have been known to try and answer the phone in my dreams before.. which looks wierd when you wake up on the landing with a phone in your hands and find that it was ringing in your head!! .. On to more inmportant things.. 

the day begins with this replacement neck for a vintage Vox.. the dots are inplace and need to be filed down

and then sanded in through the grits

the fret slot edges are beveled with a small triangular file to ensure that when a refret happens the fingerboard will not chip as the fret is pulled. 

the frets are all hammered an glued in place.. the glue isn't really neccessary but gives a more stable neck with better sustain

the fret ends are all beveled

and then rounded over with a small file.  the edges of this file have been ground into a half circle so that the fretboard isn't damaged

the tuning peg holes are drilled and the nck is now ready for carving

this Ovtion needs a new bone nut..

everything is cut and the scallops filed in place.

then it is sanded through the grits to get a lovely smooth finish

and she is ready.. after a certain amount of re-vibrating of course.. I have two reasons for the scalloping.. one is purely aesthetic.. I like the look.. and the other may be pure bullshit, I think that it helps seperate the sound of each string as they are played in the open positions.. but I'm not sure if I believe that or not yet.. I'll let you know..

On to Pauls 6-string Baritone OSB guitar.. the truss rod channel is routed into the pre-prepared neck blank

the dimensions of the neck are carefully drawn out, width, headstock break-angle etc

the first cut is made

and then the waste is taken off the sides

and everything is tidied up on the planer.. you should have seen us trying to get this half-ton of machinery off the truck and accross my lawn!  We looked like a bunch of Egyptian slaves with rollers and pry-bars!

the break-angle is planed flat

the truss-rod access is drilled

and then it is on to the ebony fingerboard,

which is planed to a lovely finish with one of my newly sharpened planes

and then she is glued together and well on the way to becoming an almost guitar!

I thought it would be nice to drag out an old photo of the viola, this represents the most work I have ever done for the least amount of money.. but in the end was worth the experince!

All my best,

Ben