Thursday 13th September '07

A nice long diary today.. much was acomplished and I feel great!  However there will be no diary for tomorrow as I will be taking a long weekend to reorganise the workshop and my new timber-storage shed.. a lot of heavy work involving old scafolding boards and a jigsaw.. wish me luck..

here is the second version of the other left-handed beast you will see completed later today

this one has a deep set neck tenon which has been glued in place, the excess timber is stripped off to leave a suitable surface for the cap 

the body template for the OSB baritone guitar is used

to make another template

as is the template for the leftie guitar..

both new templates are then converted into routing jigs for tone chambers..

the baritones tone chambers are pre-drilled

and then routed using the new jig.

and we lose a chunk of weight and will get loads of sustain and warmth

this beautiful piece of spalted beech is to be the cap of the OSB Baritone

it is roughly bandsawed to size

run through the planer/thicknesser

and bookmatched

at this point I take an hour or so out to sharpen up some tools I'll be needing.. plane blades

knives and chisels..

to see if they are sharp enough each tool is used as a razor on my arm.. it's not whether or not it cuts hair, it's how easily it does it that counts!!

the bookmatched sections of beech are jointed by hand

and glued together

once they are dry the whole piece is cut roughly to size

and the glueing surface is planed perfectly flat 

before cutting out the fingerboard recess

testing the joint...

and gluein' the whole beast together.. more from here on Monday!

this is where the Helmet was left.. strings on but no pickups or electrickery..

the control cavity is shielded

the two Wizard pickups are installed

and she is wired in... the combination of tones between the vintage PAF sounding 'bucker and the lovely rich clear cast P-90 blow me away!  I will be doing this guitar as a standard model..

a few pics of the final guitar.. with my Doc Martin thrown in for comedy value..

she has both a drop-top and a carved top and back

even the headstock is curved over

and the ergonomics are stunning, she is light, because of the tone chambers and comfortable 

she is aimed at a punk band and has distressed hardware, no pickup surrounds and the camo finish

the clear cast P-90 is the crowning glory.. it both looks and sounds phenominal! 

and Peter could not be happier with her!

Have a great weekend!

yours in luthiery,

Ben